Over the past nearly six weeks, the jury has heard from over 60 witnesses called by state prosecutors, who have argued that Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain sympathy and distract from his financial problems.
Alex Murdaugh's defense attorneys are delivering their closing arguments in his murder trial on Thursday as they seek to raise reasonable doubt about whether he killed his wife and son in 2021.
In their telling, the motive was Murdaugh's attempt to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. The means were two family-owned weapons, prosecutors argued. And the opportunity was Murdaugh's presence at the crime scene, as revealed in a pivotal video and confirmed by his own testimony, minutes before the murders.
The prosecution's focus on Murdaugh's financial motive and lies underscores the lack of any direct evidence, such as a murder weapon, bloody clothing or eyewitnesses, that connects Murdaugh to the killings. Instead, they have hinged their case on circumstantial evidence, including the consequential video placing Murdaugh at the crime scene that night.
The stranger-than-fiction case has brought national attention -- including Netflix and HBO Max documentaries -- on Alex Murdaugh, the former personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina's Lowcountry, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as the local prosecutor consecutively from 1920 to 2006.
For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021. Murdaugh had long denied that he went to the kennels that night, but a video taken on Paul's phone at 8:44 p.m. includes audio of Murdaugh's voice in the background. After about a dozen friends and family members identified his voice on the video, Murdaugh took the stand and admitted he was there and that he he'd lied to police.
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