Ex-lawyer found guilty of killing wife and son has murder convictions overturned | US News

A former lawyer who was found guilty of killing his wife and son has had his murder convictions overturned by a US court and will now face a retrial.

Alex Murdaugh, 57, was given two consecutive life sentences in March 2023 after being convicted over the deaths of Margaret Murdaugh and their younger son Paul Murdaugh.

In a case that drew widespread attention, he was found guilty of fatally shooting his 52-year-old wife with a rifle outside dog kennels on their rural Colleton County property in South Carolina on 7 June 2021.

He was also convicted of shooting 22-year-old Paul twice with a shotgun on the same day.

Murdaugh, who found the two bodies outside their home, denied the charges.

But the convictions have now been overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court and ordered a retrial, which prosecutors say will take place.

In a unanimous ruling, the justices said on Wednesday that Murdaugh was denied a fair trial because of the “improper external influences on the jury” by the then clerk of Colleton County Court, Becky Hill.

She “placed her fingers on the scales of justice”, the court wrote, accusing her of “shocking” interference by suggesting to jurors they could not trust Murdaugh’s testimony.

The justices also said the trial judge went too far in allowing evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes into his murder trial.

Prosecutors had said the lawyer carried out the killings in an effort to distract from the fact he had been stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients to feed his drug habit.

But the new ruling does not mean Murdaugh will walk free from prison.

He is currently serving a 40-year federal sentence after pleading guilty to stealing around $12m (£8.8m) from his clients.

The justices ruled Hill, who oversaw the evidence and the jury during the trial, influenced jurors to find Murdaugh guilty.

She allegedly hoped to improve sales of a book – Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders – that she was writing about the case.

It was pulled from publication after accusations of plagiarism.

“As her book’s title suggests, it turns out Hill was quite busy behind the doors of justice, thwarting the integrity of the justice system she was sworn to protect and uphold,” the justices wrote in a 27-page ruling.

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Hill pleaded guilty last year to criminal charges for showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court. She was sentenced to a year of probation.

“There is no excuse for the mistakes I made. I’m ashamed of them,” Hill said in a statement to the court.

The sprawling legal drama has been adapted into podcasts, books, and a TV miniseries. There has also been a docuseries on the case.