Alex Murdaugh

A South Carolina jury convicted former attorney Alex Murdaugh in the killings of his wife and son. He faces up to life in prison when he's formally ...

Disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of his wife and 22-year-old son.

The jury on Thursday convicted Alex Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina lawyer, of murdering his wife and son.

The prosecution seized on that admission — how readily, and easily, he had lied to the police, his family and friends — in an attempt to convince the jury that he was lying about not having killed his wife and son. He also said that when he spoke with his father about 20 minutes after prosecutors say the murders took place, Alex Murdaugh sounded “normal” — at a time that Mr. “He said that he did not know who it was, but he felt like whoever did it had thought about it for a long time,” Ms. Murdaugh’s law firm confronted him, accusing him of pocketing about $800,000 in lawyer fees that he was supposed to have deposited into the firm’s account. Murdaugh testified that he had feared an admission that he was at the kennels before the murders would cause the police to consider him a suspect. Defense lawyers also noted that the police had issued a statement in the days after the killings saying that no immediate threat to the public existed. Murdaugh was wearing when police arrived after he called 911 — it would have been covered in blood and body matter, his lawyers argued — and the DNA of an unknown man was discovered under Mrs. That was an indication, they argued, that the authorities were investigating only Mr. After denying for more than 20 months that he was at the dog kennels where his wife and son were found shot to death, Alex Murdaugh confessed that he had lied about his whereabouts. Murdaugh’s phone from the day of the killings had been overwritten. Murdaugh told his lawyer that he had been there for a few minutes, but then had left, laid down at the house, and driven to check on his ailing mother who lived about 15 minutes away. He blamed his lies to the police on paranoia spurred by opiate dependency, as well as his distrust of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, a state investigative agency.

The South Carolina lawyer faces a minimum of 30 years in prison for each murder.

They called Judge Newman's decision to allow evidence related to Murdaugh's financial crimes to be included in the murder trial "erroneous". Murdaugh had been cast as a "despicable human being", he said. He stared ahead and did not react as his sentence was read. "I would never hurt my wife and I would never hurt my son," he said in brief remarks at the hearing. Judge Clifton Newman called the case "one of the most troubling" he had seen and noted Murdaugh's past "as a well-known member of the legal community". Disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife and son in a case that shocked the US.

The 54-year-old disbarred South Carolina lawyer faces a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for each murder conviction.

"This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him," Waters told the jury in his closing argument. He was facing a financial reckoning, they said, that also included his liability in a court case over a fatal 2019 boating accident in which Paul, then 19, was said to be driving. Prosecutors never produced the two murder weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul, and there were no eyewitnesses. But after witnesses identified Murdaugh's voice in a cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennel around 8:45 p.m. Newman had said he would render his sentence after any victim impact statements, but prosecutor Creighton Waters began his remarks by saying the state did not have anyone who wanted to deliver a victim statement. "It's so unfortunate, because you had such a lovely family of such friendly people — including you," the judge told Murdaugh. The sentencing closes a six-week-long trial that charted Murdaugh's fall from grace. Murdaugh said repeatedly that he didn't go with his wife and son to the dog kennels where they were shot and killed, saying that he stayed in the house, and took a nap before leaving to see his ailing mother. The court session began shortly after 9:30 a.m. Thank you." "Good morning, your honor. Newman told Murdaugh that each of the punishments apply to "the rest of your natural life," adding that the sentences are consecutive.

Alex Murdaugh, center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff's deputies after being convicted Thursday, in Walterboro, S.C. Murdaugh was found ...

