Alex Murdaugh’s true crime saga continues as he heads to court for hearing on murder retrial

LEXINGTON, South Carolina (AP) — Alex Murdaugh was back in court again Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing at a pretrial hearing that will likely be short on substance but long on spectacle as the true crime sensation continues to captivate.

Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The only goals of Monday’s hearing are to set deadlines for exchanging evidence between the defense and prosecution, and to figure out dates for other hearings and maybe for the next trial.

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Dozens of media outlets, from international agencies to local TV stations to true crime podcasters, were inside the Lexington County courthouse to again chronicle every forehead rub and quizzical look from the once rich and imposing Southern lawyer.

“I see we have a full house,” Judge Debra R. McCaslin said.

It’s a rare chance to see up close how life behind bars has changed the 58-year-old Murdaugh, who still has decades to serve in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to stealing about $12 million from clients and his family’s law firm.

Prosecutors said Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie and younger son Paul, 22, because he believed sympathy over their deaths would buy him time to fix his problems. At that point, his financial crimes were close to being exposed by his law firm and the family of a teen who filed a wrongful death lawsuit after Paul crashed a boat while drinking.

Although he remains in prison, Murdaugh’s lawyers want the judge to allow him to wear civilian clothes and not have his wrists or ankles shackled at every hearing and during his retrial. He appeared in court Monday in an orange prison jumpsuit, listening with his mouth fixed in a tight line.

“Mr. Murdaugh’s convictions for non-violent, white-collar crimes in no way justify presenting him to the jury pool as a shackled prisoner in a prison jumpsuit via video cameras at televised pretrial hearings,” defense attorneys wrote in their request.

Defense lawyer want to provide Murdaugh, who was disbarred during his legal troubles, a laptop in prison without internet access to review evidence so they don’t have to print and deliver it all. Attorney Dick Harpootlian said Monday there are more than 20,000 pages of documents.

“Well surely, Mr. Harpootlian, he reviewed those before his first trial, did he not?” the judge asked.

“Five years ago,” the lawyer replied.

Another pretrial motion asks prosecutors to turn over DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails for testing at a private lab. Investigators said it was from an unknown and unrelated man. The defense also wants to hold the next trial outside of Colleton County, where the killings happened and the first trial took place.

While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, liar and bad lawyer, Murdaugh has adamantly denied shooting to death his wife and son since he said he found their bodies outside their home in 2021.

A jury convicted him of two counts of murder in 2023 and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

But during that trial, a few jurors said the Colleton County clerk of court, assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, told them to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he testified in his own defense and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.

The state Supreme Court ruled that was a suggestion Murdaugh was guilty and overturned his convictions.

The justices were also concerned that days of testimony at the murder trial centered around how Murdaugh stole from clients, many of them in dire straits.

Brief testimony is fine, but details such as how some of the people Murdaugh stole from were disabled or vulnerable could unfairly turn against him jurors who should be focused just on whether he killed his family, the justices said.

Murdaugh remains in a South Carolina prison as he serves a 40-year federal sentence at the same time as a 27-year state sentence for his financial crimes.