Alex Murdaugh attorneys take murder case to S.C. Supreme Court: as it happened
Update 12:19 p.m.
And the Supreme Court has now adjourned its hearing into Alex Murdaugh’s 2023 murder conviction. Chief Justice Kittredge thanks the attorneys for their handling of the myriad questions from the justices over nearly three hours of questioning.
Update 12:12 p.m.
“There was no finding by Judge Toal that Juror Z was dishonest,” Barber said, and Toal’s finding of an “ambivalent” answer was “in response to the question about the influence that had on her deliberation, not on what was said to her before deliberations began.”
He also points out that Hill’s answers at the same hearing before Judge Toal was subsequently found to be perjury.
Update 12:05 p.m.
Murdaugh attorney Phil Barber is now offering rebuttal arguments. He says the testimony from the victims of Murdaugh’s financial crimes was not relevant to the murders, and instead gave Waters an opportunity to ask each witness a variation of the question, “Did you know the real Alex Murdaugh?”
“The theme there was that you didn’t know he was capable of anything, he’s a bad person,” Barber says. “It has nothing to do with the motive that I need to conceal something because I might get caught… please speculate that I might be able to murder my wife and child.”
Update 11:55 a.m.
Waters says the state’s theory of the financial motive is validated because “it worked” – the attention on Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds fell away in the aftermath of the murders, and he may have been able to escape examination in the lawsuit over Paul Murdaugh’s boat crash if other evidence had not later come to light showing Murdaugh stole from his law partners.
Update 11:45 a.m.
The justices are again questioning Waters on how much weight should be given to the state’s alleged motive before all the testimony about his financial crimes was admitted by Judge Newman.
“This is a unique situation that requires a complicated analysis of the law,” Waters said. “You can’t understand the boiling point that was crucial to the state’s motive ... without that criminal and financial history.”
Update 11:39 a.m.
Waters is laying out how Murdaugh allegedly used Maggie’s phone to manufacture an alibi, which is why the state believes it was taken from the scene of the murders.
He also says the prosecution wrote out “the entire theory” before the trial, but didn’t mention the financial crimes before Judge Newman allowed the evidence in. Other evidence was excluded by Newman as too tenuous to the case, Waters says.
Kittredge says no financial evidence was excluded though, and the “granular detail” of the evidence that was admitted by Newman raises questions.
Update 11:30 a.m.
Now prosecutor Creighton Waters is responding again, noting that the evidence showed that Murdaugh had the motive, the means and the opportunity to commit the crimes. “I believe the motive was very compelling, and the motive pointed to Alex Murdaugh,” Waters said, and that video evidence showed Murdaugh was “at the crime scene shortly before they died, and had been lying about it to anyone who would listen.”
He denies that throwing the phone from Murdaugh’s car would have registered with the device because phones aren’t programmed to become active with “violent motion.”
Upadate 11:23 a.m.
Chief Justice Kittredge asks why the guns from the Murdaugh family estate were issued into evidence when no evidence tied them to the murders. “To prejudice Alex Murdaugh,” Griffin said. “The attorney general holds it up and pretends he’s shooting somebody.”
Update 11:18 a.m.
Justice James asks whether the financial evidence could come in i response to questions of Murdaugh’s believability on other issues. Griffin said the state could cross-examine Murdaugh, but couldn’t bring in evidence unrelated to the trial. “You can’t bring up 10 witnesses for something he hasn’t testified to,” Griffin says.
Update 11:15 a.m.
Griffin is arguing that the amount of evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes was prejudicial, since the jurors could have formed an opinion on those crimes separate from the evidence he committed the murders. The state argued it provided the motive for Murdaugh to commit the murders.
Justice Few asks how much the trial judge needs to believe in the alleged motive before he can admit the evidence. Griffin says “there has to be some evidence to support it.”
Few says it might provide more evidence that Murdaugh would target “someone who might do him harm” over the crimes, but questions if Paul or Maggie were aware of them before their deaths.