"This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him," Waters told the jury in his closing argument. He was facing a financial reckoning, they said, that also included his liability in a court case over a fatal 2019 boating accident in which Paul, then 19, was said to be driving. Prosecutors never produced the two murder weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul, and there were no eyewitnesses. But after witnesses identified Murdaugh's voice in a cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennel around 8:45 p.m. Newman had said he would render his sentence after any victim impact statements, but prosecutor Creighton Waters began his remarks by saying the state did not have anyone who wanted to deliver a victim statement. The sentencing closes a six-week-long trial that charted Murdaugh's fall from grace. Murdaugh said repeatedly that he didn't go with his wife and son to the dog kennels where they were shot and killed, saying that he stayed in the house, and took a nap before leaving to see his ailing mother. The court session began shortly after 9:30 a.m. Thank you." After a trial that spanned 28 days, it took a Colleton County jury only a few hours to agree unanimously that Murdaugh is guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. "Good morning, your honor. Newman told Murdaugh that each of the punishments apply to "the rest of your natural life," adding that the sentences are consecutive.

Te South Carolina attorney maintained his innonence before the judge sentenced him to life without parole, a day after he was convicted of murdering his ...

As Murdaugh stood before the judge to learn his fate, he was in the same courtroom on the circuit where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as the elected prosecutor for more than 80 years. Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other chargesranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion. It didn't take long to convince the other three. But juror Moyer said he saw through yet another lie. The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he is, including here, sitting right over there in this witness stand – your honour, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law-abiding citizens,” Waters said. Any sentence would have no chance of parole.

Former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murder in the deaths of his wife and son.

Waters said Murdaugh, a member of a [prominent legal dynasty](https://bit.ly/3KROCEA) that ran a prosecutor's office in Hampton County for more than 80 years, killed his family to prevent his alleged financial crimes from being exposed and ruining his family's legacy and his successful law practice. Murdaugh initially told police he was not at the family's dog kennels before finding the bodies there, but his voice was captured on [a video taken on his son’s cellphone](http://bit.ly/41ASJLd) minutes before prosecutors believe the killings happened. [Murdaugh addresses the court: 'I'm innocent'] [None of Maggie or Paul's family members delivered a victim impact statement, but Murdaugh briefly addressed the court before he was sentenced.] ["I'm innocent. [tax evasion,](http://bit.ly/3CZRISg) and [drug trafficking](http://bit.ly/3JkNoRB) which [ could carry a penalty of more than seven centuries of prison time. [Judge Clifton Newman criticizes Murdaugh's testimony as not credible] [Newman said he could imagine the "looming storm" lead prosecutor Creighton Waters described Murdaugh faced the day of the murders. "In the murder of your wife Maggie Murdaugh, I sentence you for a term for the rest of your natural life," Newman said. “And it might not have been you," Newman said. "But once that information was in, I mean he had to take the stand to explain the kennel video, the lie, if you will." He added the evidence that Murdaugh stole and lied wasn't about motive but Murdaugh's character. When asked why Murdaugh's son Buster did not speak during sentencing, Griffin said it would not have made a difference in Murdaugh's sentence. The attorneys said the strongest grounds for appeal are the judge's decision to admit evidence related to Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes.] Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were killed near dog kennels at the family's home in June 2021.

Sentencing came little more than 12 hours after South Carolina attorney was found guilty of murder.

Newman – who also spoke about the many times he had encountered Murdaugh as a lawyer in the After the murders, Murdaugh portrayed the killings as an act of retribution by unknown assassins. “It doesn’t matter who your family is,” Waters said. It doesn’t matter … I am sure they come and visit you,” he said. The small town of Walterboro has been turned into a media circus for the trial’s duration.

Sara Azari, a criminal trial attorney, told News Nation, the case was “cloaked in doubt,” until Murdaugh testified, which “sealed the deal” for the jury, who ...

