Alex Murdaugh

A South Carolina jury convicted former attorney Alex Murdaugh in the killings of his wife and son. He faces up to life in prison when he's formally ...

In a remarkable courtroom moment, the judge in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial spoke in stark and personal terms ahead of the disgraced lawyer's sentencing ...

That is the sentence of the court and you are remanded to the state Department of Corrections. For the murder of Paul Murdaugh, whom you probably loved so much, I sentence you to prison for murdering him for the rest of your natural life. I sentence you for the term of the rest of your natural life. Murdaugh, I sentence you to the state Department of Corrections on each of the murder indictments. And then that necessitated more lies and continued to lie, and I say when will it end, it has already ended for many who have heard you and concluded that it will never end. “It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills, and maybe you become another person. I have not been able to get anyone, any defendant, even those who have confessed to being guilty to go back and explain to me what happened at that moment in time when they opted to pull the trigger, when they opted to commit the most heinous crime known to man.” I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty. And reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes, as you looked the jury in the eyes.” “This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team, but for all of the citizens in this community, all the citizens in this state, as we have seen based on the media coverage throughout the nation,” Newman said. A lawyer, a person from the respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather’s portrait hang at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense. In fact, as I have presided over murder cases over the past 22 years, I have yet to find a defendant who could go there, who could go back to that moment in time when they decided to pull the trigger or to otherwise murder someone.

But two years ago that life unravelled when Alex Murdaugh - the fourth generation scion of a local legal dynasty - called police to report his wife Maggie and ...

One of these jobs, according to Alex Murdaugh and his lawyers, was to act as Mr Murdaugh's "personal drug dealer" and regularly supply Mr Murdaugh with pills. Mr Murdaugh admitted on the stand he had lied. He had been drunk, they said, descending into a cruel and angry alter ego that friends had nick-named "Timmy", and who allegedly hit his girlfriend the night of the accident. but he took care of so many," his father said at the trial. A mobile phone video taken at the Murdaughs' dog kennels by Paul about five minutes before prosecutors say the killings took place features the voice of Mr Murdaugh talking to Bubba. Testifying at his murder trial, he confessed to the theft, blaming a desperate and expensive addiction to oxycodone. But he briefly found himself in hot water after reportedly passing his father a John Grisham novel, which was later deemed contraband. A full-time homemaker, she was described as an adoring mother to her two sons. Buster testified in his father's defence, describing Mr Murdaugh as a loving presence who was "destroyed" by the murders of Maggie and Paul. But the strangest request came in September 2021, three months after Maggie and Paul's murders, when Mr Murdaugh asked Mr Smith to meet him on the side of a rural road one Saturday, and shoot him in the back of the head. He is now on trial for their murders. But the patina of success hid a number of seedy secrets - Mr Murdaugh was stealing from his clients and colleagues, as much as $3.7m (£3m) in a single year alone.

The five-week trial of Alex Murdaugh has dominated headlines and cable news channels, and the murders have been the subject of podcasts and even two ...

I think people like to have endings and they like to have justice. I think that's been a big, big selling point for Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, that we get the bad guys. But, you know, on the other hand, we don't know who's carrying a gun in many places now in the United States. These are cases of human behavior that go way, way, way to the nth degree that we don't experience in our own lives every day. And most of us, I hope, wouldn't go so far as to murder our families ... In this case, the victims are dead, but we still want to seek some kind of justice.

I was in South Carolina last week: scene of the trial and home of the Murdaugh dynasty. Both tell us a lot about race and power today, says Guardian ...

Two of these alleged victims were the sons of the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield, who died after an accident in the Murdaugh home in 2018. At an earlier hearing, one of Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers used as mitigation his addiction to painkillers, inviting the judge to look upon Murdaugh’s sorry face as the encapsulation of what the opioid epidemic has done to the US. The story, currently the subject of Netflix and HBO multi-part documentaries, would seem so wild and convoluted as to illuminate nothing beyond itself, were it not for the influence of the Murdaugh family. Many of the people Alex Murdaugh is accused of defrauding were poor, Black clients seeking personal injury compensation through his family’s law firm. [someone shot](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58577936) Alex Murdaugh in the head – an act, it is alleged, that Murdaugh commissioned himself, paying a gunman to kill him so his surviving son could collect on insurance. In the dock: the 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh, scion of a legal dynasty stretching back 100 years, who has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son.

The South Carolina lawyer faces a minimum of 30 years in prison for each murder.

