Alex Murdaugh

[Jarhead0331]

Is anyone else following this trial? It's another riveting case and trial being aired in its entirety on Court TV.

Alex Murdaugh was a wealthy lawyer from a very prominent legal family in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Apparently, he had an decades long opioid addiction that led to him stealing millions from his law firm, partners and clients. His financial schemes started to unravel after his son Paul was involved in a boating accident that injured several and resulted in one fatality. The boat belonged to Alex and when he was sued by the estate of the decedent, they started investigating his finances and it all started to fall apart. Eventually, there was a botched attempt on his life that turned out to be something he planned and then not long after that, his son Paul and wife Maggie were brutally murdered at one of their sprawling hunting estate properties. His son was shot twice with a shotgun, nearly blowing his head off and his wife appears to have been murdered with an AR-style assault weapon of some kind. Needless to say, he's been charged with the murder and some of the testimony of witnesses is breathtaking. If you're into real life legal drama, you can't get much more fascinating than this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murdaugh_family

[Sir Slash]

I've been keeping-up. Interesting trial.

[Sir Slash]

Looks like the Prosecution will wrap-up it's case today. Not really sure if they've landed any knock-out blows.

[Jarhead0331]

It's a tough case to prosecute. Very little physical evidence associated with Alex. Much of the damaging testimony pertains to his financial crimes. It was a big ruling today when the judge rejected the State's request to introduce testimony of the falsified roadside murder attempt.

[CptHowdy]

motive for murdering his son and daughter-in-law? havent followed this case so no clue what he has to gain from murdering them. trying to make it look like his family has been targeted? they knew of his financial crimes?

[Sir Slash]

Supposedly it was to distract prosecution of him for his alleged financial crimes. I would think the kind of Defense Attorney he can afford wouldn't have too hard a time shooting holes all through the case against him. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Con]

Found guilty

Jury deliberated for about 6 hours. I am surprised I thought the Defense Put up some good arguments.

[Jarhead0331]

Found guilty

Jury deliberated for about 6 hours. I am surprised I thought the Defense Put up some good arguments.

They deliberated for 2 hours and 53 minutes. Six week trial and guilty verdict in less than 3 hours. Amazing.

My take is that he did it, although I can't really see the motive. However, it is much less clear to me whether the State actually met its burden to establish guilt.

[Con]

Found guilty

Jury deliberated for about 6 hours. I am surprised I thought the Defense Put up some good arguments.

They deliberated for 2 hours and 53 minutes. Six week trial and guilty verdict in less than 3 hours. Amazing.

My take is that he did it, although I can't really see the motive. However, it is much less clear to me whether the State actually met its burden to establish guilt.

I meant to say 3
I thought the defense had put plausible motive with him being involved with sketchy people and drugs but the vigilante motive seemed weak.

[Jarhead0331]

Found guilty

Jury deliberated for about 6 hours. I am surprised I thought the Defense Put up some good arguments.

They deliberated for 2 hours and 53 minutes. Six week trial and guilty verdict in less than 3 hours. Amazing.

My take is that he did it, although I can't really see the motive. However, it is much less clear to me whether the State actually met its burden to establish guilt.

I meant to say 3
I thought the defense had put plausible motive with him being involved with sketchy people and drugs but the vigilante motive seemed weak.

No. You're mixing it up.

Motive means Alex's reason for committing the murders. It is the burden of the prosecution to establish motive. Alex's defense was that the State did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the murders and one prong of this was that they did not prove motive. The defense team argued, without any evidence, that it could have been people angry at Paul for the boat wreck (ie. vigilantes) or people involved in the drug trade that Paul attempted to confront after he discovered his father's addiction. Both very weak defenses, but no weaker really than the prosecution's theory on Alex's motive.

[Gusington]

When is sentencing?

[Jarhead0331]

When is sentencing?

Tomorrow morning at 0930.

[Tripoli]

My take on it was that Murdaugh sunk himself by testifying.  He might have been able to get a hung jury based only on the state's case, but when he testified his lying (at least I thought he was lying) gave any wavering jury members something to hang a guilty verdict on.

[Sir Slash]

I agree. When he had to admit he lied about being in the video shot just before the murders were committed, it sunk his case with the jury. I'd like to know who's idea it was for him to go on the stand, him or his lawyer's? Still, I thought he might get one lone juror to support his case and hang the jury. The verdict comes as a surprise to me.

[Jarhead0331]

This is an exceptional judge. I've been impressed throughout the trial.