Trial of Alex Murdaugh

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The trial of Alex Murdaugh began with a 911 call placed at 10:06 p.m. on the 7th of June 2021. The caller, a South Carolina lawyer, said he had found the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, near the family dog kennels. Local media would later call the case South Carolina's "trial of the century." Its formal name was State of South Carolina v. Richard Alexander Murdaugh. Years afterward, a ruling from the state's highest court left the result in doubt. How did a family of prominent attorneys end up at the center of a double murder case? What did jurors weigh over weeks of testimony? And what happened around the jury that the public never saw?

  18151998

• 2. The Night at the Kennels

  ›

  Alex Murdaugh came from a family of attorneys who were prominent across the South Carolina Lowcountry. His younger son, Paul, was 22 years old when he died. Paul had been under indictment in the death of Mallory Beach, a passenger on a power boat that he had allegedly driven into a bridge while drunk.

  On the 7th of June 2021, Alex phoned his wife, Maggie, who was 52. He asked her to meet him at the family hunting lodge in Islandton. The stated reason was that the two of them could travel together to see Alex's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, who was terminally ill. Maggie texted a friend about the call. She wrote that her husband sounded "fishy" and was "up to something."

  After parking her car at the house, Maggie walked to the dog kennels. There she found Paul. Both had been shot several times in the head, wrists and chest, and different guns were involved.

  Murdaugh later claimed he had been with his mother, who has dementia, when the killings happened. Cellphone data placed him at the scene before the murders, including a video that carried his voice. That conflict between his account and the digital record would follow him all the way to the witness stand.

  91072438

• 3. The Road to Walterboro

  ›

  In October 2021, it came out that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, known as SLED, had treated Alex Murdaugh as a person of interest since the start of its investigation. At trial, his defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, attacked how that investigation was run. Rain had spoiled the crime scene, he argued. Police reportedly failed to collect various pieces of evidence, and family members and friends were allowed to walk through the scene.

  A Colleton County grand jury indicted Murdaugh in July 2022 on two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a violent crime. The indictment said he shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun. Murdaugh pleaded not guilty and was denied bond. Prosecutors said they would seek life in prison without parole rather than the death penalty.

  The trial opened on the 25th of January 2023 at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, with the judge's instructions and opening statements from both sides. Judge Clifton Newman presided. Creighton Waters, chief prosecutor for the grand jury, led the state's team. John Meadors, a Columbia attorney with extensive experience in murder trials, joined it after being hired by the Attorney General of South Carolina. Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin represented Murdaugh.

  The first big fight came over money. Defense counsel argued that prosecutors should not be allowed to ask about Murdaugh's financial crimes, and the judge overruled their objections. On Thursday the 2nd of February, he sent the jury home early so that two witnesses could testify in chambers on the subject. On the 6th of February, after several days of argument without the jury present, Newman ruled the testimony admissible. He said jurors were entitled to consider whether Murdaugh's finances gave him a motive. He added that the defense had invited the topic by asking a witness to speculate about a possible motive.

  The trial also met interruptions. A bomb threat on the 8th of February forced a recess of several hours. On the 13th of February, two jurors who tested positive for COVID-19 were replaced with alternates. On the 24th of February, a new charge was filed against Murdaugh for passing contraband in the courtroom. At the defense's request, the jury also visited the murder scene. With the earlier ruling in hand, prosecutors could now build their argument about money in front of the jury.

  1112141516

• 4. The Prosecution's Case

  ›

  The first witnesses for the prosecution were the first responders who arrived after Murdaugh's 911 call. Prosecutors then asked the judge to compel a representative of Snapchat to testify about a video that Paul Murdaugh posted minutes before his death. Two close friends of Paul described their dealings with the Murdaugh family and their messages with him in his last moments. One witness said he heard Alex's voice in a video Paul took minutes before the time prosecutors believe the murders happened.

