SC, WALTERBORO — Alex Murdaugh was a well-known lawyer in a rural area of South Carolina. On Friday, he was given a life sentence for killing his wife and son at their large estate. This was the end of a legal family that had served the community for decades.
Even though Murdaugh played college football, was a high-powered attorney, and had a good name, the judge reminded him that he had to take the portrait of the defendant’s grandfather down from its place of honor in the courtroom to make sure the trial was fair. This was in the peaceful Lowcountry, which Murdaugh’s family had dominated since the days of Jim Crow.
Murdaugh maintained his innocence throughout the sentencing process and his six-week trial. But Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman was curious whether he had nightmares about the mutilated bodies of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh or how he had shamed his family’s three-generation reputation for justice by cheating, stealing, and ultimately killing.
You have my utmost respect, as I have said before. However, I have done everything correctly. “I would never harm my wife Maggie or my son Paul-Paul,” Murdaugh said.
It could have been someone else and not you. There’s always the possibility that it was the monster you’ve become,” Newman suggested.
Murdaugh stood before the judge in the same Colleton County courtroom.
Murdaugh stood before the judge in the same Colleton County courtroom where his family has been elected prosecutors for over 80 years. A century ago, Murdaugh’s ancestors established the most influential law firm in adjacent Hampton County. For decades, virtually everyone who went before a judge had a Murdaugh either at their back or staring them down, regardless of where they stood about the law.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters noted a daily stare.
I met his gaze directly. He always gave me the cold, hard eye whenever he passed me by during this ordeal. And when Alex Murdaugh looked at me, I saw the genuine article,” Waters said.
Even though prosecutors chose not to pursue capital punishment, Newman still imposed the maximum sentence of two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
“Over the past century, your family — including you — have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom, and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct,” the judge said.
Waters stated that none of Murdaugh’s family members or his wife’s parents and relatives wished to speak on behalf of the prosecution before sentencing. Murdaugh was always supported in court by his family, including his brother and remaining son.
They became more convinced he did not do it after six weeks of trial. “They are completely on his side,” said defense attorney Jim Griffin after the hearing.
Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his son, 22, and his wife, 52,
Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his son, 22, with two shots from a shotgun, and his wife, 52, with four or five shots from a rifle after the jury deliberated for less than three hours on Thursday.
Craig Moyer, a juror, told ABC News that the jury polled itself right after deliberations began and that the result was nine guilty verdicts. The other three were quickly persuaded.
The juror believed the prosecution’s contention that the most important evidence was a video that had been stored on his son’s phone for an entire year and which had been shot just minutes before the murders at the same kennels near where the bodies would be found.
All three Murdaughs are audible on the video, but Alex Murdaugh insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been at the kennels that night. On the stand, he admitted to investigators that he had lied to them about his whereabouts at the kennels, claiming that he was paranoid about law enforcement because of his opioid addiction and had pills in his pocket the night of the killings.
“A skillful liar. But,” Moyer said, “it’s not good enough.
And what about all the weeping Murdaugh did, allegedly even while testifying? As far as we know, Moyer did not purchase them.
It was “all he did was blow snot,” Moyer said. There will be no tears shed. His eyes met mine. I was practically touching him.
The courtroom was once again jammed for the hearing on Friday. The intertwining of high-stakes politics, finance, and high-class privilege in the Murdaugh case has made it a global phenomenon among true crime fans.
The prosecution had no hard evidence, such as confessions or blood spatter
After spending the night crafting a sign reading “Murderer,” Tracy Kinsinger showed up at the courthouse carrying it.
Truthfully, “he disgraced himself, his family, the community, and his profession,” Kinsinger said. That’s a fancy way of saying, “it’s shameful.”
Murdaugh was escorted into the courthouse with his head lowered so he didn’t see the sign.
The prosecution had no hard evidence, such as confessions or blood spatter, that could link the defendant to the Murdaugh killings. Despite this, they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including the video that placed Murdaugh at the scene of the killings just five minutes before his wife and son stopped using their cell phones permanently.
More than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence were presented to the jury, including accounts of Murdaugh’s betrayal of friends and clients as well as his failed attempt to stage his death in an insurance fraud scheme, as well as details about a fatal boat crash in which his son was implicated, the housekeeper who died after falling in the Murdaugh home, and the scene of the murders.
The disbarred lawyer admitted to stealing millions from the family business and clients, claiming he needed the money to support his drug habit. Murdaugh had already been awaiting trial on roughly a hundred other charges, including insurance fraud and tax evasion, when he was arrested for murder.
Lawyers for Murdaugh’s defense have already announced their intention to appeal because the judge decided to admit evidence of crimes for which their client has not been convicted.
They portrayed Alex as a horrible person. “And that’s why they offered it,” Griffin explained.
After sentencing, Murdaugh was returned to the Colleton County jail to gather his belongings before being transferred to an evaluation center in Columbia. Like all new inmates receiving life sentences, he will be transferred to a maximum security state prison within the next month or so.
SOURCE – (AP)
