Mark Miles is a fictional character at HBO drama Oz

Oz (TV series)

Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...

played by Mike Quill

Mike Quill

Michael J. Quill was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America , a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in other forms of transit, and the President of the TWU for most of the first thirty years of its existence...

.

Character overview

Prisoner 97M573. Convicted July 10, 1997 - three counts of murder in first degree. Sentence: Death.

A racist

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, and apparently bigamist. Mark Miles kills both his families, but pleads insanity and is sent to a mental hospital for 10 years. He is sentenced to death after killing his second wife. On death row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

, Miles takes special delight in tormenting Moses Deyell

Moses Deyell

Moses Deyell is a character in HBO's 1997-2003 drama Oz played by Erik King. Deyell appeared in episodes from 2000 to 2001."Prisoner 00D718. Convicted February 3, 2000 - Two counts of murder in the first degree...

 and Nat Ginzburg

Nat Ginzburg

Nathaniel "Nat/Natalie" Ginzburg is a fictional character on the HBO drama Oz portrayed by Charles Busch.-Character overview:A homosexual, HIV-positive inmate, Ginzburg is isolated from the general population in Oswald State Penitentiary's Unit F–the AIDS ward...

. It is suggested that Miles may have some connection to the Aryan Brotherhood since he spouts several racist and bigoted slurs to his fellow death row convicts, and he and Vern Schillinger seem to get along well together.

Season 4

As soon he is convicted, Mark begans insulting everyone on Death Row. He gets Shirley Billinger's mirror after she is executed on request from Sister Pete, who Bellinger entrusted to her things. He buys a paintbrush and some paints and starts to paint his own picture on his cell's wall. When Ginzburg begins succumbing to AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 symptoms, Miles can't sleep because of his cough. When Ginzburg dies, Miles starts screaming racial slurs to Deyell. Deyell punches the wall in anger, breaking his hand. Moses then starts digging a tunnel in the wall which separates his and Miles's cells.

As Miles' execution nears, Sister Pete goes to his cell and asks him how he wants to die. Frightened, Miles starts crying, which Deyell mocks. Miles finishes his painting. In the same minute, Moses finishes his tunnel and, with a punch (brought on by another one of Miles' racist insults), breaks the wall and starts strangling Miles, who dies before guard Len Lopresti

Len Lopresti

Len Lopresti is a fictional character on the HBO drama Oz, played by Carl DiMaggio.-Character overview:A corrections cfficer in the prison, Lopresti is a mean-spirited, racist bully who terrorizes non-white inmates...

could do anything.

Trivia

Miles is thought to be loosely based on real-life murderer, Paul Harrington. Harrington killed his wife and two children in 1975 but claimed that he was mentally ill because of trauma he suffered while serving in the US Army in the Vietnam War. He was found not guilty. He, too, spent time in a psychiatric hospital instead of a prison, but, like Miles, murdered his second wife and one of his sons. The defense didn't work in the second trial, and he is now serving life without parole.