State of South Carolina v. Richard Alexander Murdaugh was the trial of American former lawyer Alex Murdaugh for the murder 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.
![](https://cher19994861.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1-000-000-00-alex-murdaugh.jpg?w=808)
A former lawyer found guilty of murdering his wife and son in a high-profile trial that gripped America will “spend the rest of his natural life” in prison.
Alex Murdaugh took the stand in his own defence to unsuccessfully plead with the jury to find him not guilty.
His televised trial heard claims of corruption, opioid abuse, and a failed hitman suicide plot.
Here’s what to know about the case.
What did Alex Murdaugh do?
A veteran personal injury attorney, Alex Murdaugh, 54, was heir to a legal dynasty that has held sway over South Carolina’s Lowcountry region for over a century.
On 7 June 2021, he reported finding his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, dead near the dog kennels on the family’s sprawling estate.
No arrests were made for more than a year, but Murdaugh was indicted last July on two counts of murder and possession of a weapon while committing a violent crime.
![](https://cher19994861.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1-000-000-00-alex-murdaugh-11.jpg?w=805)
He insisted he was not involved in the deaths, but state prosecutors argued he shot the pair at close range with a rifle and shotgun.
After less than three hours, a jury found him guilty on all charges.
He now faces 30 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.
“The Murdaugh name is an extremely big name in the area,” said Susan Williams, a local criminal defence attorney not involved in the trial. “This is the biggest case that I’ve ever seen [here] in my lifetime.”
What did the prosecution say?
The convicted murderer is separately facing a wave of financial charges, including allegations he embezzled millions from the family-founded law firm at which he was a partner.
Prosecutors said in court that he murdered his wife and son to distract from his misdeeds and gain sympathy.
![](https://cher19994861.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1-000-000-00-murdaugh-mother-son-1.jpg?w=807)
They called more than 60 witnesses over four weeks in an effort to poke holes in Murdaugh’s alibi and expose numerous inconsistencies in his version of events.
Investigators never found a murder weapon, but the prosecution built its case using circumstantial evidence including mobile phone data and gunshot residue.
“After an exhaustive investigation, there is only one person who had the motive, who had the means, who had the opportunity to commit these crimes, and also whose guilty conduct after these crimes betrays him,” lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said in his closing arguments.
Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence was a video taken by Paul at the dog kennels minutes before he died, in which Murdaugh can be heard in the background. For 20 months after the murders, Murdaugh insisted he had not been at the kennels that night before admitting at trial he had lied.
Murdaugh “lies convincingly and easily and he can do it as a drop of a hat,” Mr Waters said.
What did the defendant say?
Attorneys for Murdaugh maintained that their client was a loving husband and father who fell victim to sloppy law enforcement work.
Buster, Murdaugh’s surviving son and the defence’s first witness, testified that his father was “destroyed” and “heartbroken” after the killings.
![](https://cher19994861.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1-000-000-00-alex-murdaugh-2.jpg?w=803)