Nervous Alex Murdaugh jitters in his chair as new trial date is set after double murder conviction was sensationally overturned

Disgraced legal dynasty heir Alex Murdaugh looked nervous as he appeared in court for the first time since his murder convictions were overturned and he was granted a second trial for the slayings of his wife and son.

Inside Lexington County Court on Monday, Murdaugh sported an orange prison jumpsuit as lawyers argued over evidence for the new trial over the double murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Prosecutors insisted they provided all evidence to the defense, but Murdaugh’s lawyers proposed potential issues with evidence collected at the scene. 

‘We don’t know what we don’t know,’ said Murdaugh’s defense attorney Dick Harpootlian. ‘We don’t have what we don’t have.’

The defense also requested to retest DNA found under Maggie’s fingernail, which prosecutors called ‘a bit of a red herring.’

‘We don’t think it’s a red herring, we think it’s very important,’ Murdaugh’s lawyer Jim Griffin said.

Judge Debra R McCaslin set Murdaugh’s double murder trial date for April 5.

Murdaugh’s lawyers asked the judge to allow him to wear civilian clothes during the retrial, and she said she will consider it.

Murdaugh’s 2023 murder trial was the capstone to a spectacular fall from grace for the heir to a powerful legal dynasty that had dominated South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit for almost a century.

On June 7, 2021, his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, were shot dead at the dog kennels on the family’s sprawling 1,700-acre Moselle estate in Islandton, South Carolina.

The double murders went on to expose an unraveling web of crimes and scandals circling the now-57-year-old disgraced attorney, including multi-million-dollar fraud schemes, a botched hitman plot and links to several other mysterious deaths.

Murdaugh was charged with the murders and went on trial in the spring of 2023.

For six weeks, the Lowcountry’s so-called ‘trial of the century’ transfixed the nation, with thousands of spectators flocking to the small courthouse in Colleton County while the rest of the nation tuned in to watch proceedings gavel-to-gavel live on TV.

Murdaugh was convicted of the murders but continues to claim his innocence to this day.

In May, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his convictions and ordered a second trial, after finding that Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial was violated because then-Colleton County Court Clerk Becky Hill tampered with the jury.

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, Murdaugh’s lawyers had asked the judge to allow the convicted felon to appear unshackled and in civilian clothes both then and at his upcoming court dates.

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office quickly pushed back, saying in a court filing that Murdaugh ‘thinks he is special’ but should be treated the same as any other inmate.

Murdaugh’s legal team swiftly withdrew their motion, accusing the state of trying to create a ‘public spectacle’ and saying they did not want a fight over ‘optics’ to distract from other issues before the court.

The defense has already filed several motions seeking the testing of DNA evidence found under Maggie’s fingernails and requesting a change in venue for his second trial.

Attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin claim that DNA from an unknown, unrelated man was found under Maggie’s left-hand fingernails but was never tested during the original investigation.

In the motion, they asked the court to order the state to hand over this DNA evidence – which was described as ‘crucial to the defense’ – so that they can send it to genetic genealogy lab Othram for testing. Such testing by the private lab can take ‘considerable time,’ the defense argued, meaning a rush order is needed to get the process in motion.

The defense also asked for the trial to be moved far away from Colleton County where Murdaugh’s first trial took place – and where Hill, the person whose actions prompted the retrial, worked as the elected clerk of court.

Murdaugh’s attorneys argued that the intense spotlight on the case in the local areas means that he would not be able to receive a fair and impartial trial there.

‘This is among the most heavily publicized criminal prosecutions in the history of this state. For years, Defendant, his family, and the law firm with which his family was associated for generations have been the subject of saturating, sensational and continuous media coverage,’ they wrote.

As well as Colleton County, Murdaugh’s team also want to exclude the other four counties that make up South Carolina’s 14th Judicial Circuit – Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper – ‘where the Murdaugh name has been synonymous with the local legal system for nearly a century, where the population is small and interconnected and where the very documentaries, books and films that have shaped public opinion were researched, filmed, and produced.’

Three generations of the Murdaugh family held the position of elected 14th Circuit Solicitor for 86 years from 1920 until 2006, when his father Randy stood down from the role.

While the judge will likely rule on those matters after the prosecution files its responses, Murdaugh’s second trial is already shaping up to look somewhat different to the first.

As part of the state Supreme Court’s ruling, the justices ruled that the scope of evidence related to Murdaugh’s financial crimes should be more limited a second time around.

During the first trial, jurors had heard from multiple law firm colleagues, clients and close friends of Murdaugh who testified that he had stolen millions of dollars from them.

He would later plead guilty to a string of state and federal financial crimes and was handed 27-year and 40-year sentences.

This financial crime evidence played a crucial part in laying out the prosecution’s motive for the double homicide.

Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh’s financial crimes were on the brink of being exposed and so he murdered his wife and son to distract from his growing problems.

His law firm partners had confronted him about missing money on the morning of the murders. And his finances were coming under intense scrutiny in a lawsuit brought by the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old girl killed in a boat crash caused by Paul.

A hearing in the suit was set for three days after the murders.

A damning cell phone video captured by Paul moments before his death and car data were also key evidence in the state’s case – used to prove that Murdaugh lied about his alibi and that he was at the crime scene around the time the murders took place.

Following the murders, other mysterious deaths tied to the prominent family also fell under the spotlight.

In 2019, Paul was charged with causing a boat crash that resulted in the death of his friend, 19-year-old Mallory Beach, and was awaiting trial at the time of his murder.

Prior to this, the family’s housekeeper Gloria Satterfield died in a mysterious trip-and-fall accident at the Murdaugh estate.

The family’s name was also linked, without any evidence, to an unsolved homicide of gay teen Stephen Smith in 2015.

Three months after the murders, Murdaugh then allegedly tried to hire a hitman, his distant cousin, Curtis ‘Cousin Eddie’ Smith, to stage his own botched shooting in order to secure a life insurance windfall for his surviving son Buster.

Murdaugh remains behind bars in a maximum security prison in South Carolina where he is serving his sentences for his financial crimes.

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