They called Judge Newman's decision to allow evidence related to Murdaugh's financial crimes to be included in the murder trial "erroneous". Murdaugh had been cast as a "despicable human being", he said. He stared ahead and did not react as his sentence was read. "I would never hurt my wife and I would never hurt my son," he said in brief remarks at the hearing. Judge Clifton Newman called the case "one of the most troubling" he had seen and noted Murdaugh's past "as a well-known member of the legal community". Disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife and son in a case that shocked the US.

The 54-year-old disbarred South Carolina lawyer faces a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for each murder conviction.

"This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him," Waters told the jury in his closing argument. He was facing a financial reckoning, they said, that also included his liability in a court case over a fatal 2019 boating accident in which Paul, then 19, was said to be driving. Prosecutors never produced the two murder weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul, and there were no eyewitnesses. But after witnesses identified Murdaugh's voice in a cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennel around 8:45 p.m. Newman had said he would render his sentence after any victim impact statements, but prosecutor Creighton Waters began his remarks by saying the state did not have anyone who wanted to deliver a victim statement. "It's so unfortunate, because you had such a lovely family of such friendly people — including you," the judge told Murdaugh. The sentencing closes a six-week-long trial that charted Murdaugh's fall from grace. Murdaugh said repeatedly that he didn't go with his wife and son to the dog kennels where they were shot and killed, saying that he stayed in the house, and took a nap before leaving to see his ailing mother. The court session began shortly after 9:30 a.m. Thank you." "Good morning, your honor. Newman told Murdaugh that each of the punishments apply to "the rest of your natural life," adding that the sentences are consecutive.

Former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murder in the deaths of his wife and son.

Waters said Murdaugh, a member of a [prominent legal dynasty](https://bit.ly/3KROCEA) that ran a prosecutor's office in Hampton County for more than 80 years, killed his family to prevent his alleged financial crimes from being exposed and ruining his family's legacy and his successful law practice. Murdaugh initially told police he was not at the family's dog kennels before finding the bodies there, but his voice was captured on [a video taken on his son’s cellphone](http://bit.ly/41ASJLd) minutes before prosecutors believe the killings happened. [Murdaugh addresses the court: 'I'm innocent'] [None of Maggie or Paul's family members delivered a victim impact statement, but Murdaugh briefly addressed the court before he was sentenced.] ["I'm innocent. [tax evasion,](http://bit.ly/3CZRISg) and [drug trafficking](http://bit.ly/3JkNoRB) which [ could carry a penalty of more than seven centuries of prison time. [Judge Clifton Newman criticizes Murdaugh's testimony as not credible] [Newman said he could imagine the "looming storm" lead prosecutor Creighton Waters described Murdaugh faced the day of the murders. "In the murder of your wife Maggie Murdaugh, I sentence you for a term for the rest of your natural life," Newman said. “And it might not have been you," Newman said. "But once that information was in, I mean he had to take the stand to explain the kennel video, the lie, if you will." He added the evidence that Murdaugh stole and lied wasn't about motive but Murdaugh's character. When asked why Murdaugh's son Buster did not speak during sentencing, Griffin said it would not have made a difference in Murdaugh's sentence. The attorneys said the strongest grounds for appeal are the judge's decision to admit evidence related to Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes.] Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were killed near dog kennels at the family's home in June 2021.

Alex Murdaugh, center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff's deputies after being convicted Thursday, in Walterboro, S.C. Murdaugh was found ...

"This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him," Waters told the jury in his closing argument. He was facing a financial reckoning, they said, that also included his liability in a court case over a fatal 2019 boating accident in which Paul, then 19, was said to be driving. Prosecutors never produced the two murder weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul, and there were no eyewitnesses. But after witnesses identified Murdaugh's voice in a cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennel around 8:45 p.m. Newman had said he would render his sentence after any victim impact statements, but prosecutor Creighton Waters began his remarks by saying the state did not have anyone who wanted to deliver a victim statement. The sentencing closes a six-week-long trial that charted Murdaugh's fall from grace. Murdaugh said repeatedly that he didn't go with his wife and son to the dog kennels where they were shot and killed, saying that he stayed in the house, and took a nap before leaving to see his ailing mother. The court session began shortly after 9:30 a.m. Thank you." After a trial that spanned 28 days, it took a Colleton County jury only a few hours to agree unanimously that Murdaugh is guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. "Good morning, your honor. Newman told Murdaugh that each of the punishments apply to "the rest of your natural life," adding that the sentences are consecutive.