  SLED witnesses covered firearms and ballistics. They also described an interview with Murdaugh in a car on the 21st of June 2021. In it he said of his son, "It's just so bad. I did him so bad." Waters stressed that line for the jury. The defense disputed whether the recording said "I" or "they."

  An expert testified about data gathered from Maggie's phone. A SLED agent then assembled a timeline for the 7th of June. It combined the cellphones of the victims and the defendant, car telemetry data and cell-tower pings. Prosecutors also called a criminologist and a pathologist.

  On motive, prosecutors called Murdaugh's former colleagues and clients to describe his finances just before the murders. Their argument was that stress over the coming discovery of his financial crimes drove him to kill. The chief executive officer of a local bank testified about how the bank discovered theft by Murdaugh. Prosecutors rested on the 17th of February, and the defense called its first witness without a pause.

  3435374025

• 5. The Defense Answers

  ›

  The Colleton County coroner was the defense's first witness. He testified that he had only estimated the victims' body temperatures, which meant the reported time of death was an estimate too. On the 21st of February, the defense called Murdaugh's surviving son, Buster. A crime-scene engineer then re-created the scene and argued that the presumed height of the shooter did not match the defendant's height. Another expert said first responders had not handled the scene properly.

  On the 23rd of February, Murdaugh himself took the stand. He denied shooting his wife and son. He confirmed that his voice could be heard in a video his son took at 8:44 p.m. at the kennels. He admitted repeatedly lying to law officers about whether he had been at the kennels that night, before he reported finding the bodies there later. He blamed the lies on "paranoid thinking" caused by his addiction to opioids. He also admitted stealing from legal clients and from his firm, and asking a relative to shoot him. Prosecutors began their cross-examination the same day, and he finished testifying the next.

  The defense then turned back to the science. A pathologist testified that the state's pathologist had not correctly determined the entrance and exit wounds on Paul's body. Tim Palmbach, an expert in bloodstain spatter analysis who had also testified in the trial of Michael Peterson, said he believed a shooter would have been covered in blood and gunshot residue. He added that the evidence was consistent with two shooters. The last defense witness was Murdaugh's brother, John Marvin Murdaugh.

  On the 27th of February, the defense rested and moved for a directed verdict, which Newman denied. The prosecution opened a reply case on the 28th. It recalled four witnesses who had already testified, called a police chief who had associated with Murdaugh, and finished with a crime-scene expert heard earlier. State Attorney General Alan Wilson conducted that final examination himself. Closing arguments came next, beginning on the 1st of March.

  4143443242

• 6. Verdict and Sentence

  ›

  On the 2nd of March 2023, Judge Newman told the court that a juror had discussed the evidence presented. She was dismissed for improper conduct, and an alternate took her place. Creighton Waters delivered the state's closing statement and Jim Griffin delivered the defense's. John Meadors gave the state's reply and final argument.

  The jury began deliberating that same day. After less than three hours, it found Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during a violent crime. Because of the intense public interest, the verdict was transmitted live across the United States on major broadcast and cable news networks.

  After the verdict was read, Newman denied a defense motion for a mistrial. "The evidence of guilt is overwhelming," he said. He told jurors that the circumstantial evidence and the direct evidence had all pointed to one conclusion, the one they reached. Newman later called it a "proper conclusion as they saw the law and facts."

  On the 3rd of March 2023, at 10:08 a.m. EST, Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was then taken to Kirkland Correctional Institution in northwestern Columbia, South Carolina. He stayed about 45 days while officials evaluated which maximum-security prison would receive him.

  The Murdaugh Murders Podcast, from Liz Farrell and Mandy Matney, appeared in 2021, long before any verdict. HBO Max released Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty in 2022, and Investigation Discovery released Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty the same year. In 2023 came Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal on Netflix and a Lifetime film, Murdaugh Murders: The Movie. Hulu followed in 2025 with Murdaugh: Death in the Family.

