In May, the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial in the 2021 murders of Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22, as Murdaugh continues to maintain innocence
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NEED TO KNOW
- Alex Murdaugh appeared in court on Friday, Aug. 14, for a pretrial hearing ahead of his 2027 murder retrial
- Murdaugh’s lawyers argued for a change of venue, whether his testimony could be used in the retrial and whether the defense could have an outside lab test DNA from an unknown male that was found under Maggie’s fingernails
- Murdaugh showed up in a suit and tie and appeared to smile when the judge granted him a change of venue
Alex Murdaugh scored a win in court Friday, Aug. 14 when a judge agreed to allow his retrial for the alleged murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul to be moved to another venue.
For a large portion of Friday’s pretrial hearing, Murdaugh’s defense team argued that the retrial venue be changed from Colleton County, where the murders took place, to Charleston, where they believe the disbarred attorney could get a fair trial.
“Colleton County is poison,” Murdaugh’s defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said.
Holding the trial in Charleston would give the defense a larger jury pool and would be more accessible to many witnesses.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters argued that “the genie is out of the bottle” with one of the nation’s highest-profile criminal cases, but that state prosecutors would do everything to make sure they pick a jury that “will stick” and be fair to both sides.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Debra R. McCaslin ruled that she would change the venue of the trial, because she said, Murdaugh “cannot receive a fair and impartial trial in Colleton County.” She cited the immense publicity around the case and the Murdaugh family’s notoriety in the area.
She said she would choose the venue and let the state and the defense know what her decision is at a later date.
Murdaugh, 58, appeared to smile when the judge decided to transfer venue.
Battle Over Testing of Male DNA Found Under Maggie’s Fingernails
Much of the hearing focused on whether Murdaugh’s defense team could use an outside lab, Othram, a private forensic genetic genealogy lab in Texas, to conduct advanced testing.
The defense says SLED has reserve samples that should be preserved before the agency performs any additional analysis to test DNA from an unknown male that was found under Maggie’s fingernails.
In the end, Judge McCaslin said she would let the defense have a quantitative analysis done on the limited sample of DNA and report back whether there are any “leftovers.”
Why Murdaugh is Being Retried
In 2023, Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after being convicted of murdering Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, in June 2021 at the family’s hunting property in Colleton County.
There were no eyewitnesses to the incident, but a Snapchat video Paul sent to a friend placed Murdaugh at the crime scene just moments before the two were fatally shot.
After he was found guilty, Murdaugh’s defense team filed a post-conviction appeal accusing former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill of improperly influencing jurors during the trial.
They argued that comments Hill allegedly made to jurors about Murdaugh and his testimony violated his Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial trial.
In May, the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed, overturning Murdaugh’s double-murder conviction and ordered a new trial.
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Murdaugh will remain in jail regardless of the outcome of his appeal, having been sentenced to 27 years in prison on state charges and 40 years in prison on federal charges relating to various financial crimes he committed before and after the deaths of Maggie and Paul.
His retrial is scheduled to begin on April 5, 2027.
Murdaugh’s next court date is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13.
They will discuss the defense’s motion to dismiss murder charges.
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