US NEWS
Alex Murdaugh indicted on 22 federal counts of fraud: How long will he be in prison?
The lawyer from South Carolina was found guilty in March 2023 of murdering his wife and son. He has now been indicted of money laundering and fraud.
Alex Murdaugh will never be a free man again. He was found guilty in March 2023 in just under three hours of jury deliberations, an emphatic result that will see him behind bars until his death.
Giving out the judgement, Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to prison for the remainder of his life, with terms for both murders to run consecutively. There will be no chance of parole.
Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty for the murder charges against him.
“After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh,” Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office said in a press statement. “Because this is a pending case, we cannot comment further.”
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Aside from the murder conviction involving his wife and son, Murdaugh faces more than 100 other criminal charges against him including financial and drug crimes.
Does South Carolina have the death penalty?
The southern state is one of the 27 states in which the death penalty is legal. More than 680 people have been executed since 1718. Since 1976 43 people have been killed by the state. No one has been executed since 2011.
After a lack of available drugs for lethal injections, there was an announcement in March 2022 that executions would resume by firing squad. Inmates have a choice of electrocution or shooting.
Like all US states, there are constant legal challenges and delays in carrying out executions, and there is ongoing debate over the use of the death penalty in the state.