  The defense took questions from the media the day after sentencing and said it would appeal. On the 9th of March, its attorneys filed a notice of appeal with the South Carolina Court of Appeals.

  54555657100

• 7. Fraud and Fallout

  ›

  Murdaugh's older brother, Randy, gave an interview a few days after the sentencing. He said he believed Alex had not told the whole truth about what he knew of the killings.

  On the 23rd of March, Georgia-based Liberty Auction sold items from Murdaugh's property. The sale included antlers, turtle-shell lamps and furniture.

  The financial allegations then received their own prosecutions. On the 24th of May, the US Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina announced that a federal grand jury had returned a 22-count indictment. The counts covered money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

  On the 17th of November 2023, Murdaugh pleaded guilty to the state's charges. On the 29th of November, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison. On the 1st of April 2024, a federal court sentenced him to 40 years for his financial fraud crimes, to run concurrently with his earlier sentences. He was also ordered to pay $8.7 million in reparations to his victims, including the family of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. That order followed evidence of additional crimes. Because the federal term runs alongside the others, it would keep him in prison whatever happened to his murder appeal.

  6871725961

• 8. The Clerk of Court

  ›

  On the 3rd of September 2023, Murdaugh's attorneys announced that they had evidence to seek a new murder trial. At a press conference two days later, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin accused Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of jury tampering. Hill had since published a book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders. The lawyers said a number of jurors were upset by revelations in the book and had spoken up about Hill's behavior. They asked for an evidentiary hearing. Harpootlian also wrote to United States Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs, requesting a federal investigation. Hill hired lawyers Justin Bamberg and Will Lewis.

  Hill's book was later withdrawn from circulation. Her co-author, Neil Gordon, discovered that she had copied excerpts from an article by BBC News reporter Holly Honderich and included them word for word as her own.

  On the 17th of October, Chief Judge H. Bruce Williams of the South Carolina Court of Appeals suspended Murdaugh's appeal and sent the case back to circuit court to examine the tampering allegations. Attorney General Alan Wilson asked SLED to investigate Hill as well. Murdaugh's team also asked that Judge Newman be removed from all Murdaugh trials, saying he could not be impartial. Newman asked the state Supreme Court to remove him, and it agreed. Former state supreme court justice Jean H. Toal took over. On the 29th of January 2024, she denied the motion for a new trial. On the 25th of March 2024, Hill stood beside her attorney, Justin Bamberg, and submitted her resignation to Governor Henry McMaster.

  Murdaugh's lawyers took the denial to the state Supreme Court, which agreed on the 13th of August 2024 to review it. On the 10th of December 2024, they filed a 132-page appeal laying out their arguments for a retrial. The state won two extensions, the second of 120 days, citing its workload and an "almost-6000-page long trial transcript." Its brief arrived on the 8th of August 2025, and Murdaugh's reply followed on the 9th of September 2025.

  Meanwhile, an independent SLED investigation led to felony charges against Hill on the 14th of May 2025, including misconduct and perjury. On the 8th of December, she pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office. She admitted revealing sealed court exhibits to a member of the media and then lying about it. She also admitted using her office to promote her book. She received three years' probation. The judge said he would have imposed a harsher sentence had evidence emerged that she tampered with the jury.

  On the 13th of May 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously overturned the murder and weapon possession convictions and ordered a new trial. It cited "shocking jury interference" by Hill. The court said she used her standing as "the primary caretaker of the jury" and "an officer of the court" to "essentially implore the jurors" to convict Murdaugh. It judged her "breathtaking and disgraceful effort...to undermine the jury process" so egregious that nothing short of a new trial would do, even if Murdaugh was guilty. The justices wrote, "Our federal and state constitutions simply cannot countenance such an assault on the right to a fair and impartial jury."

  On the 18th of May 2026, Murdaugh filed a federal lawsuit against Hill, accusing her of violating his civil rights. Prosecutors intend to retry the case, so a second jury may yet hear the evidence from the kennels.

  8991939495