Alex Murdaugh will be sentenced to between 30 years and life in prison after he was convicted Thursday of murdering his wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, ...

2 hours ago During sentencing, Newman made remarks about the influence that Murdaugh’s opioid addiction might have had on the actions of a man he was familiar with from his presence in court. [Alex Murdaugh](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/25/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-explained/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2) was sentenced Friday to two consecutive life sentences in prison a day after a jury found him [guilty of killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/03/02/murdaugh-verdict-murder-south-carolina/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2), in 2021.

Sentencing came little more than 12 hours after South Carolina attorney was found guilty of murder.

Newman – who also spoke about the many times he had encountered Murdaugh as a lawyer in the After the murders, Murdaugh portrayed the killings as an act of retribution by unknown assassins. “It doesn’t matter who your family is,” Waters said. It doesn’t matter … I am sure they come and visit you,” he said. The small town of Walterboro has been turned into a media circus for the trial’s duration.

Sara Azari, a criminal trial attorney, told News Nation, the case was “cloaked in doubt,” until Murdaugh testified, which “sealed the deal” for the jury, who ...

For five weeks Murdaugh was on trial for the June 2021 murder of his wife, Maggie, and his 22-year-old son Paul. [Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty Of Murdering Wife And Son](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/03/02/alex-murdaugh-found-guilty-in-murder-of-wife-and-son/?sh=2f0daa902674) (Forbes) [How Alex Murdaugh Opened The Door For Convictions On Financial And Tax Crime Charges](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/03/01/how-alex-murdaugh-opened-the-door-for-convictions-on-financial-and-tax-crime-charges/?sh=2e7edf5172ed) (Forbes) [Juror Removed From Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial For Discussing Case Outside Courtroom](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/02/juror-removed-from-alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-for-discussing-case-outside-courtroom/?sh=535db4534247) (Forbes) [Alex Murdaugh Murder Trial Jurors Make Rare Visit To South Carolina Crime Scene](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/01/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-jurors-make-rare-visit-to-south-carolina-crime-scene/?sh=7d1dcd391ccb) (Forbes) [Levinson](https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20230303030321-legal-experts-examine-alex-murdaugh-murder-verdict/#x) said. [told](https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/murdaugh-murder-trial/alex-murdaugh-verdict-watch-jury/) News Nation, the case was “cloaked in doubt,” until Murdaugh testified, which “sealed the deal” for the jury, who Azari said didn’t care about why Murdaugh committed these crimes but instead focused on the big “lie.” [told](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCOLlbBtj_E%5C) the Associated Press. When Alex Murdaugh—who was found guilty Thursday of murdering his wife and son in June 2021 and sentenced Friday to life in prison—took the stand to explain his side of the story, he backed himself into a corner, admitted to other crimes and ultimately made himself unreliable, which legal experts say lead to his guilty verdict.

The disgraced South Carolina lawyer was charged in the murders of his wife and son. His defense argued that investigators fabricated evidence.

In his new version of events, Murdaugh admitted being there, but he said he went back to the house minutes before 9 p.m. In his closing argument, Waters stressed to jurors that he thinks one thing was missing from the two days Murdaugh spent testifying. "You want to leave the eggs or take the eggs?" But, he said, she would be replaced so that the integrity of the trial would remain intact. Griffin began his statement with an overview of the criminal legal system, comparing the trial to an instant-replay review in college football. The court received a complaint from a member of the public saying the juror, a woman identified only as juror No. He noted that South Carolina law doesn't require the state to prove premeditation or motive in a murder case. Griffin accused the agency of a list of failures, saying the state never explained if tests were performed on hair he said was found in Maggie's fingers. Once investigators seized on the idea that tests showed high-velocity blood spatter on Alex Murdaugh's T-shirt, he added, they refused to dismiss that idea and pursued it "with vengeance." As for the lies Murdaugh admitted telling, Griffin said his client lied because "that's what addicts do." But when the state was faced with mixed results and questions over tests of Murdaugh's shirt, Griffin said, they embraced a "Mr. A defense attorney for Murdaugh sought to sow doubt about the work by police and forensics teams, saying they fell far short of preserving evidence from the crime scene.

After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday, the jury in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh found him guilty of murdering his wife and son, ...