Update 11:08 a.m.
Murdaugh defense attorney Jim Griffin is arguing about the evidence about the activity on Maggie Murdaugh’s cell phone. Griffin argues the phone should have registered activity if Alex Murdaugh threw it out his car window as he was leaving the scene of the murder, as the prosecution says.
Justice Letitia Verdin says Griffin addressed this at the trial. “You questioned [the state’s expert] very thoroughly” and “your examination seems very effective,” she said.
Update 10:35 a.m.
The court is now taking a 10-minute break before getting into the next round of questioning about whether Judge Clifton Newman should have allowed testimony about Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes during the six-week murder trial.
Update 10:32 a.m.
Going into overtime on Waters’ arguments, Justice James asks about the “egg juror’s” testimony that Hill questioned her about how she was feeling about the case, and when the juror said she still had questions about Murdaugh’s guilt, Hill said “everything the defendant has said has been lies,” according to the egg juror’s affidavit.
Waters says Judge Toal was correct to only hear testimony from jurors who actually took part in the deliberation, and the egg juror was dismissed because the trial judge Clifton Newman found that she had spoken with others outside the courtroom about the case. “Judge Newman frankly removed her for that misconduct,” Waters said.
Update 10:26 a.m.
Justices ask whether Judge Toal’s finding that Hill was “not credible” in her testimony denying these statements means she was lying about not making them.
Waters says he’s not defending Hill, but goes back to the weight of the testimony from 11 other jurors about their experience of the trial. “It’s a credibility finding of these 11 jurors,” he said.
Update 11 a.m.
Murdaugh defense attorney Jim Griffin is arguing other evidence in the case, including that no evidence directly ties Murdaugh to the murders and that the time of death for Maggie and Paul was determined from cell phone data and the coroner’s “arm pit test” to determine body temperature after they had died.
Update 10:22 a.m.
Justice John Few says Hill’s statements are important because they go to the main element going to the defense’s case, which is Murdaugh’s testimony in his own defense.
“That goes to the one thing the defendant has,” Few said. “The jurors knew if Alex is telling the truth, he’s not guilty, and if he’s lying he is.”
Waters says “I don’t think you can view [Murdaugh’s testimony] in isolation from the entire trial,” including the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Update 10:14 a.m.
Waters argues that Judge Toal found Juror Z’s testimony about Hill’s comments were less than credible. “She was ambivalent, she was all over the place in her testimony, and other jurors didn’t remember these statements.”
Justices’ questioning does seem to credit Juror Z’s testimony though. “The juror is testifying that the effect on her was significant,” said Justice Letitia Verdin.
“Assume we find that statement is made,” Chief Justice Kittredge said, “Do you still have a case?” Waters argues Hill’s alleged statement is outweighed by the wider context of the trial.
Update 10:02 a.m.
“Nobody wants to do this again, least of all we do,” Harpootlian said, but that’s outweighed by Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial.
Now prosecutor Creighton Waters is arguing that jurors are not swayed by “every opinion swirling around them,” including “fleeting comments” during a “six-week trial.” To believe Hill’s comments were the decisive factor doesn’t match “what we know about jurors, and what the jurors said.”
Update 9:55 a.m.
Former Chief Justice Jean Toal found in a previous hearing that comments from Hill did not affect jurors’ decision to reach a guilty verdict. “I don’t believe that’s an appropriate analysis of the law,” Harpootlian said. He said how jurors said they reached their verdict a year later is not the standard for deciding what actions constitute a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.
Juror Z did testify that Hill’s comments influenced her decision, and “you’re entitled to 12 impartial jurors,” Harpootlian said.
Update 9:48 a.m.
Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian argues former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill was motivated to influence the jury because a guilty verdict would be better for the book she planned to write about the trial. “Juror Z” previously testified that “Ms. Hill told her not to be fooled by the evidence presented by Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys, which she took to mean Murdaugh would lie,” Harpootlian says.
