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Alex Murdaugh (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Alex Murdaugh first earned national attention after getting shot in the head while changing a tire. Had the tire been slashed? Was this a setup? Could it be connected to the murder of his wife and one of his sons months earlier?
Then the alleged hitman said he didn’t shoot — though he said Murdaugh asked him to. Then all the embezzlement, money laundering, insurance plot, oxy dealing stuff. After a trial where Murdaugh’s lawyer pointed a gun at the prosecutor and said, “tempting,” the jury convicted Murdaugh of the family murders.
Now that same lawyer has a strategy to get Murdaugh a new trial:
“That jury had heard almost three weeks of evidence not related to the murder, but to the financial crimes, which he’s always admitted to,” attorney Dick Harpootlian told Fox News Digital at CrimeCon 2023 in Orlando. “But we believe it so prejudiced them that when we put the forensic evidence in, which is very, very strong for his innocence, acquittal, they didn’t hear it.”
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but we used to call the testimony about those financial crimes: “motive.” And it’s certainly troubling if a prosecution larders up a case with circumstantial evidence of bad acts and leans on a jury to jump to conclusions, but the whole case is about Murdaugh killing his family because of the financial mess he was in. It’s not the prosecution’s fault that establishing all the pecuniary shenanigans took weeks.
Maybe the government laid it on too thick, but it’s hard to imagine a new trial over this.
Also “CrimeCon 2023” is a true crime festival. Probably not adding a lot of credibility to your cause to show up at a conference split between tabloid junkies and conspiracy theorists unless his Hail Mary is to get Charles, Oliver, and Mabel to bail his client out.
Alex Murdaugh’s lawyer says jurors heard weeks of unrelated evidence as defense seeks new trial [Fox News]
Earlier: South Carolina Attorney Indicted For Murder Of Wife And Son On Top Of The ‘Embezzlement, Money Laundering, Hitman, Insurance Plot, Oxy’ Stuff
South Carolina Lawyer Murder Story Keeps Getting Crazier
Lawyer Shot In The Head Now Suspended From Practice
Lawyer Shot… By Hitman… He Hired… Who Didn’t Really Shoot Him?… Now Arrested For ANOTHER Death
Family Law Firm Rebranding After The Whole ‘Embezzlement, Hitman, Insurance Plot Thing’
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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