[prosecution argued Murdaugh’s motive](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/us/alex-murdaugh-trial-defense-closings-thursday/index.html) in the killings was to distract and delay investigations into his financial wrongdoing. [denied](http://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-thursday/index.html) killing his wife and son. In the prosecution’s telling, the motive was Murdaugh’s attempt to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. Griffin acknowledged Murdaugh had lied about being at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed on the night of the murders. And the opportunity was Murdaugh’s presence at the crime scene, “Our criminal justice system worked tonight,” Wilson said. “Everyone who thought they knew who he was, he’s fooled them all. He further admitted to [stealing millions of dollars](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/us/alex-murdaugh-murder-trial-friday/index.html) from his former clients and law firm and lying to cover his tracks. has fooled everyone, everyone, everyone who thought they were close to him,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “I find it offensive that the defense … Murdaugh kept a stony face while the verdicts were read. His only remaining son, Buster Murdaugh, could be seen wiping tears from his eyes.

The jury on Thursday convicted Alex Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina lawyer, of murdering his wife and son.

The prosecution seized on that admission — how readily, and easily, he had lied to the police, his family and friends — in an attempt to convince the jury that he was lying about not having killed his wife and son. He also said that when he spoke with his father about 20 minutes after prosecutors say the murders took place, Alex Murdaugh sounded “normal” — at a time that Mr. “He said that he did not know who it was, but he felt like whoever did it had thought about it for a long time,” Ms. Murdaugh’s law firm confronted him, accusing him of pocketing about $800,000 in lawyer fees that he was supposed to have deposited into the firm’s account. Murdaugh testified that he had feared an admission that he was at the kennels before the murders would cause the police to consider him a suspect. Defense lawyers also noted that the police had issued a statement in the days after the killings saying that no immediate threat to the public existed. Murdaugh was wearing when police arrived after he called 911 — it would have been covered in blood and body matter, his lawyers argued — and the DNA of an unknown man was discovered under Mrs. That was an indication, they argued, that the authorities were investigating only Mr. After denying for more than 20 months that he was at the dog kennels where his wife and son were found shot to death, Alex Murdaugh confessed that he had lied about his whereabouts. Murdaugh’s phone from the day of the killings had been overwritten. Murdaugh told his lawyer that he had been there for a few minutes, but then had left, laid down at the house, and driven to check on his ailing mother who lived about 15 minutes away. He blamed his lies to the police on paranoia spurred by opiate dependency, as well as his distrust of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, a state investigative agency.

"The evidence of guilt is overwhelming," the judge said after the jury verdict was read in court.

But they were unable to find either firearm and produce them at trial. This was the same thing." The case against him was based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Reporters shouted questions, though he remained silent. He scheduled sentencing for Friday morning. Murdaugh had pleaded not guilty to killing his wife and youngest son in an attempt to conceal years of financial corruption - fraud that he himself had acknowledged in court.

The disgraced South Carolina lawyer is charged in the murders of his wife and son. His defense argued that investigators fabricated evidence.

In his new version of events, Murdaugh admitted being there, but he said he went back to the house minutes before 9 p.m. In his closing argument, Waters stressed to jurors that he thinks one thing was missing from the two days Murdaugh spent testifying. "You want to leave the eggs or take the eggs?" But, he said, she would be replaced so that the integrity of the trial would remain intact. Griffin began his statement with an overview of the criminal legal system, comparing the trial to an instant-replay review in college football. The court received a complaint from a member of the public saying the juror, a woman identified only as juror No. He noted that South Carolina law doesn't require the state to prove premeditation or motive in a murder case. Griffin accused the agency of a list of failures, saying the state never explained if tests were performed on hair he said was found in Maggie's fingers. Once investigators seized on the idea that tests showed high-velocity blood spatter on Alex Murdaugh's T-shirt, he added, they refused to dismiss that idea and pursued it "with vengeance." As for the lies Murdaugh admitted telling, Griffin said his client lied because "that's what addicts do." But when the state was faced with mixed results and questions over tests of Murdaugh's shirt, Griffin said, they embraced a "Mr. A defense attorney for Murdaugh sought to sow doubt about the work by police and forensics teams, saying they fell far short of preserving evidence from the crime scene.

Prosecutors said he gunned down his wife and son to distract from a litany of financial crimes. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors sought to portray Murdaugh as a serial liar and argued that only he had the means and the opportunity to commit the murders. Murdaugh, the scion of an influential legal family in an area west of Charleston, had pleaded not guilty, though he admitted to lying about his alibi and to an array of financial crimes in confessions that dented his credibility with the jury. CHARLESTON – A South Carolina jury on Thursday found Richard “Alex” Murdaugh guilty of killing his wife and son, convicting the once-influential attorney in a grisly and complex case that has gripped the nation’s attention for nearly two years.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the ...

Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion. Murdaugh lied about being at the kennels for 20 months before taking the stand on the 23rd day of his trial. Murdaugh comes from a family that dominated the local legal scene for decades. Murdaugh called 911 and said he discovered the bodies when he returned home. He blamed his decadeslong addiction to opioids for making him paranoid, creating a distrust of police. I would never hurt Maggie, and I would never hurt Paul — ever — under any circumstances,” Murdaugh said.

The verdict came less than three hours after jurors began deliberating. It followed a six-week trial that served as a reckoning for Mr. Murdaugh, a lawyer ...

Mr. But Mr. Waters hammered Mr. Throughout the trial, Mr. Griffin addressed Mr. That confrontation, Mr. Much of the trial focused on Mr. Earlier that day, Mr. Prosecutors said Mr. The jury also found Mr. The trial was a reckoning for Mr. Prosecutors contended that Mr.

A South Carolina jury on Thursday found Richard "Alex" Murdaugh guilty of killing his wife and son, convicting the once-influential attorney of murder in a ...

Prosecutors said he gunned down his wife and son to distract from his financial crimes, including the theft of millions of dollars from his law partners and clients - money used to feed a years-long addiction to opioids and support an expensive lifestyle. Murdaugh changed his account after the jury listened to audio evidence placing him at the crime scene minutes before the killings occurred. But in the end jurors did not believe Murdaugh's account. "It doesn't matter who your family is, it doesn't matter how much money you have," Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor, said after the verdict. He was then led out of the courtroom with his hands cuffed. The case has drawn intense media coverage given the family's immense political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial took place.

Verdict in case of prominent South Carolina lawyer accused of 2021 double homicide comes after gripping six-week trial.

It was not until state investigators were brought in, and Murdaugh confessed to embezzlement, that murder charges were eventually filed. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh had left the estate soon after to visit his mother to help establish an alibi. But he said he drove a golf cart back to the main house, 500 yards away, before the shootings took place. Newman has discretion to pass a sentence of 30 years to life without parole for each of the murder convictions. “He may be taken away,” the judge, Clifton Newman, said as Murdaugh was led out. Murdaugh was judged guilty on two counts of murder and two weapons-related charges.

The disgraced former attorney spoke briefly before the sentence was handed down and denied that he had ever hurt his wife or son.

"I'm sure they come and visit you." "I mean, he was getting a double life sentence. I'm sorry, I'm an old guy — crippled people who had just done horrible, despicable things, and he had to try to push back on that," Harpootlian said during a press conference. "It's ended already for the jury because they've concluded that you continued to lie and lie throughout your testimony." Attorney Jim Griffin said the defense team will appeal all the way to the U.S. But his testimony also included admissions that he had lied to investigators, and evidence presented by the prosecution placed him at the scene on the night of the murders. Prosecutors argued Murdaugh carried out the killings to gain sympathy before the allegations came out. "I respect this court, but I'm innocent," Murdaugh told the judge. The convicted former attorney and the judge exchanged words a few times during Friday's brief hearing. "And it might not have been you," Newman responded. [Alex Murdaugh](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alex-murdaugh-trial-verdict-reached-murder-case/) was sentenced to life in prison Friday morning in South Carolina, and his attorneys said they plan to appeal his conviction in the high-profile double murder trial. Murdaugh, 54, wasn't sentenced for the other charges because of the life sentence.

People have been sentenced to death for less than this double murder, the judge told the convicted killer.

"I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the night times when you are attempting to go to sleep," he said. In this case, death penalty would have been a "reach", he said. And he revealed nothing about his own family tragedy - the death of his 40-year-old son, Brian - that occurred just weeks before he assumed control of the Murdaugh case. "Your case qualifies under our death penalty statute," he said on Friday. and reflect on the fact that over the past century your family, including you, have been prosecuting people in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct." At one point, midway through proceedings, he gently chastised defence attorney Jim Griffin for re-tweeting an article that was critical of the prosecution.

Alex Murdaugh was found guilty by Judge Clifton Newman at the Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina, US, on March 3, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS. Updated.

