Alex Murdaugh faces the harsh reality tonight of spending the rest of his life behind bars in a state prison surrounded by the country’s most violent offenders.
The disgraced legal scion appeared with a shaved head in a yellow jumpsuit after being booked Friday at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in South Carolina.
Murdaugh was previously sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murder of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, at their sprawling Moselle hunting estate on the night of June 7, 2021.
He will spend the next several weeks at the R&E facility, where he will undergo rigorous testing before being assigned to a permanent state prison. Because he is a double murderer, he will be housed with the most brutal and violent inmates in the state.
The life he faces is a far cry from the privileged world of multi-million dollar homes, from the coast to the hunting grounds of the Lowlands, to which he has grown accustomed in his 54 years.
Alex Murdaugh is pictured in a new mugshot with a shaved head and wearing a yellow jumpsuit after being booked Friday night at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in South Carolina
Kirkland Correctional Center will be Murdaugh’s grim new home for the next few weeks as he is assessed where he should be sent permanently
Alex Murdaugh with wife Maggie and their sons Buster (left) and Paul (right)
“As part of the intake process, (Murdaugh), like all inmates, will undergo medical tests, mental health and educational assessments, and the South Carolina Department of Corrections will collect other additional background information,” the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a statement. .
After the evaluation, Murdaugh will be sent to one of the state’s highest security prisons to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Kirkland is home to more than 1,700 of the most violent criminals in the state and puts more than 8,000 inmates through for evaluation each year.
In addition to processing all of the state’s convicts, it is also home to a specialized maximum security prison for the most dangerous and violent offenders.
Adjacent to the prison is the Broad River Correctional Institution, which houses both heavy and intermediate inmates.
Between 2015 and 2021, more than 700 inmates died in South Carolina jails and prisons. The majority of those deaths occurred in Kirkland (160) and Broad River (101).
“Kirkland is also responsible for the maximum security unit that houses some of the most violent and dangerous inmates in the state,” the site’s website says.
“In addition, the Kirkland Correctional Center houses inmates who are in the state’s protective custody program.”
Trial attorney Robert Rikard tweeted last night ahead of Murdaugh’s sentencing, “Tomorrow will be a very different day for Murdaugh. After his conviction instead of going to county jail, he goes to reception and evaluation on Broad River Rd.
“They will shave his head and put him through a series of tests that will take vet weeks.
“Then he will be assigned to an SC Department of Corrections facility. Being convicted of a violent crime, he goes to an institution that houses only the violent criminals. The worst of the worst.
“It will be a very different scene from the county jail. These are brutal environments and it will come as quite a shock after the privileged life he has led.”
Alex Murdaugh is led out of the courthouse into a waiting prison van to begin his life sentence
Murdaugh leaves the courthouse on Friday in a Colleton County Jail jumpsuit
Judge Clifton Newman has previously issued a searing conviction, describing Murdaugh as a “monster” who continued to lie even when the evidence was damning.
“This case qualifies under our death penalty statute based on the legal aggravating circumstances of two or more people murdered by the defendant by a single act or under a single plan or course of action. I have no doubt at all about the state’s decision not to carry out the death penalty.
“But as I sit here in this courtroom looking around at the many portraits of judges and other court officials and reflecting on the fact that over the past century your family, including you, have prosecuted people here in this courtroom and many have received the death penalty, probably for less behavior.
“Remind me of the phrase you used on the witness stand. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. What do you mean?’
“I meant when I lied, I kept lying,” Murdaugh replied.
And the question is when will it end? When will it end? And for the jury it is already over, because they have concluded that you continue to lie and lie during your testimony. And maybe with all the crowd of people here, for the most part they all either believe 80, 90% or 99% believe that you are now continuing to lie when you present your denial to the court.”
Prosecutor Creighton Waters said none of the crime victims — members of Murdaugh’s family and his wife’s parents and relatives — would speak for the prosecution before issuing a conviction.
“The depravity, callousness and selfishness of these crimes are astounding. The lack of remorse and the effortless manner in which he sits on this witness stand, even here, there—Your Honor, such a man, a man as this man, should never be among free, lawful… loyal citizens,” Waters said.
He met his fate in the same circuit courtroom where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather served as elected prosecutors for more than 80 years.
His grandfather’s portrait hung in the back of the room until the judge ordered it removed before trial.
Instead of the smart clothes he wore during the six-week trial, the lawyer who made millions suing big corporations on behalf of people injured in car accidents arrived in New York City the day after he was convicted of two murders. a prison suit.
Through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence, the jurors learned about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s failed attempt to fake his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boating accident involving his son, the housekeeper who died in a fall into Murdaugh’s house and the gruesome scene of the murders.
Murdaugh spoke briefly, telling the judge, “I am innocent. I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paul Paul.” He was sentenced to life in prison
Judge Clifton Newman gave a sharp assessment of Murdaugh’s “duplicity”; character
The lawyer admitted to stealing millions of dollars from the family business and clients and said he needed the money to fund his drug use.
Before being charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.
For a century, the Murdaughs dominated the legal scene in neighboring Hampton County. Another brother remains in the large law firm the family founded a century ago.
Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster testified for the defense and stood behind him in the courtroom every day of the trial.
Juror Craig Moyer told ABC News that when deliberations began, the jury immediately conducted a poll that came back with nine guilty votes. It didn’t take long to convince the other three.
The juror agreed with prosecutors that the key piece of evidence was a video stored on his son’s cell phone for a year — videotaped minutes before the murders in the same kennels near where the bodies would be found.
The voices of all three Murdaughs can be heard on the video, even though Alex Murdaugh has insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been in the kennel that night.
When he testified in his own defense, the first thing he did was admit that he lied to investigators about being in the kennels, saying he was paranoid about law enforcement because he was addicted to opioids and pills in his pocket on the night of the murders.
‘A good liar. But not good enough,” Moyer said.
Prosecutors did not have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence such as confessions or blood spatter.
But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including the video that placed Murdaugh at the scene of the murders five minutes before his wife and son stopped using their cell phones forever.
While testifying last week, Murdaugh appeared to cry as he repeatedly denied killing his wife. But Mr. Moyer said he saw through another lie.
‘He never cried. All he did was blow snot,” Moyer said. ‘No tears. I saw his eyes. I was so close to him.’