For five weeks Murdaugh was on trial for the June 2021 murder of his wife, Maggie, and his 22-year-old son Paul. [Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty Of Murdering Wife And Son](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/03/02/alex-murdaugh-found-guilty-in-murder-of-wife-and-son/?sh=2f0daa902674) (Forbes) [How Alex Murdaugh Opened The Door For Convictions On Financial And Tax Crime Charges](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/03/01/how-alex-murdaugh-opened-the-door-for-convictions-on-financial-and-tax-crime-charges/?sh=2e7edf5172ed) (Forbes) [Juror Removed From Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial For Discussing Case Outside Courtroom](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/02/juror-removed-from-alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-for-discussing-case-outside-courtroom/?sh=535db4534247) (Forbes) [Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial Jurors Make Rare Visit To South Carolina Crime Scene](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/01/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-jurors-make-rare-visit-to-south-carolina-crime-scene/?sh=7d1dcd391ccb) (Forbes) [Levinson](https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20230303030321-legal-experts-examine-alex-murdaugh-murder-verdict/#x) said. [told](https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/murdaugh-murder-trial/alex-murdaugh-verdict-watch-jury/) News Nation, the case was “cloaked in doubt,” until Murdaugh testified, which “sealed the deal” for the jury, who Azari said didn’t care about why Murdaugh committed these crimes but instead focused on the big “lie.” [told](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCOLlbBtj_E%5C) the Associated Press. When Alex Murdaugh—who was found guilty Thursday of murdering his wife and son in June 2021 and sentenced Friday to life in prison—took the stand to explain his side of the story, he backed himself into a corner, admitted to other crimes and ultimately made himself unreliable, which legal experts say lead to his guilty verdict.

Judge Clifton Newman asked Murdaugh if he had anything he wanted to say before sentencing him to two consecutive life terms, and the South Carolina attorney ...

But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including the video putting Murdaugh at the scene of the killings five minutes before his wife and son stopped using their cellphones forever. It’s the next step in the long road to justice for every person who has been victimised by Alex Murdaugh,” Keel said. The voices of all three Murdaughs can be heard on the video, though Alex Murdaugh had insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been at the kennels that night. The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he is, including here, sitting right over there in this witness stand — your honour, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law-abiding citizens,” Waters said. A person whose grandfather’s portrait hangs at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to ensure a fair trial,” Newman said. For Kinsinger, who came from Beaufort, South Carolina, the outcome was a vindication of the legal system.

The disgraced South Carolina lawyer was charged in the murders of his wife and son. His defense argued that investigators fabricated evidence.

In his new version of events, Murdaugh admitted being there, but he said he went back to the house minutes before 9 p.m. In his closing argument, Waters stressed to jurors that he thinks one thing was missing from the two days Murdaugh spent testifying. "You want to leave the eggs or take the eggs?" But, he said, she would be replaced so that the integrity of the trial would remain intact. Griffin began his statement with an overview of the criminal legal system, comparing the trial to an instant-replay review in college football. The court received a complaint from a member of the public saying the juror, a woman identified only as juror No. He noted that South Carolina law doesn't require the state to prove premeditation or motive in a murder case. Griffin accused the agency of a list of failures, saying the state never explained if tests were performed on hair he said was found in Maggie's fingers. Once investigators seized on the idea that tests showed high-velocity blood spatter on Alex Murdaugh's T-shirt, he added, they refused to dismiss that idea and pursued it "with vengeance." As for the lies Murdaugh admitted telling, Griffin said his client lied because "that's what addicts do." But when the state was faced with mixed results and questions over tests of Murdaugh's shirt, Griffin said, they embraced a "Mr. A defense attorney for Murdaugh sought to sow doubt about the work by police and forensics teams, saying they fell far short of preserving evidence from the crime scene.

After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday, the jury in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh found him guilty of murdering his wife and son, ...

[prosecution argued Murdaugh’s motive](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/us/alex-murdaugh-trial-defense-closings-thursday/index.html) in the killings was to distract and delay investigations into his financial wrongdoing. [denied](http://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-thursday/index.html) killing his wife and son. In the prosecution’s telling, the motive was Murdaugh’s attempt to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. Griffin acknowledged Murdaugh had lied about being at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed on the night of the murders. And the opportunity was Murdaugh’s presence at the crime scene, “Our criminal justice system worked tonight,” Wilson said. “Everyone who thought they knew who he was, he’s fooled them all. He further admitted to [stealing millions of dollars](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/us/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-friday/index.html) from his former clients and law firm and lying to cover his tracks. has fooled everyone, everyone, everyone who thought they were close to him,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “I find it offensive that the defense … Murdaugh kept a stony face while the verdicts were read. His only remaining son, Buster Murdaugh, could be seen wiping tears from his eyes.

