Alex Murdaugh’s double murder convictions overturned
Jeffrey Collins
Colombia: The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction and life sentence of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh in the shooting deaths of his wife and young son.
In the unanimous decision, the justices said the court clerk’s conduct seriously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility by suggesting to jurors that his testimony could not be trusted. They also said the trial judge went too far in allowing evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes to be included in the murder trial.
But Murdaugh won’t be released from prison. The 57-year-old man pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $12 million from his customers and is currently serving a 40-year federal prison sentence.
Still, the state Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for Murdaugh, who has admitted to being a thief, a liar, an insurance fraudster and a bad lawyer but has stubbornly refused to kill his wife Maggie and young son Paul since finding their bodies outside their home in 2021.
The judges ruled that Colleton County Court Clerk Becky Hill, who was assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, influenced jurors to find Murdaugh guilty. He hoped to increase sales of the book he was writing about the case. He has since admitted to lying to a different judge about what he said and did.
Murdaugh’s attorneys also argued before the high court that the judge at his 2023 trial made decisions that impeded a fair trial, such as allowing the introduction of evidence that Murdaugh had stolen from clients who had nothing to do with the murders but for which jurors were biased against him.
They detailed the lack of physical evidence: No DNA or blood was found splattered on Murdaugh or his clothing, although the murders were committed at close range with powerful weapons that were never found.
Prosecutors argued that the clerk’s comments were tentative and that the evidence against Murdaugh was overwhelming. His lawyer said that didn’t matter because comments made by one juror — urging jurors to watch Murdaugh’s body language and listen carefully to his testimony — eliminated his presumption of innocence before the jury even deliberated.
Murdaugh’s legal drama continues to be fascinating. Miniseries, best-selling books and dozens of true crime podcasts are being released that tell the story of how the multimillionaire Southern lawyer whose family dominated and controlled the legal system in tiny Hampton County ended up in a maximum security South Carolina prison.
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