Alex Murdaugh will be back in court again Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing at a pretrial hearing that will likely be short on substance but long on spectacle as the true crime sensation continues to captivate.
Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The only goals of Monday's hearing are to set deadlines for exchanging evidence between the defense and prosecution, and to figure out dates for other hearings and maybe for the next trial.
Dozens of media outlets, from international agencies to local TV stations to true crime podcasters are heading to the Lexington County courthouse to again chronicle every forehead rub and quizzical look from the once rich and imposing Southern lawyer.
It's a rare chance to see up close how prison life has changed the 58-year-old Murdaugh, who still has decades to serve in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to stealing about $12 million from clients and his family's law firm.
There likely is one other bit of business before the hearing starts at 10 a.m. Monday. Even though he remains in prison, Murdaugh's lawyers want the judge to allow him to wear civilian clothes and not have his wrists or ankles shackled at every hearing and during his retrial.
“Mr. Murdaugh's convictions for non-violent, white-collar crimes in no way justify presenting him to the jury pool as a shackled prisoner in a prison jumpsuit via video cameras at televised pretrial hearings,” defense attorneys wrote in their request.
Murdaugh's attorneys have already filed other pretrial motions. One asks prosecutors to turn over for testing at a private lab DNA found under his wife’s fingernails that investigators said was from an unknown and unrelated man.
Defense lawyers want to provide Murdaugh, who was disbarred during his legal troubles, a laptop in prison without internet access to review evidence so they don’t have to print it all and want to hold the next trial outside of Colleton County where the killings happened and the first trial took place.
While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, liar and bad lawyer, Murdaugh has adamantly denied shooting to death his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, since he found their bodies outside their home in 2021.
A jury convicted him of two counts of murder in 2023 and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
But during that trial, a few jurors said the Colleton County clerk of court, assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, told them to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he testified in his own defense and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.
The state Supreme Court ruled that was a suggestion Murdaugh was guilty and overturned his convictions.
The justices also were concerned that days of testimony at the murder trial centered around how Murdaugh stole from clients, many of them in dire straits.
Brief testimony is fine, but details such as how some of the people Murdaugh stole from were disabled or vulnerable could unfairly turn against him jurors who should be focused just on whether he killed his family, the justices said.
Murdaugh remains in a South Carolina prison as he serves a 40-year federal sentence at the same time as a 27-year state sentence for his financial crimes.
FILE - Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, listens during a hearing on the motion for a retrial, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center, in Columbia, S.C. (Gavin McIntyre/The Post and Courier via AP, Pool, File)