A Snapchat video, a missing gun and unanswered calls - here are the moments that will weigh on jurors.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr Murdaugh used one of these - a .300 Blackout assault-style rifle - to kill Maggie. The Murdaughs at one point had two custom Blackout rifles, given to Paul and his brother Buster as Christmas gift. But Mr Murdaugh's elderly father was dying, and so Mrs Proctor encouraged her to support him. I loved Maggie "more than anything," he said. But Mr Murdaugh testified that Maggie had not planned to see his parents, and that he asked his wife to simply return because he wanted to be with her. The prosecution has argued Mr Murdaugh killed his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in attempt to conceal years of financial crimes, crimes he himself admitted to in court.

Alex Murdaugh's theft of millions of dollars was about to be revealed so he killed his wife and son to buy time to figure a way out, a prosecutor said ...

They will be able to review about 800 documents, photographs, videos of police interviews of Alex Murdaugh and other exhibits while deciding on a verdict. “He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. “Always having to stay one step ahead of the game. Aided by his knowledge of how criminal cases are constructed, he hatched a clever plan to make sure they were at the family’s Colleton County property on the night they were killed, June 7, 2021, he said. It took more than a year for federal agents to hack into the young man’s locked iPhone and find it. The use of the family weapons collaborates it.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the ...

Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion. Murdaugh lied about being at the kennels for 20 months before taking the stand on the 23rd day of his trial. Murdaugh comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. Murdaugh called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he returned home. He blamed his decades-long addiction to opioids for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of police. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul - ever - under any circumstances,” Murdaugh said.

The disgraced South Carolina lawyer is charged in the murders of his wife and son. His defense argued that investigators fabricated evidence.

In his new version of events, Murdaugh admitted being there, but he said he went back to the house minutes before 9 p.m. In his closing argument, Waters stressed to jurors that he thinks one thing was missing from the two days Murdaugh spent testifying. "You want to leave the eggs or take the eggs?" But, he said, she would be replaced so that the integrity of the trial would remain intact. Griffin began his statement with an overview of the criminal legal system, comparing the trial to an instant-replay review in college football. The court received a complaint from a member of the public saying the juror, a woman identified only as juror No. He noted that South Carolina law doesn't require the state to prove premeditation or motive in a murder case. Griffin accused the agency of a list of failures, saying the state never explained if tests were performed on hair he said was found in Maggie's fingers. Once investigators seized on the idea that tests showed high-velocity blood spatter on Alex Murdaugh's T-shirt, he added, they refused to dismiss that idea and pursued it "with vengeance." As for the lies Murdaugh admitted telling, Griffin said his client lied because "that's what addicts do." But when the state was faced with mixed results and questions over tests of Murdaugh's shirt, Griffin said, they embraced a "Mr. A defense attorney for Murdaugh sought to sow doubt about the work by police and forensics teams, saying they fell far short of preserving evidence from the crime scene.

"The evidence of guilt is overwhelming," the judge said after the jury verdict was read in court.

But they were unable to find either firearm and produce them at trial. This was the same thing." The case against him was based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Reporters shouted questions, though he remained silent. He scheduled sentencing for Friday morning. Murdaugh had pleaded not guilty to killing his wife and youngest son in an attempt to conceal years of financial corruption - fraud that he himself had acknowledged in court.

The verdict came less than three hours after jurors began deliberating. It followed a six-week trial that served as a reckoning for Mr. Murdaugh, a lawyer ...

Mr. But Mr. Waters hammered Mr. Throughout the trial, Mr. Griffin addressed Mr. That confrontation, Mr. Much of the trial focused on Mr. Earlier that day, Mr. Prosecutors said Mr. The jury also found Mr. The trial was a reckoning for Mr. Prosecutors contended that Mr.

Verdict in case of prominent South Carolina lawyer accused of 2021 double homicide comes after gripping six-week trial.

