SC prosecutors will seek life sentence, not death penalty, for Alex Murdaugh in murder trial

The South Carolina Attorney General is seeking life without parole for Alex Murdaugh in the killing of his wife and son.

“After carefully reviewing this case and all the surround facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said in statement Tuesday. “Because this is a pending case, we cannot comment further.”

Murdaugh is set to go on trial Jan. 23 on charges he murdered his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, in Colleton County in June 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a statement, Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin said, “We are not surprised but also welcome the decision to not seek the death penalty for Alex Murdaugh. Now there is no impediment for going ahead with the trial scheduled for January 23, when we look forward to evidence, not leaks, determining the outcome.”

Murdaugh is charged with murdering his wife and son the night of June 7, 2021. Paul and Maggie were found near the dog kennels on the family’s sprawling hunting lodge in Colleton County, called Moselle.

Maggie was killed with multiple shots from a high powered rifle. Paul was found dead inside of a closet at the kennels, according to recent court filings. He was killed by close range blasts from a shotgun.

In court, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, with the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, accused Murdaugh of killing his wife and son in a desperate attempt to distract from the looming exposure of his financial crimes.

“What we have realized is that this is a white-collar case that culminated in two murders,” Waters said in a recent court hearing.

Murdaugh currently faces 99 different charges across 19 different indictments. As well as his two murder charges, the disgraced former Hampton County attorney faces a battery of charges for alleged financial crimes. He is accused of stealing millions of dollars from his own clients as well as the law firm founded by his family.

In a Dec. 8 filing in Colleton County, Waters and fellow prosecutor Donald Zelenka argued that they had sufficient evidence of financial wrongdoing to imprison Murdaugh for life. In a footnote to the filing, prosecutors said “the state has informally notified the defense of its intent to seek Murdaugh’s incarceration for the remainder of his life ... in addition to whatever punishment may result from the pending indictments for the murders.”

Both sides spar over motive, evidence

The Dec. 20 announcement from prosecutors comes as both sides are engaged in a rapid fire battle of motions to control what evidence will be allowed into the upcoming trial.

On Tuesday, Murdaugh’s attorney’s attacked the state’s plan to introduce Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes as motive in the killing of Maggie and Paul. They have accused the prosecution of advancing an “illogical” and “absurd” theory that falls short of the strict judicial hurdle that the state must clear to introduce unproven allegations of bad acts into a court hearing.

This comes after Murdaugh gave notice that he intends to prove in court that he has an alibi for the murders. At the time of the killings, Murdaugh said that he was visiting his mother, who has dementia, in nearby Varnville, according to a recent filing.

The defense is also seeking to challenge the validity of a key piece of the prosecution’s evidence that places Murdaugh at the scene: A T-shirt worn by Murdaugh the night of the murders.

Harpootlian and Griffin have alleged that the documents indicating that the prosecution’s blood spatter expert, Tom Bevel, initially drafted a report stating that he found no evidence of blood on the shirt. After a visit from investigators, the defense attorneys allege that Bevel changed his mind. In an email, Bevel said that he was able to use Photoshop to identify blood spatter.

Judge Clifton Newman, who is presiding over the case, ruled in the defense’s favor Monday. His ruling cleared the way for the defense to access documents, including the Photoshop files, and interview key witnesses, such as Bevel.

“We need that information in order to say whether or not that’s voodoo science,” Harpootlian told Newman at a recent hearing.

This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 3:19 PM with the headline "SC prosecutors will seek life sentence, not death penalty, for Alex Murdaugh in murder trial."

Ted Clifford

The State

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Ted Clifford is the statewide accountability reporter at The State Newspaper. Formerly the crime and courts reporter, he has covered the Murdaugh saga, state and federal court, as well as criminal justice and public safety in the Midlands and across South Carolina. He is the recipient of the 2023 award for best beat reporting by the South Carolina Press Association.