Alex Murdaugh's murder trial, its overturned verdict and his coming retrial

The murder case came to trial in 2023. Murdaugh was indicted in July 2022 on charges of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, who were shot dead in 2021, and he pleaded not guilty.^[12][13] Prosecutors said he killed them to escape accountability for financial crimes, and they did not seek the death penalty.^[14][15] At his trial, which began in January 2023, jurors heard evidence of his financial crimes, and Murdaugh testified in his own defense.^[16][17] In March he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.^[1]

The conviction then unraveled over the court clerk. In September 2023, his lawyers sought a new trial, accusing the county court clerk, Becky Hill, of tampering with the jury.^[18][19] A judge denied the request in January 2024, and Hill resigned that March.^[20][21] The South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal,^[22] and Hill later pleaded guilty to showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it.^[23] In May 2026 the court unanimously overturned the convictions, saying the clerk's conduct had "egregiously attacked" Murdaugh's credibility with jurors.^[2] Prosecutors could seek the death penalty at a retrial.^[24]

In August, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit in which Murdaugh sought $600,000 in legal fees from Hill.^[25] The retrial, expected in April 2027, was moved out of the circuit and later set for Sumter County.^[26][3] In the fall, his lawyers accused prosecutors of withholding a witness statement alleging that a police chief had handled the murder weapons.^[27][28] In November, Murdaugh's lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the indictments, arguing that prosecutors obtained them with false and misleading evidence.^[29]