Alex Murdaugh found guilty: what is his sentence?

Alex Murdaugh’s six-week murder trial is over. It took a 12-person jury less than three hours to find the South Carlina lawyer guilty of two counts of murder following the deaths of his wife and son. “The evidence of guilt is overwhelming”, said South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman, who refused the defence’s request for a mistrial.

52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh were shot dead at close range on the family’s estate on 7 June 2021. Incredibly, their murders came as a result of father Alex’s attempt to draw attention away from years of financial corruption, which had seen the former personal injury attorney steal money from both partners and clients as he battled a painkiller addiction and a desire to live ‘the good life’.

During the trial, Murdaugh had pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and for almost two years had said that he had been at home napping during the time of the murders. He claimed that his son’s death could have been connected to a fatal boating accident Paul had been involved in two years earlier. Murdaugh did, however, admit his financial misconduct.

Alex Murdaugh’s family had been high-profile prosecutors in South Caroline up until 2006, with the complexities of the case attracting the attention of the media, as well Netflix and HBO, who both made documentaries about it (Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal and Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty respectively).

What sentence will Alex Murdaugh face?

Prosecutors had said that they would seek life in prison for Murdaugh without the possibility of parole. Judge Newman appeared as scheduled for the sentencing hearing at 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday 3 March at South Carolina’s Colleton County and delivered that sentence: two consecutive life sentences in prison without parole.

He will not, as some onlookers had enquired, face the death penalty.