South Carolina choose sentences former lawyer to 2 consecutive life sentences for homicide of spouse and son.
A disgraced former lawyer who was convicted of killing his spouse and son after a six-week trial that riveted america has been sentenced to 2 consecutive life sentences.
All through the trial, Alex Murdaugh had mentioned he was not responsible within the June 7, 2021, taking pictures deaths on the household’s sprawling residential and farming compound within the US state of South Carolina.
Decide Clifton Newton on Friday recommended Murdaugh’s opioid habit might have made him “a monster” and that “the particular person standing earlier than me was not the one that dedicated the crime, although it’s the identical particular person.”
Earlier than handing down the sentence, Newton mentioned the murders certified for the demise penalty, however he didn't “query in any respect” the prosecutors’ resolution to not pursue that possibility.
Murdaugh maintained his innocence earlier than sentencing.
“I respect this court docket, however I'm harmless, and I might by no means beneath any circumstances damage my spouse, Maggie, and I might by no means beneath any circumstances damage my son Paw-Paw,” Murdaugh mentioned, utilizing a nickname he used for his son Paul.
Murdaugh is a part of a authorized dynasty. He was sentenced in the identical courtroom on the circuit the place his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried instances as elected prosecutors for greater than 80 years. His grandfather’s portrait hung at the back of the room till the choose ordered it taken down for the trial.
As a substitute of the gown shirt and sport coat he wore via the six-week trial, Murdaugh, who made hundreds of thousands suing massive corporations on behalf of individuals injured in accidents, arrived at court docket in a jail jumpsuit the day after he was convicted of two counts of homicide.
The Colleton County jury deliberated for lower than three hours earlier than discovering Murdaugh responsible of killing his 22-year-old son with a shotgun and his 52-year-old spouse with a rifle.
Juror Craig Moyer advised US broadcaster ABC Information that when deliberations started, the jury instantly took a ballot that got here again with 9 responsible votes. It didn’t take lengthy to influence the opposite three jurors to convict Murdaugh.
The juror agreed with prosecutors that the important thing piece of proof was a video locked on his son’s cellphone for a yr – video shot minutes earlier than the killings on the identical kennels close to the place the our bodies could be discovered.
The voices of all three Murdaughs will be heard on the video though Alex Murdaugh had insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been on the kennels that night time. When he took the stand in his personal defence, the very first thing he did was admit he had lied to investigators about being on the kennels, saying he was paranoid of regulation enforcement as a result of he was an opioid addict with capsules in his pocket the night time of the killings.
“A very good liar. However not adequate,” Moyer mentioned.
Prosecutors didn't have the weapons used to kill the mom and son or different direct proof like confessions or blood spatter. However they'd a mountain of circumstantial proof, together with the video placing Alex Murdaugh on the scene of the killings 5 minutes earlier than his spouse and son stopped utilizing their cellphones without end.
“As appeals are in all probability anticipated, I might not count on a confession of any form,” Newton mentioned on Friday.
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