Throw Away the Key: Alex Murdaugh Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murdering His Wife and Son

Disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, one day after a jury found him guilty of murdering his wife and son in 2021.


Summary

Disgraced South Carolina ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, one day after a jury found him guilty of murdering his wife and son in 2021.

  • A South Carolina jury found Murdaugh, 54, guilty of two counts of murder for shooting his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at Moselle, the family’s sprawling estate in rural South Carolina, on June 7, 2021.
  • The jury deliberated for less than three hours before delivering the verdict.
  • “Today’s verdict proves that no-one, no matter who you are in society, is above the law,” said South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson after the verdict was announced.
  • Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive life sentences at a Friday morning hearing.

 

reporting from the left side of the aisle

 

  • The New York Times noted one of the crucial pieces of evidence that sealed Murdaugh’s fate was the minute-long Snapchat video his son Paul recorded just minutes before his murder that captured Alex Murdaugh’s voice in the background.
  • CNN covered what happens next for Murdaugh. The convicted murderer was transferred into the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections for processing, which typically takes 45 days. Murdaugh will remain in a holding facility until he is placed in the prison where he will serve his sentence.
  • The Washington Post wrote Murdaugh’s conviction symbolizes “a dynasty broken.” The conviction marks a dramatic turnabout for the family. “For nearly a century, three generations of Murdaughs decided as elected prosecutors who in South Carolina’s Lowcountry walked free and who lived in a cell — a jurisdiction that came to be known to locals as “Murdaugh Country.”

 

 

  • The Wall Street Journal pinpointed two days from the six-week trial that sealed Murdaugh’s fate: his decision to take the stand. Murdaugh hoped his extensive experience in front of juries would help him save his own neck, but the gambit failed spectacularly.
  • “You’ve engaged in such duplicitous conduct here in the courtroom, here on the witness stand and as established by the testimony,” said Judge Newman at the sentencing, per Fox News. “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.”
  • The New York Post reported the remorseless Murdaugh stood emotionless in the courtroom when he was sentenced to life in prison. When given the chance to address the court, Murdaugh still insisted “I’m innocent” and “I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son Paw Paw.”

 


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© Dominic Moore, 2023