Influential American lawyer Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for the murder of his wife and son in 2021, after a trial that revealed the extent of this confiscation of this heir to a large South Carolina family.
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The state has been passionate about the issue for weeks, which has already been the subject of podcasts and documentaries, including one on Netflix.
Before sentencing, Justice Clifton Newman spoke at length to Alex Murdaugh in a calm tone that was even more bitter, saying his lack of understanding in the face of the lawyer’s “duplicity” and lies.
The latter, handcuffed and dressed in a beige prison uniform, again claimed his innocence. His son, Buster, was in the room.
I respect this court, but I am innocent. I will not harm my wife Maggie and (…) my son,” he said.
The judge sentenced him to two life sentences, to be applied one after the other.
On Thursday, jurors in a Walterboro, South Carolina court needed less than three hours to reach their verdict.
Reading the verdict, the judge commented, “The evidence of guilt is overwhelming.”
Alex Murdaugh, 54, has been accused of stealing large sums of money from his law firm, friends and even the son of his housekeeper, and is suspected of shooting his relatives to avoid exposure.
If he confessed to these thefts, which according to him were intended to fuel a costly opioid addiction and to compensate for bad investments, he never admitted to the double murder.
Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his wife, Maggie, 52, and their youngest son, Paul, 22, with two separate handguns on June 7, 2021, in Colleton County, South Carolina, near a shelter on their sprawling property, according to the prosecution. It is called the Moselle, as the men love to hunt wild boar.
Jurors went there on Wednesday to better understand the layout of the building.
The case fascinated the United States, as all the media, including the most serious, dissected the life of this opulent family, which boasts its three generations of district attorneys and judges, as well as the spectacular fall of the father.
Several podcasts have already covered the case, and the documentary “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” is one of the most watched shows on Netflix, with 40 million hours watched in the country last week.
Throughout the trial, news channels aired a show of fraudulent colleagues and friends, who recounted how Alex Mordo stole millions of dollars from them for years without them even realizing it.
