BREAKING: Alex Murdaugh is Getting a New Trial

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Want to break away from Wisconsin momentarily uh to deliver some breaking news out of the state of South Carolina. The South Carolina Supreme Court has just issued a 27page decision which will give Alec Murdoch a new trial. And in this decision, the bulk of the reason is Becky Hill. You remember the uh clerk of court. Here's the uh conclusion of the court in their decision, saying Hill, the Colatin County Clerk of Court, egregiously attacked Murdoch's credibility and his defense, thus triggering the presumption of prejudice, which the state was unable to rebute. As noted at the outset, Hill's shocking jury interference was accomplished outside the presence and knowledge of the outstanding trial judge and superbly competent and professional counsel for the state and the defense. Again, the breaking news is that Alec Murdoch will receive a new trial in the murder of his wife and his son. Now, keep in mind he was convicted uh in uh the for the financial crimes in a separate trial. He will spend likely the rest of his life in prison, but he's getting a new trial for the double murder, which he was found guilty of. Randolph Rice is watching along with us. Additional thoughts here. I don't think there's a huge surprise.

[00:01:31]Say what you will about Alec Murdoch. He really didn't get a fair trial. Would you factor in Becky Hill?

[00:01:39]>> Yeah, I always thought that this was going to be a problem for the prosecution and for the state. The fact that Becky Hill was doing what she was doing with that jury, uh, it it didn't smell right. And then when you're looking at defendants rights and protecting those rights, you've got to make sure that those trials are clean and there are no outside influences like Becky Hill. So, it doesn't shock me, but I got to tell you, this is huge news because this is going to this this a lot of new questions are going to come up here as to which way does the prosecution go and which way does the defense go.

[00:02:11]>> Yeah. You know, the first time around, of course, we saw the prosecution bring in a parade of witnesses which detailed to this jury the financial crimes that he was guilty of. And that was part of the appeal, the prong of the appeal which didn't trigger the new trial. It was Becky Hill's conduct. So this next time around, couple questions.

[00:02:35]Will the trial judge allow the same amount of financial crimes to for the new jury to be exposed to? Because that was huge. Um, and then of course, will Murdoch take the stand? Who, you know, he got up there and put on the waterworks and tried to convince the jury he didn't do it. It backfired. Your thoughts? Both sides get a second shot at this. Who I mean, will the defense look different? Will he take the stand again?

[00:03:04]>> Oh, that a lot of unans lot of lot of crystal balls I got to look into here.

[00:03:08]But I will say this, there's going to be some financial crime information coming in, right? That's that's key to this because that is one of the motives behind at least the prosecution's belief.

[00:03:17]>> Uh secondly is th this is really a doover for both the prosecution and the defense and they can look back and say what did we do right and what did we do wrong and how do we fix our wrongs moving forward so that we put on a better case. These are things they're all going to have to go back and look at and figure out, you know, we get a second chance at this. How do we do it better?

[00:03:39]>> Yeah. Um, and and if you're the defense, you do have to think twice about putting him on, you would think. I mean, there's the body camera interviews that they can introduce to bring him to life. Um, typically, uh, you know, time in prison doesn't necessarily translate into shaping someone up. Um, but he's a lawyer, he's in charge, he he'll do what he wants to do, right?

[00:04:07]>> Yeah. that might be his problem is that at some time during the trial, I always felt like he was really telling his defense team what they should be doing.

[00:04:16]Now, look, he's a lawyer. He's tried hundreds of cases. You know, he he should know. But at the same time, he's seeing it through a different lens than his defense team is seeing this. So, maybe he steps back this time. Maybe he says to his defense team, "Hey, I'm going to let you sort of take the re the reigns here and sort of lead this train.

[00:04:34]I will listen to you. I will follow your direction." getting on the stand, you know, he might think he's still just too confident he wants to do it.

[00:04:42]>> Yeah. I mean, he had a a lifetime of just talking and getting people to do what he wanted them to do in such a a unique, boisterous way. It is hard to actually imagine a guy like him uh not getting up there and taking the stand and and making sure that everybody knew knows that he would never hurt uh his mags or pawpaw. On the other hand, um I think it was a horrible decision because the jury didn't buy it. And part of Becky Hill's influence was his testimony. If you remember um during this appeal and it was noted in this decision 27page decision by the Supreme Court of South Carolina that she told jurors watch him watch him very closely while he testifies cuz uh in in basically intimating he's full of BS.

[00:05:38]>> Yeah. I look again the the Supreme Court in South Carolina had to do what they had to do. I'm not sure that the jury needed Becky Hill telling him that that Alec Murdoch was full of, you know, as you said, a a little bit of uh not not the truth, right? So, he again, he's just he's going to try to do what he needs to do to to convince 12 people that he didn't do this, but does he come off differently? Does he does he look back at that and say, "Hey, look, I should have said this or I shouldn't have said this." And and maybe he learns something from it.

[00:06:12]>> Yeah, absolutely. Um, we're Would you anticipate a potential change of venue this time around? Are you gonna have a new judge overseeing this? The if you're the defense, uh, what are you attacking in terms of the pre-trial motions, which are so important to maybe change the playing field? Because what we saw the first time around was that overwhelming evidence of what a scoundrel he was in stealing money from all of these families. If they could reduce the amount of exposure, I know it's coming in, but reduce some of that, they're in a better spot. Take us behind the scenes now. You're getting another chance.

[00:06:53]You're the defense team.

[00:06:55]>> Yeah. You're you're going back from day one and you're looking at what can we keep out that hurt us in this trial from the defense team's perspective. So, you're filing motions and lemonade to exclude evidence. You're filing a change of venue. You're obviously obvious going to have a different judge. But Ted, here's another thing to think about just to throw a little wrinkle into this.

[00:07:12]Does his defense team come back and say, "Hey, let's go work out a deal that maybe doesn't get you whatever you're don't whatever you don't want. We know he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison, but maybe they work out some sort of plea that he feels he can take uh that goes handinhand with what he's serving right now.

[00:07:31]>> H that it for me, I feel like his whole shtick is I'm more than willing to enjoy my time in prison for the rest of my life. I just don't want people thinking that I killed Mags and Paul. And that was the the feeling um that I got from him. That's the he wants to go to his grave with people knowing that he didn't do it.

[00:07:58]You you're right about that. There is a lot of uh sort of overconfidence on his part. This probably goes back to sort of what all the things that he was doing before he got caught or before he allegedly killed them. And and now we're back to the allegedly, right? Because this is a new trial. Uh he's alleged to have done these things. He's pres he's cloaked in the in the uh cloud of innocence and he's presumed innocent. So I I think you're right. There's a part of him that wants to be innocent. Uh but you know there's also a part that he may say I don't want to go through this again. Or there might be a part where he says you know what I want the limelight again. I'm out of prison. I'm going to get a little bit of time in in the local detention center and enjoy a little bit better life.

[00:08:39]>> Yeah. and he may want to shield his family, shield Buster from having to endure it again. But I kind of agree with you. I think he's going to enjoy the field trip and going through the entire process again sitting at that defense table. Again, the breaking news uh is that the Supreme Court of the state of South Carolina in a 27page decision has given Alec Murdoch a new trial in the double murder of his wife and son. Let's go a break. When we come back, we've got Corey Richens in court later in Utah and Josie Dykeman in Wisconsin.