Alex Murdaugh’s legal professionals revealed the brand new proof they’ll introduce at retrial to argue the disgraced authorized scion’s innocence in his spouse and son’s murders – together with never-before-heard DNA findings.
“There was DNA beneath Maggie’s fingernails, male DNA that was not DNA of Alex or some other members of the family,” Murdaugh’s lead legal professional, Jim Griffin, advised “NewsNation” anchor Chris Cuomo Thursday, in the future after the South Carolina Supreme Courtroom shockingly overturned Murdaugh’s double homicide conviction.
“They have been by no means put into CODIS,” Griffin mentioned, referring to a database utilized by legislation enforcement to check DNA profiles. “That has by no means been adopted up on.”
Murdaugh, 57, had been serving two consecutive life sentences with out parole for the grisly executions of his spouse, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, after a jury unanimously discovered him responsible of the slayings following a dramatic six-week trial in 2023.
The mother-son duo was discovered gunned down close to the outside canine kennels on the household’s sprawling looking property in Colleton County on June 7, 2021.
“As we identified within the first trial…the state legislation enforcement investigators have been singularly centered on Alex Murdaugh and ignored proof of different potential murderers,” Griffin continued. “I imply, Chris, there have been tire tracks driving away from the homicide scene that have been by no means adopted. The truth is, they have been trampled over.
“I’ll inform you, for the reason that first trial, we now have been offered info that provides us a listing of different potential suspects,” the lawyer mentioned.
Griffin insisted the prosecution has no proof that his embattled consumer “was there on the time of the murders” – as an alternative, “he was there earlier than and he was there after.”
Nevertheless, “we don’t even know when the homicide occurred,” he mentioned.
“The state’s proof and their entire idea of the time of loss of life is cessation of use of cell telephones, and we all know Paul’s mobile phone’s battery was operating out…and there’s no eyewitnesses. I imply, there’s nothing to set the time of loss of life.
“Chances are you’ll keep in mind the coroner who gave an estimate of time of loss of life. What was his check? He put his thumb beneath the armpits of Maggie and Paul to guesstimate what time of loss of life it was,” Griffin charged.
Murdaugh initially advised investigators that the final time he noticed his spouse and son alive was after they ate dinner collectively round 8:15 p.m. that evening, then discovered their our bodies when he returned house from visiting his ailing mom at simply after 10 p.m.
A county coroner who arrived on the grisly scene initially put the time of deaths between 8 and 10 p.m., primarily based on the our bodies’ temperatures and joint stiffness, however later narrowed the window to between 8:50 and 9 p.m.
Murdaugh’s unique alibi unraveled in courtroom when prosecutors performed a video clip taken by Paul at 8:44 p.m. that exposed three voices – which a longtime household buddy testified have been these of Paul, Maggie and Alex.
Griffin admitted Thursday that Murdaugh “lied in regards to the circumstances” surrounding that night.
“He was standing there with a shotgun in his hand by his truck together with his lifeless spouse and his lifeless son” when police arrived, Griffin mentioned. “And he had a pocket filled with tablets. He was a drug addict.”
“He mentioned he [was overcome with] drug paranoia and he lied. And as soon as he began to lie, he continued to lie…that was his rationalization.
“I’ll inform you what, that rationalization holds extra water than the state’s idea of motive that he would have gone house and executed his son and his spouse as a result of they have been asking him and his legislation agency, ‘The place is $750,000 {dollars}?’” Griffin mentioned.
Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh, the inheritor of a storied authorized dynasty, killed Maggie and Paul to cowl up his in depth monetary crimes and over stresses associated to a lawsuit by the household of 19-year-old Mallory Seaside, who died after Paul drunkenly crashed a ship right into a bridge in December 2019.
A pre-trial listening to within the boat crash case, which had been scheduled to happen simply three days after the murders, would have uncovered Murdaugh’s legal monetary dealings, prosecutors mentioned.
Throughout an interview with “Fox and Associates” on Wednesday, Griffin blasted that motive as “manufactured” and “ludicrous” – and insisted once more that the protection is sitting on “a number of different theories” in regards to the murders.
“I can inform you usually we acquired tips on the place the homicide weapons are. We’ve acquired tips on who was within the space that evening and what motives they’ve,” he mentioned through the phase.
One other member of Murdaugh’s protection staff, Dick Harpootlian, insisted former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill’s jury tampering, in addition to the period of time prosecutors centered on Murdaugh’s monetary crimes, have been solely accountable for the result of the primary trial.
“In case you strip all that away, what do [prosecutors] have? They don’t have any forensics tying [Murdaugh] to the homicide scene. No DNA, no blood, no fingerprints. They don’t have any weapons. They don’t have any ballistics…matter of reality, there’s technical proof that will point out he wasn’t there,” Harpootlian mentioned.
South Carolina Legal professional Normal Alan Wilson mentioned Thursday that his workplace has “credible proof that helps the conclusions that we got here to the primary time, and we intend to pursue these once more.”
Regardless of the overturned conviction, Murdaugh will stay behind bars serving concurrent 40-year federal and 27-year state sentences for monetary crimes for stealing from his purchasers.
