Alex Murdaugh won’t be released from prison despite having double-murder of wife and son conviction overturned
Alex Murdaugh will remain in prison despite having his convictions for the murder of his wife and son overturned following a unanimous decision from the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Murdaugh, 57, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2023 after being found guilty of the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul, though he had pleaded not guilty and always strongly denied killing them.
A panel of judges overturned those convictions after finding court clerk Becky Hill, who was writing a book about the trial, had 'egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility' to the jurors and influenced their verdict.
As such he will get a new trial for the murder of his wife and son, but the former lawyer will not be leaving prison as he is also serving a 40-year federal sentence after pleading guilty to stealing $12 million from his clients.
Advert
The man has admitted to being a thief, liar, insurance cheat and bad lawyer, but he has denied that he killed his family.
He's also serving a concurrent federal sentence of 27 years for other financial crimes.
The Guardian reports that US district Judge Richard Gergel had sentenced Murdaugh for his financial crimes because he stole from 'the most needy, vulnerable people'.
The clients he stole money from included someone who became a quadriplegic after a crash, a state trooper who had been injured at work and a trust fund set up for children whose parents had been killed in a wreck.
The judge said he had stolen from people who 'placed all their problems and all their hopes' in him, hence why he was sentenced to concurrent 27 and 40 year sentences.
He was also ordered to pay around $9 million in restitution towards those he had stolen from.
Prosecutors had asked for a high sentence as FBI agents thought Murdaugh was not telling the whole truth about what happened to $6 million of the money he stole.
The largest of his schemes he was convicted for involved stealing $4 million in a wrongful death lawsuit relating to his housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
She had died from a fall and he had promised to look after her family, then worked with another lawyer who pleaded guilty to stealing the $4 million.
Investigators found that he took settlement money or inflated fees from over 24 clients.
Having pleaded guilty to those crimes he will not be leaving prison any time soon as he has decades left on his longest sentence, but Murdaugh can expect to face a new trial for his overturned murder convictions.
Topics: True Crime, US News, Crime
Joe Harker