Alex Murdaugh‘s double murder trial convicted him guilty of killing his wife and son.
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and children.
The jury in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial convicted him guilty of killing his wife and son upon deliberating for the same or less than 3 hours Thursday, the grisliest and most serious of the claims against the disgraced former South Carolina attorney.
Murdaugh, the 54-year-old scion of a renowned and influential family of local attorneys and solicitors, was also convicted of two charges of possession of a weapon during the conduct of a violent crime in the June 7, 2021 murders of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh.
Authorities have suggested that for the killings, they will demand life in jail with no chance of release, sparing him the capital punishment.
Judge Clifton Newman has scheduled a sentencing hearing on Friday at 9:30 a.m.
Alex Murdaugh remained expressionless when the judgements were read. Buster Murdaugh, his sole surviving son, was observed wiping away tears. Murdaugh appeared to say “I love you” to Buster as he was handcuffed.
The jury members kept their heads lowered and never looked at Alex Murdaugh.
According to legal commentators, the jury’s judgement was made in record time.
I was amazed that the decision came back so fast, because there was a lot to chew through with all of the testimony – 70 witnesses in the three-week trial,” trial lawyer and legal commentator Misty Marris told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
After a six-week trial filled with graphic gore, telephone forensics, a mystery blue tarp, massive financial misconduct, and the defendant’s own falsehoods, the judgement was delivered.
On Thursday, Alex Murdaugh’s defence team made final arguments, claiming that criminal justice system was too eager to identify him as the primary suspect in the dog kennel deaths on the family’s enormous estate.
Prosecutor John Meadors rebutted the defense’s allegations of impropriety in a rebuttal.
“I find it outrageous that the defence… claims law enforcement did not do its job while he withholds and obstructs justice by not admitting, ‘I was out at the kennels.'”
Throughout three weeks of evidence, prosecutors summoned 61 witnesses to establish Murdaugh was the only person with the motivation, means, and chance to kill his wife and young son on their property known as Moselle near Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of 7th June, 2021.
Without any direct evidence, like as bloody clothes or eyewitnesses, prosecutors relied on camera evidence that placed Murdaugh at the crime site that night, despite his repeated statements to the contrary.
Murdaugh himself emphasised the defence case, giving emotional evidence over couple of days last week during which he firmly denied murdering his spouse and kid. At the same instance, he confessed lying to authorities about his locations soon before the killings owing to drug-addiction anxiety. He also acknowledged to taking millions of dollars from previous clients and his law practise, as well as lying to hide his tracks.
The out-of-this-world case has drawn national attention to Alex Murdaugh, a former personal injury attorney and part of a dynasty family in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where his father, grandpa, and great-grandfather all served as county prosecutors from 1920 to 2006.
Murdaugh was still a partner in a prestigious legal firm bearing his name. However, his celebrity belied underlying issues, and the murders of his family members were followed by allegations of misappropriated funds, his abdication, a bizarre accusation suicide-for-hire as well as insurance scam plot, a sojourn in rehab for substance abuse, dozens of economic fraud, his disbarment, and, eventually, the murder charges.
In a separate case, Murdaugh faces 99 distinct accusations related from a slew of alleged economic fraud, including scamming his clients, previous legal company, and the state of around $9 million.
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