Alex Murdaugh murder case gets new judge as retrial looms following Supreme Court reversal
A South Carolina judge has been assigned to take over Alex Murdaugh’s blockbuster murder case after the disgraced legal scion’s convictions in the slayings of his wife and son were overturned.
South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice John W. Kittredge signed an order Monday giving Judge Debra R. McCaslin jurisdiction over all proceedings tied to Murdaugh’s murder-case indictments.
The order gives McCaslin authority over "any future retrial on the murder charges" as well as motions, jury trials, civil forfeiture actions and other related matters in the case.
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The brief order does not set a new trial date or rule on any outstanding motions. Instead, it puts McCaslin in charge of the next phase of the case.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson's office said: "As always, we look forward to presenting the State's case in court as part of a fair, open, and transparent process."
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McCaslin, an at-large circuit court judge, was elected by the South Carolina General Assembly on Feb. 5, 2020, according to the South Carolina Judicial Branch.
She earned her law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1993 and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar that year. The Judicial Branch says she was also admitted to the U.S. District Court, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Murdaugh, 57, was convicted in March 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family’s sprawling hunting estate in Colleton County in June 2021.
He was sentenced to life in prison, but his lawyers later pushed for a new trial, arguing that the jury had been improperly influenced by former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill.
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The South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the denial of Murdaugh’s new-trial motion on May 13 and sent the case back to the circuit court.
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Murdaugh, a once-prominent Hampton County lawyer from a powerful legal dynasty, has repeatedly denied killing Maggie and Paul.
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The pair were found shot to death near the dog kennels at the family’s Moselle estate, a sprawling property in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
Prosecutors argued Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his crumbling legal and financial world as years of thefts and lies were closing in on him.
His defense team insisted he was a loving husband and father who had been wrongfully accused after investigators zeroed in on him too quickly.
Although Murdaugh’s murder convictions were overturned, he remains behind bars on separate financial-crime convictions after admitting he stole from clients and his former law firm.
Prosecutors have said they intend to retry him on the murder charges.