Disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday following his double murder conviction.
Judge Clifton Newman imposed the sentence on Murdaugh at the Colleton County Courthouse a day after he was convicted of murdering his wife and son. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were fatally shot near the dog kennels at the family’s hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina, in June 2021.
Murdaugh insisted on his innocence before the verdict came down, the Associated Press reported.
“As I tell you again, I respect this court. But I am innocent. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son Paul-Paul,” he said.
“And it might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become,” from the opioid addiction, Newman fired back. Muradaugh said he stole million from his clients to finance the addiction.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, listens to prosecutor John Meadors give his closing arguments in Alex Murdaugh’s trial for murder, at the Colleton County Courthouse on Thursday, March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty)
Newman emphasized the influence that the Murdaugh family had in Colleton County, asserting they “controlled justice in this community for over a century,” as the South Carolina Post and Courier reported.
The family has deep roots in Colleton County as Murdaugh’s father and grandfather both served as the 14th circuit solicitor in South Carolina for decades, as WJCL noted. The 14th circuit includes Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper counties.
“The judge mentioned he had to order a portrait of Murdaugh’s grandfather be removed from where it hung in the back of the courtroom in order to ensure a fair trial,” the Post and Courier wrote.
Alex Murdaugh walks into the courthouse during his sentencing at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on Friday, March 3, 2023 after he was found guilty on all four counts. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
During the closing arguments, Murdaugh’s counsel asserted that law enforcement “failed miserably” during the investigation, as Breitbart News noted:
“We believe that we’ve shown conclusively that (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) failed miserably in investigating this case,” Murdaugh attorney Jim Griffin said. “And had they done a competent job, Alex would have been excluded from that circle (of suspects) a year ago or two years ago.”
However, prosecutor John Meadors took offense to Griffin’s remarks and pushed back against those arguments.
“I find it offensive that the defense… is claiming law enforcement didn’t do their job, while he is withholding and obstructing justice by not saying ‘I was down at the kennels,’” Meadors said.
Murdaugh is facing almost 100 financial crime-related charges, “including fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and forgery, and is accused of stealing more than $8 million and trying to get a man to shoot him in a $10 million life insurance scheme,” CBS News reported.
