Defense attorneys representing Alex Murdaugh wrapped their closing arguments in his double-murder trial Thursday afternoon after six weeks of testimonies, including more than 75 witnesses.
After six weeks of testimony, jurors began deliberating Thursday in the double-murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, a former prominent South Carolina attorney accused of killing his wife and son, after defense attorneys concluded their closing arguments Thursday afternoon by arguing a conviction would “compound a family tragedy.
”... [+]South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman charged the jury with coming to a verdict on two charges of first-degree murder, following closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys. Prosecutors claim Murdaugh murdered his wife and one of his sons in an attempt to conceal his years-long scheme toProsecutors relied on a cell phone video Murdaugh took minutes before the killing that contained his wife and son’s voices in the background, which prosecutors said was taken at the dog kennels of Murdaugh’s South Carolina estate where his son and wife’s dead bodies were found—Murdaugh said he had returned to the house after that video was taken. Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty and denied killing his wife and son, and defense attorney Jim Griffin argued prosecutors have presented"a case built on theories and speculation,” claiming investigators “failed miserably” to take evidence from the crime scene and failed to take DNA samples off Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, or his son Paul’s clothes. Griffin also claimed investigators “fabricated” evidence and that law enforcement was biased against Murdaugh, arguing Murdaugh’s name would have been removed from the list of potential suspects if the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigating the crime had done a “competent job.” Prosecutor Creighton Waters, in his closing statement on Wednesday, argued Murdaugh admitted on the witness stand that he repeatedly misled his clients to steal their money, telling jurors, “Don’t let Murdaugh fool you.” Griffin, however, claimed Murdaugh’s addiction to painkillers caused him to lie when he previously told investigators he had not been at the dog kennels at his rural estate—where his wife and son were found dead—on the night of the shooting until he found their bodies, saying: “he lied because that’s what addicts do. They lie.”Murdaugh, 54, faces a minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted on the first-degree murder counts.Waters called Murdaugh “the kind of person in which shame is an extraordinary provocation,” in his closing argument Wednesday afternoon, arguing Murdaugh’s “ego couldn’t stand that and he became a family annihilator.”
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