It was not until state investigators were brought in, and Murdaugh confessed to embezzlement, that murder charges were eventually filed. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh had left the estate soon after to visit his mother to help establish an alibi. But he said he drove a golf cart back to the main house, 500 yards away, before the shootings took place. Newman has discretion to pass a sentence of 30 years to life without parole for each of the murder convictions. “He may be taken away,” the judge, Clifton Newman, said as Murdaugh was led out. Murdaugh was judged guilty on two counts of murder and two weapons-related charges.

Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

[ took the stand in his own defense](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/23/alex-murdaugh-testifies-murder-trial/11330239002/) last week. For three generations, members of Murdaugh's family served as [back-to-back solicitors of the 14th Judicial Circuit.](https://bit.ly/3KROCEA) [The defense criticized the state's circumstantial evidence](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/02/alex-murdaugh-trial-defense-closing-argument-updates/11381334002/) and argued law enforcement failed to collect key evidence because they were too narrowly focused on Murdaugh as a suspect [What to know about the man who wrecked a South Carolina legal dynasty](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/24/who-is-alex-murdaugh-south-carolina-prestigious-wealthy-accused-murderer/11107799002/) [Murdaugh lawyers known for dramatic courtroom scenes](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/02/alex-murdaugh-lawyers-known-for-court-dramatic-scenes/11373573002/) Ever." Murdaugh comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. He repeatedly denied killing his family and [suggested ](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/24/alex-murdaugh-trial-live-updates-testimony/11337571002/)that a [2019 boat crash that Paul was involved](http://bit.ly/3kus4OY) in is the reason his family was killed. "I would never intentionally do anything to hurt either one of them. “Justice was done today.” The minimum sentence for murder is 30 years in prison. The South Carolina Attorney General's Office is seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But two years ago that life unravelled when Alex Murdaugh - the fourth generation scion of a local legal dynasty - called police to report his wife Maggie and ...

One of these jobs, according to Alex Murdaugh and his lawyers, was to act as Mr Murdaugh's "personal drug dealer" and regularly supply Mr Murdaugh with pills. Mr Murdaugh admitted on the stand he had lied. He had been drunk, they said, descending into a cruel and angry alter ego that friends had nick-named "Timmy", and who allegedly hit his girlfriend the night of the accident. but he took care of so many," his father said at the trial. A mobile phone video taken at the Murdaughs' dog kennels by Paul about five minutes before prosecutors say the killings took place features the voice of Mr Murdaugh talking to Bubba. Testifying at his murder trial, he confessed to the theft, blaming a desperate and expensive addiction to oxycodone. But he briefly found himself in hot water after reportedly passing his father a John Grisham novel, which was later deemed contraband. A full-time homemaker, she was described as an adoring mother to her two sons. Buster testified in his father's defence, describing Mr Murdaugh as a loving presence who was "destroyed" by the murders of Maggie and Paul. But the strangest request came in September 2021, three months after Maggie and Paul's murders, when Mr Murdaugh asked Mr Smith to meet him on the side of a rural road one Saturday, and shoot him in the back of the head. He is now on trial for their murders. But the patina of success hid a number of seedy secrets - Mr Murdaugh was stealing from his clients and colleagues, as much as $3.7m (£3m) in a single year alone.

The five-week trial of Alex Murdaugh has dominated headlines and cable news channels, and the murders have been the subject of podcasts and even two ...

I think people like to have endings and they like to have justice. I think that's been a big, big selling point for Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, that we get the bad guys. But, you know, on the other hand, we don't know who's carrying a gun in many places now in the United States. These are cases of human behavior that go way, way, way to the nth degree that we don't experience in our own lives every day. And most of us, I hope, wouldn't go so far as to murder our families ... In this case, the victims are dead, but we still want to seek some kind of justice.

I was in South Carolina last week: scene of the trial and home of the Murdaugh dynasty. Both tell us a lot about race and power today, says Guardian ...

