Alex Murdaugh Wins a New Trial — and Reopens a Question About the Verdict
A South Carolina court has granted the disgraced attorney a new trial three years after his conviction for the murders of his wife and son. The decision turns less on guilt than on what jurors were allowed to hear — and from whom.
An order issued Thursday morning grants Alex Murdaugh, the former South Carolina lawyer convicted in 2023 of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul, a new trial. The grounds, summarised in court papers, centre on alleged jury tampering by a former county clerk and on conduct surrounding the original proceedings.
The decision does not disturb the underlying evidentiary record assembled by prosecutors. It does compel the state to put that record before a new panel — one that will hear it without the procedural shadow that has hung over the original verdict since shortly after it was returned.
Prosecutors said they will retry the case. The defence said it expects, this time, an acquittal. Both statements were predictable. The harder question is what a second trial does to a small Lowcountry town that thought it was finished with this one.
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