Alex Murdaugh insisted on his innocence in a Colleton County courtroom Friday morning as Judge Clifton Newman sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence and told the court that none of the victims wanted to speak to the sentence. Murdaugh was the sole voice from the defense, saying only that he would never hurt his wife or son.
BREAKING: South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life without parole for killing his wife and son. https://t.co/AzzkHS9gAI pic.twitter.com/MLx7IUlo3i
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 3, 2023
Newman noted the Murdaugh family’s long history in the South Carolina Low Country’s legal system and expressed a sadness about how that legacy could have come down to a murder conviction.
“I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty,” he said. “But as I sit here in this courtroom and look around the many portraits of judges and other court officials and reflect on the fact that over the past century, your family — including you — have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom (and) many have received the death penatly, probably for lesser conduct.”
Newman asked Murdaugh what he meant when he commented during his testimony about “what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
“I meant when I lied, I continued to lie,” the disgraced attorney said.
“And the question is, when will it end?” Newman said. “It’s already ended for the jury.”
“A notice of alibi was filed in this case in November, and we conducted a pretrial hearing in which you claimed to be someplace elsee af the time the cxrime was committed,” he said. “Then after all the witnesses placed you at the scene of the crime in the last minute, you switched course and admitted to being there, and taht necessitated more lies. Where will it end?”
Wow!
Judge tells #AlexMurdaugh he’s sure Maggie and Paul visit him every night when he tries to go to sleep.
Murdaugh says: “All day and every night”
Judge Newman: “They will continue to do so and will reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes”#MurdaughTrial pic.twitter.com/LX5QgM84o4
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) March 3, 2023
Murdaugh murmured “all day and every night” when Newman suggested that Maggie and Paul Murdaugh likely visit him “during the night time when you try to sleep.”
“They will continue to do so and will reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes,” the judge said.
“I respect this court, but I’m innocent,” Murdaugh said moments later, echoing his statement from the beginning of the sentencing hearing. “I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie. I would never under any circumstances hurt my son Paw Paw.”
“It might not have been you,” Newman replied. Instead, he said, it “might be the monster you became” from the drugs and the mounting pressures of his financial crimes, Paul Murdaugh’s upcoming trial for the boating death of Mallory Beach, and more.
“I’ve seen that before,” Newman said. The preson standing before me is not the same person though it’s the same individual.”
“I really can’t imagine,” he said. ” I know it had to have been quite a bit going thru your mind on that day. But amazingly, to have you come and testify that it was just another ordinary day. Not credible. Not believable.”
And with that, Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive sentences for “the rest of your natural life.”
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[Featured image: Alex Murdaugh listens to his sentencing/Courtroom feed]