Two of these alleged victims were the sons of the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield, who died after an accident in the Murdaugh home in 2018. At an earlier hearing, one of Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers used as mitigation his addiction to painkillers, inviting the judge to look upon Murdaugh’s sorry face as the encapsulation of what the opioid epidemic has done to the US. The story, currently the subject of Netflix and HBO multi-part documentaries, would seem so wild and convoluted as to illuminate nothing beyond itself, were it not for the influence of the Murdaugh family. Many of the people Alex Murdaugh is accused of defrauding were poor, Black clients seeking personal injury compensation through his family’s law firm. [someone shot](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58577936) Alex Murdaugh in the head – an act, it is alleged, that Murdaugh commissioned himself, paying a gunman to kill him so his surviving son could collect on insurance. In the dock: the 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh, scion of a legal dynasty stretching back 100 years, who has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son.

"The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning," prosecutor Creighton Waters said.

"And the question is when will it end? A person whose grandfather's portrait hangs at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to insure a fair trial," Newman said. It didn't take long to convince the other three. "And it might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son Paul-Paul," Murdaugh responded.

Murdaugh, 54, was found guilty on Thursday on two counts of gunning down his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22.

"There had to be quite a bit going through your mind," Newman said, and yet he noted that Murdaugh had testified to that day being like any other, that he had been enjoying life with his wife and son. Throughout the trial, prosecutors portrayed Murdaugh as a serial liar and argued that only he had the means and the opportunity to commit the murders. Murdaugh changed his account after the jury listened to audio evidence placing him at the crime scene minutes before the murders occurred. The case has drawn intense media coverage given the family's political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial took place. The jury took only three hours to reach their decision after a five-week trial. "It might not have been you (who killed them).

People have been sentenced to death for less than this double murder, the judge told the convicted killer.

"I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the night times when you are attempting to go to sleep," he said. In this case, death penalty would have been a "reach", he said. And he revealed nothing about his own family tragedy - the death of his 40-year-old son, Brian - that occurred just weeks before he assumed control of the Murdaugh case. "Your case qualifies under our death penalty statute," he said on Friday. and reflect on the fact that over the past century your family, including you, have been prosecuting people in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct." At one point, midway through proceedings, he gently chastised defence attorney Jim Griffin for re-tweeting an article that was critical of the prosecution.

The sentence was the maximum that the judge could hand down for the murders of Alex Murdaugh's wife and son, given that prosecutors had not sought the death ...

“I’m somebody that’s prosecuted and defended a bunch of death penalty cases, and you never do it in a circumstantial case, because 99 times out of 100, a jury’s not going to sentence someone to death without an ‘I saw him do it,’ ‘He confessed,’ or great, great forensic evidence, at the minimum,” Mr. Prosecutors said a range of factors led them to decide, a month before trial, not to pursue the death penalty in Mr. At a news conference in front of the Colleton County Courthouse on Friday, Mr. Mr. Murdaugh was built largely on circumstantial evidence and the crime had gone unsolved for more than a year, a sign that it was far from an open-and-shut prosecution. [newly created firing squad](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/south-carolina-firing-squad-moore.html) — [were unconstitutional](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/us/south-carolina-unconstitutional-executions.html), and an appeal of that decision is currently before the State Supreme Court. Some lawyers said the decision had been a wise legal move and could have been motivated by an issue that prosecutors may have been hesitant to say out loud: The case against Mr. Murdaugh as a man who viewed himself as above the law, driving around with blue lights installed in his car and leaving a badge from the prosecutor’s office — where he volunteered on a handful of cases over two decades — on the dashboard. Murdaugh had been able to exercise the privilege of his station. Murdaugh, 54, maintained his innocence as he stood in handcuffs and a tan jail jumpsuit in place of the blazers and dress shirts he had worn during the six-week trial. [The Post and Courier reported](https://www.postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updates/murdaugh-prosecutors-wont-seek-death-penalty-in-january-double-murder-trial/article_da7a21de-7fb9-11ed-b689-0f6e2ac0d595.html) that the three Murdaugh patriarchs who served as top prosecutors had sought the death penalty against more than 30 people during their reign, which stretched from 1920 to 2006. “I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paul-Paul,” he said, using a nickname for his slain son.