Alex Murdaugh was found guilty for the murders of his wife and son Thursday. His sentencing will take place Friday at 9:30 a.m.
The jury brought down the verdict less than three hours after the defense delivered closing arguments Thursday.
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“What a great day for the people of South Carolina,” Attorney General Alan Wilson said at a press conference held after the verdict was read. “Today’s verdict proves that no one, no one, no matter who you are in society, is above the law.”
The verdict concludes a two-year saga filled with investigations into Murdaugh’s life, including millions of dollars in financial misconduct, a drug addiction, and even hired hits that were immortalized in a documentary, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.
“It doesn’t matter who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or people think you have. It doesn’t matter what you think, how prominent you are,” prosecutor Creighton Waters said at the press conference. “If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina.”
The case gained nationwide attention when Murdaugh was indicted in July 2022 given the century-long legal legacy of the Murdaugh family. The indictment came one year after the bodies of Murdaugh’s 22-year-old son, Paul, and 52-year-old wife, Maggie, were discovered in June 2021.
“[They] did not deserve to brutally die at the hands of someone who was supposed to love and protect them,” Wilson said. “Alex Murdaugh’s house of cards, built on the foundation of lies, manipulation, and theft, came crashing down.”
The prosecution presented a heavy case during the 28-day trial. Closing arguments from the prosecution occurred on March 1, and the defense ended the trial with comments on March 2.
Prosecutors entered testimony from 61 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, including cellphone data, videos, and instances of financial misconduct that were set to go public as well as damage Murdaugh’s career just days after the murders took place.
They leaned heavily on his financial wrongdoings, of which he faces 99 charges and 19 indictments, as a motive for the murders. This was a victory for the prosecution after the defense attempted to block testimony regarding the financial crimes.
The defense pointed to insufficient police work, the lack of a murder weapon, and several other pieces of concrete evidence as a case for Murdaugh’s innocence in the murders.
In an unconventional and at points detrimental move, defense attorneys called Murdaugh to the witness stand to testify. On the stand, he wept and adamantly denied killing his wife and son. However, he did admit to lying to investigators about his whereabouts for nearly two years and that his drug addiction to oxycodone drove him to swindle millions of dollars from clients.
Waters warned the jury not to be swayed by Murdaugh’s performance during closing arguments.
“Why would he lie about that, ladies and gentlemen?” Waters said to the jury. “Why would he even think to lie about that if he was an innocent man? He fooled Paul and Maggie, too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you, too.”
An important moment of the case included the jurors’ visit to the Murdaugh estate, Moselle, on March 1. The jury viewed the kennels and shed where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were fatally shot, the former shot five times by a rifle and the latter shot twice by a shotgun.
On Thursday, a female juror was dismissed before the defense’s closing arguments because the court received information that the juror had been sharing her opinion about the case.
She denied the accusation, but after investigators interviewed the accusers, Judge Clifton Newman said the juror had contacted and discussed the case with at least three people.
While the conversation was not extensive, Newman ruled that the juror offered her opinion in some capacity and removed her from the panel and the courtroom. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian surprisingly objected to her removal, prompting speculation that her opinion could have favored the defense.
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While some of the defense witnesses offered suggestions that it may have been a “two-shooter scenario,” the jury ruled in favor of the prosecution, which argued there was only one person who they knew was at the kennels that night.
“[Maggie Murdaugh] heard that shot and was running to her baby when she got mowed down by the only person that we have conclusive proof was at that scene just minutes before,” Waters said.