The judge spoke about what may have been running through Murdaugh’s mind on June 7, 2021, as he confronted a “looming storm” that included his father on his death bed and Paul facing charges in the death of 19-year-old killed in the 2019 boat crash. “It might not have been you (who killed them). It might have been the monster you become.” I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son, Paw Paw,” he said, using a nickname for Paul, minutes before the judge delivered his sentence and he was escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs. Judge Newman criticised what he described as Murdaugh’s “duplicitous conduct” throughout the trial, and said his actions were especially troubling given that the Murdaugh family had “controlled justice in this community for over a century.” SOUTH CAROLINA - Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, the disgraced lawyer and member of a powerful South Carolina family, was sentenced to life on Friday for killing his wife and son in what prosecutors said was an attempt to hide his drug addiction and theft of millions of dollars.

Murdaugh's sentencing Friday came less than 24 hours after a South Carolina jury convicted him for the murders of his wife and son.

But he has a lot of pull - had a lot of pull with police because, basically, his family was the legal system in this rural community. And the defense, which has yet to speak about this verdict, about the sentence, is expected to come out before the courthouse in the next 10 minutes. And he admitted in court - and has yet to be tried, but he admitted to walking away with nearly $5 million. And the judge even mentioned that Murdaugh's grandfather's portrait had hung at the back of the courthouse and was removed to ensure a fair trial. But he's basically accused of embezzling colleagues, friends, the law firm of nearly $10 million, including the family of his late housekeeper whose sons he had promised to get - oh, I think he said he could get them $100,000. His family has been prominent in this community for nearly a century, founding the family law firm that was so well known that made so much money in this community. If you - he called him a person from a respected family who had control of the justice system in this community. This was briefly brought up as the prosecution tried to prove motive, which was basically that there was this perfect storm coming, that Murdaugh was facing these financial - this financial storm, that he needed to create a distraction with these murders to get sympathy. First of all, to walk in the courtroom this morning at 9:30 and see him dressed in that tan jumpsuit with the orange sandals and the white socks, you know, compared to the suits and the nice shirts that he's been wearing as of late, was just - that was a shock. And when this story first began to break, there was a lot of fear in this community. And there was just a silence in the courtroom. You know, he was given two life sentences for the murders of Paul and Maggie to be served consecutively.

The sentence was the maximum that the judge could hand down for the murders of Alex Murdaugh's wife and son, given that prosecutors had not sought the death ...

“I’m somebody that’s prosecuted and defended a bunch of death penalty cases, and you never do it in a circumstantial case, because 99 times out of 100, a jury’s not going to sentence someone to death without an ‘I saw him do it,’ ‘He confessed,’ or great, great forensic evidence, at the minimum,” Mr. Prosecutors said a range of factors led them to decide, a month before trial, not to pursue the death penalty in Mr. At a news conference in front of the Colleton County Courthouse on Friday, Mr. Mr. Murdaugh was built largely on circumstantial evidence and the crime had gone unsolved for more than a year, a sign that it was far from an open-and-shut prosecution. [newly created firing squad](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/south-carolina-firing-squad-moore.html) — [were unconstitutional](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/us/south-carolina-unconstitutional-executions.html), and an appeal of that decision is currently before the State Supreme Court. Some lawyers said the decision had been a wise legal move and could have been motivated by an issue that prosecutors may have been hesitant to say out loud: The case against Mr. Murdaugh as a man who viewed himself as above the law, driving around with blue lights installed in his car and leaving a badge from the prosecutor’s office — where he volunteered on a handful of cases over two decades — on the dashboard. Murdaugh had been able to exercise the privilege of his station. Murdaugh, 54, maintained his innocence as he stood in handcuffs and a tan jail jumpsuit in place of the blazers and dress shirts he had worn during the six-week trial. [The Post and Courier reported](https://www.postandcourier.com/murdaugh-updates/murdaugh-prosecutors-wont-seek-death-penalty-in-january-double-murder-trial/article_da7a21de-7fb9-11ed-b689-0f6e2ac0d595.html) that the three Murdaugh patriarchs who served as top prosecutors had sought the death penalty against more than 30 people during their reign, which stretched from 1920 to 2006. “I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paul-Paul,” he said, using a nickname for his slain son.

Alex Murdaugh, once a prominent lawyer in South Carolina, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his own wife and son. PHOTO: REUTERS.

In September 2021, Murdaugh called 911 from the side of the road not far from his home. In 2019, Murdaugh’s younger son, Paul, who was then 19, drunkenly crashed the family boat into a bridge. He said he grabbed Murdaugh’s arm and twisted it behind his back. She died of a brain bleed several weeks later, unable to speak to tell her story. Alex Murdaugh, 54, had himself been a well-connected player in the clubby South Carolina legal world. But he served only as a volunteer prosecutor, working on a handful of cases.