{"id":558907,"date":"2023-03-03T05:34:51","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T02:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/"},"modified":"2023-03-03T05:34:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T02:34:51","slug":"five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/","title":{"rendered":"#Five things to know about the Murdaugh trial ahead of sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a4125fd8db89\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a4125fd8db89\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/#Five_things_to_know_about_the_Murdaugh_trial_ahead_of_sentencing\" >Five things to know about the Murdaugh trial ahead of sentencing<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/#What_happened_at_the_kennels\" >What happened at the kennels<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/#Murdaughs_shifting_stories_are_key\" >Murdaugh\u2019s shifting stories are key<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/#Murdaugh_testifies_in_his_own_defense\" >Murdaugh testifies in his own defense<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/#Lack_of_physical_evidence\" >Lack of physical evidence<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/#Jurors_replaced_trial_briefly_interrupted\" >Jurors replaced; trial briefly interrupted<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Five_things_to_know_about_the_Murdaugh_trial_ahead_of_sentencing\"><\/span>Five things to know about the Murdaugh trial ahead of sentencing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/AP23061786996170-e1677810385324.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife and son after a multi-week double murder trial culminated in just a few hours of jury deliberations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh, 54, killed his wife Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22, on their rural Colleton County property back in June 2021 to distract from his financial woes after he stole millions from legal clients.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>He pleaded not guilty in 2022, and his defense countered that the investigation was poorly conducted and evidence was misrepresented amid eagerness to convict him for the murders.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Found guilty of the two murders and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, Murdaugh now faces 30 years to life in prison for each of the murder charges. He\u2019s set to be sentenced Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what to know about the trial ahead of sentencing:<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_happened_at_the_kennels\"><\/span><strong>What happened at the kennels<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Murdaugh told authorities he returned to his Colleton County home in June 2021 after a visit with his ailing mother to find his wife and son dead outside dog kennels on the property. <\/p>\n<p>Investigators said Maggie Murdaugh was shot four or five times with a rifle, and Paul Murdaugh was shot twice with a shotgun.<\/p>\n<p>Murdaugh has consistently denied that he committed the murders, but admitted during the trial to lying initially to investigators about when he last saw his family alive, conceding that he was with his wife and son at the kennels shortly before he left to visit his mother. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>He reportedly blamed the lie, which he kept up for nearly two years, on opioid addiction.<\/p>\n<p>Jurors made a rare visit on Wednesday to the Murdaugh estate where the two murders took place to get a three-dimensional picture of the crime scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Murdaughs_shifting_stories_are_key\"><\/span><strong>Murdaugh\u2019s shifting stories are key<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Murdaugh\u2019s shifting narrative of the fateful June 2021 night was central to the prosecution\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>In the wake of the killings, Murdaugh told investigators that he had not been near the kennels prior to discovering the bodies of his wife and son that night. <\/p>\n<p>However, a video recovered from Paul Murdaugh\u2019s phone <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eared to place Alex Murdaugh at the kennels with his wife and son shortly before 9 p.m. Several minutes later, both victims\u2019 phones stopped being used.<\/p>\n<p>While he admitted to lying to investigators about his whereabouts shortly after taking the stand last week, he has maintained that he did not kill his family members.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Prosecutors pointed to Murdaugh\u2019s inconsistency in stories in their closing argument, claiming that they \u201ccorroborated that he\u2019s a liar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe corroborated the fact that he doesn\u2019t tell the truth,\u201d prosecutor John Meadors said, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/us\/live-news\/murdaugh-trial-closing-arguments-03-02-23\/index.html\">per CNN<\/a>. \u201cYou don\u2019t lie and misremember being at the scene of a murder when you said you weren\u2019t even there, or being at the scene where your family was brutally murdered. You don\u2019t lie about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not a mistake,\u201d Meadors added.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Murdaugh_testifies_in_his_own_defense\"><\/span><strong>Murdaugh testifies in his own defense<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Alex Murdaugh took the witness stand during trial to testify in his own defense, a move legal experts <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/02\/26\/us\/alex-murdaugh-testimony-legal-experts\/index.html\">noted as risky<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He admitted in court to lying to police and confessed to stealing funds from his legal clients \u2014 but continued to assert he had nothing to do with the deaths of his wife and son.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On top of the murder and weapons charges in the current case, Alex Murdaugh faces some 100 charges of financial and other crimes, most of which were brought beforehand, including tax evasion and money laundering.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Lack_of_physical_evidence\"><\/span><strong>Lack of physical evidence<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Physical evidence brought forth in the Alex Murdaugh case and trial was lacking. Notably, the shotgun and rifle allegedly used in the killings were not found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorneys drew attention to what they said was a shoddy investigation, arguing that investigators didn\u2019t properly collect blood and fingerprint evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors, on the other hand, pieced together their case with witness testimony, telephone calls and other evidence.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jurors_replaced_trial_briefly_interrupted\"><\/span><strong>Jurors replaced; trial briefly interrupted<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The judge overseeing the case, Clifton Newman, excused a juror from the 12-person panel just before closing arguments on Thursday over allegations that she\u2019d talked about the trial with people outside of the courtroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Asked if she\u2019d left anything behind in the jury room, the juror responded that she\u2019d need to retrieve a purse, a bottle of water and a dozen eggs.<\/p>\n<p>Five jurors had to be replaced throughout the six-week trial.<\/p>\n<p>NBC <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> also reported that the trial was put on pause temporarily and the courtroom was evacuated after <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/alex-murdaugh-trial-halted-courthouse-evacuated-bomb-threat-rcna69739\">a bomb threat<\/a> was called into the Colleton County Courthouse early last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The jury began deliberations on Thursday and reached a guilty verdict on all counts just hours later, by 8 p.m. that evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Julia Shapero contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/3882042-five-things-to-know-about-the-murdaugh-trial-ahead-of-sentencing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five things to know about the Murdaugh trial ahead of sentencing Disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife and son after a multi-week double murder trial culminated in just a few hours of jury deliberations.\u00a0 Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh, 54, killed his wife Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22, on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":558908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/AP23061786996170-e1677810385324.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[137029,140816,134353,134661,134420,90482,71008,134345,75655,140817],"class_list":["post-558907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alex-murdaugh","tag-alex-murdaugh-trial","tag-court-battles","tag-energy-environment","tag-equilibrium-sustainability","tag-house","tag-sentencing","tag-state-watch","tag-trial","tag-verdict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}