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Trial of Alex Murdaugh
State of South Carolina v. Richard Alexander Murdaugh was the trial of former American lawyer Alex Murdaugh for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021. The trial in the fourteenth circuit of the South Carolina Circuit Court began on January 25, 2023, and ended on March 2 with a guilty verdict on all four counts. Murdaugh, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to two life sentences to run consecutively without the possibility of parole. He soon filed a motion for new trial, alleging that the court clerk tampered with the jury; a new trial court judge denied the motion in January 2024.
Local media called the trial South Carolina's "trial of the century" and "one of the most high-profile and sensational cases in South Carolina legal history".
On May 14, 2025, former trial clerk Becky Hill was arrested and charged with felony misconduct; this was seen as reviving if not increasing Murdaugh's efforts to obtain a new trial.
Alex Murdaugh is a member of the Murdaugh family, a family of attorneys prominent in the South Carolina Lowcountry. At the time of his death, Alex's younger son Paul had been under indictment in the death of Mallory Beach, a passenger on a power boat Paul had allegedly driven into a bridge while drunk.
Alex called his wife Maggie Murdaugh (52) on June 7, 2021, and asked her to meet with him at the Murdaugh family hunting lodge in Islandton, purportedly so that the two of them could travel together to see Alex's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, who was terminally ill. Maggie texted a friend, saying her husband sounded "fishy" and was "up to something." After parking her car at the house, Maggie walked to the dog kennels, where she found her son, Paul (22). Alex called police from his cellphone at 10:06 p.m., saying he had discovered the bodies of Maggie and Paul near the dog kennels. Each had been shot multiple times in the head, wrists and chest, with different guns.
Murdaugh claimed that at the time of the killings he had been with his mother, who has dementia; however, cellphone data, including video containing Alex's voice, placed him at the scene before the murders.
In October 2021, it was revealed that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) had regarded Alex as a person of interest in the homicides since the start of the investigation. The investigation was heavily criticized by Murdaugh's defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, during trial; the crime scene was spoiled by rain, police reportedly failed to collect various evidence, and family members and friends were allowed to walk through the scene.
Murdaugh was arrested in July 2022 after a Colleton County grand jury issued an indictment charging him with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of Maggie and Paul. The indictment stated that Alex shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun. Murdaugh pleaded not guilty; prosecutors said they would seek life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, not the death penalty.
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Trial of Alex Murdaugh
State of South Carolina v. Richard Alexander Murdaugh was the trial of former American lawyer Alex Murdaugh for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, on June 7, 2021. The trial in the fourteenth circuit of the South Carolina Circuit Court began on January 25, 2023, and ended on March 2 with a guilty verdict on all four counts. Murdaugh, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to two life sentences to run consecutively without the possibility of parole. He soon filed a motion for new trial, alleging that the court clerk tampered with the jury; a new trial court judge denied the motion in January 2024.
Local media called the trial South Carolina's "trial of the century" and "one of the most high-profile and sensational cases in South Carolina legal history".
On May 14, 2025, former trial clerk Becky Hill was arrested and charged with felony misconduct; this was seen as reviving if not increasing Murdaugh's efforts to obtain a new trial.
Alex Murdaugh is a member of the Murdaugh family, a family of attorneys prominent in the South Carolina Lowcountry. At the time of his death, Alex's younger son Paul had been under indictment in the death of Mallory Beach, a passenger on a power boat Paul had allegedly driven into a bridge while drunk.
Alex called his wife Maggie Murdaugh (52) on June 7, 2021, and asked her to meet with him at the Murdaugh family hunting lodge in Islandton, purportedly so that the two of them could travel together to see Alex's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, who was terminally ill. Maggie texted a friend, saying her husband sounded "fishy" and was "up to something." After parking her car at the house, Maggie walked to the dog kennels, where she found her son, Paul (22). Alex called police from his cellphone at 10:06 p.m., saying he had discovered the bodies of Maggie and Paul near the dog kennels. Each had been shot multiple times in the head, wrists and chest, with different guns.
Murdaugh claimed that at the time of the killings he had been with his mother, who has dementia; however, cellphone data, including video containing Alex's voice, placed him at the scene before the murders.
In October 2021, it was revealed that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) had regarded Alex as a person of interest in the homicides since the start of the investigation. The investigation was heavily criticized by Murdaugh's defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, during trial; the crime scene was spoiled by rain, police reportedly failed to collect various evidence, and family members and friends were allowed to walk through the scene.
Murdaugh was arrested in July 2022 after a Colleton County grand jury issued an indictment charging him with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the deaths of Maggie and Paul. The indictment stated that Alex shot his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun. Murdaugh pleaded not guilty; prosecutors said they would seek life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, not the death penalty.