Alex Murdaugh, a disbarred South Carolina attorney jailed for the murders of his wife and son, will appeal his conviction and sentence.
Your defense team filed the motion in the South Carolina Court of Appeals on Thursday, a week after jurors found him guilty of the murders of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh. He was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime after a trial lasting several weeks, which included dozens of witnesses and testimony from Murdaugh himself.
The victims were found dead near a kennel area on the family’s “Moselle” hunting estate on June 7, 2021. Police said both were shot multiple times with different weapons.
Murdaugh received two life sentences for the double murder, despite long maintaining his innocence.
Prosecutors during the murder trial claimed Murdaugh murdered his family members at his Islandton property to distract and delay investigations into his alleged financial crimes. On the stand, Murdaugh confessed to stealing money from his family’s law firm and to an opiate addiction, but denied killing his wife and his youngest child.
“I would never, under any circumstances, hurt my wife Maggie and I would never, under any circumstances, hurt my son Paul-Paul,” he told the judge before his sentencing.
The jury deliberated less than three hours before returning the guilty verdict.
In a separate case, Murdaugh also faces 99 counts of embezzlement, computer crime, money laundering and conspiracy, among others. The charges stem from what prosecutors described as a sweeping plan to defraud his law firm, clients and the government out of around $9.3 million.
He also faces charges in a September 2021 shooting in which he allegedly paid a man to kill him so his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect the life insurance payment.
with cable news services