Justice George James asks if the court can consider an affidavit from the “egg juror” who was dismissed before jury deliberations began and left court with a carton of eggs. That juror didn’t previously testify, but Harpootlian thinks her affidavit should be considered.
Update 9:36 a.m.
Proceedings are underway at the S.C. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Kittredge says attorneys will have a 20-minute allotted speaking time, with the first five minutes without interruptions from the justices. “We’ll have to show some restraint to do that,” Kittredge said.
Update 8:27 a.m.
A line formed outside the Supreme Court building on Columbia’s Gervais Street well before doors opened to the public at 8:30 a.m. Two women who drove up from Augusta, Georgia, were already waiting outside the court’s doors by 3:45 a.m.
Today’s appeal hearing before the S.C. Supreme Court is historic. No South Carolina criminal trial in memory attracted as much public and media attention around the nation and world as Murdaugh’s 2023 double murder trial for the killings of his wife Maggie and youngest son Paul. The Murdaugh crime saga has played out in trial courts, podcasts, movies, books and documentaries. Today, the drama goes before its most consequential audience – the five justices of the S.C. Supreme Court.
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian is expected to begin the arguments, arguing how former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill’s alleged jury tampering damaged Alex Murdaugh’s chances for a fair jury trial. Creighton Waters will follow, replying to Harpootlian’s arguments.
Then defense attorney Jim Griffin will argue various matters, including how a decision by trial Judge Clifton Newman to let reams of information into the trial about Murdaugh’s financial frauds damaged Murdaugh’s chances for a fair trial.
Griffin is expected to be followed by Waters again, who will rebut Griffin’s arguments. Lastly, defense attorney Phil Barber is expected to reply to any matters previously touched on.
Although certain time limits have been set for each attorney’s appearance, justices customarily have been flexible in allowing additional time for them to ask questions. There’s no telling at the outset how long the hearing will go.
Between them, the attorneys arguing before the justices today in the Murdaugh case have easily argued more than 100 cases before the state Supreme Court.
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Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh on Wednesday will attempt to convince the South Carolina Supreme Court to grant a new trial in one of the most closely watched murder cases the Palmetto State has seen in years.
Murdaugh has been at the center of national and international coverage ever since his wife, Maggie, and son Paul were found shot to death on the grounds of the Murdaughs’ rural family hunting estate in Colleton County in the summer of 2021.
In March 2023, Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son after a six-week trial at the county courthouse in Walterboro that was broadcast on Court TV and watched by millions worldwide. The once wealthy attorney from a high-profile Lowcountry legal family is now serving two life sentences in a maximum security South Carolina prison.
Wednesday’s arguments, where Murdaugh’s lawyers will try to get his convictions thrown out, will not be on TV, but will be viewable on a livestream from S.C. Educational Television.
Murdaugh attorneys Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin and Phil Barber are expected to argue two main points.
First, that testimony about Murdaugh’s theft of millions of dollars from his clients and family law firm should not have been heard by the murder trial jury. Murdaugh has since pleaded guilty to those financial crimes, but was entitled to the presumption of innocence at the time of his trial, his attorneys argued. The prosecution believes covering up those thefts motivated Murdaugh to kill his family.
Secondly, the defense will focus on alleged jury tampering by former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill. Hill has since resigned her office and pleaded guilty on misconduct and perjury charges, but a judge previously rejected claims that Hill had improperly influenced the jury to convict Murdaugh.
Arguing for the state will be Creighton Waters, who led the prosecution of Murdaugh for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.
Murdaugh is not expected to attend Wednesday’s proceedings in person. The S.C. Department of Corrections has confirmed there is no request to move Murdaugh from his prison, and the prisoner will not have access to the internet in order to watch the hearing.
The Supreme Court hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Check back here for updates.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Alex Murdaugh attorneys take murder case to S.C. Supreme Court: as it happened."
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