U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2003.
Judge Marra presided over the civil litigation brought by Epstein's victims challenging the legality of the 2008 non-prosecution agreement. In a February 2019 ruling that drew national attention, he found that federal prosecutors, led by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, had violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act by secretly negotiating the agreement and failing to notify victims that their assailants would receive immunity from federal prosecution.
The ruling was the culmination of years of litigation brought by victims represented by attorneys including Jack Scarola and Paul Cassell. Marra found that victims had a statutory right to be notified and consulted, and that this right had been violated. However, he did not void the agreement or impose further sanctions, a decision that itself drew criticism from victims' advocates.
His findings, however, intensified public pressure and congressional scrutiny that contributed to the July 2019 federal indictment of Epstein by the SDNY. Marra's courtroom and his docket in the Southern District of Florida are the source of a substantial portion of the publicly released EFTA documents.