Publicity may force out-of-county jury search in Murdaugh murder retrial, solicitor says

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]potential problem for this now retrial is jury selection given as we've said how high profile the case is and ABC 15's Anthony Wynn joins us now live in studio after speaking with 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson and asking how this might impact the retrial. So, Anthony, what did Richardson have to say?

[00:00:19]There's a lot that has to be done to get this case back on track, basically. This is what they had to say.

[00:00:25]One of the most talked about cases in South Carolina history heading to retrial. 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson says given the extensive coverage, finding an unbiased jury will now be even harder. Because everybody's seen the evidence play out.

[00:00:41]And that's the tragedy in this.

[00:00:43]Everybody's watched it, especially in that area. You've watched this case play out. You've seen all of the evidence that the state has. You've seen all of the defenses that the defense may want to put up.

[00:00:57]And um there's a lot more information out there. I think they did a fairly good job.

[00:01:03]Richardson says this could open doors for jurors to have to be brought in from another county or have the entire trial up and moved. Because of pre-trial pre-trial publicity or even in this case the publicity that came across, you may have to go to another or uh area to select jurors.

[00:01:25]You may have to go to Spartanburg. You may have to go to um Greenville or to select the jurors and either try it in Horry or try it back in Colleton County with those people being moved back. And we may not have answers on that for some time. I would um I would guess it could be up to 2 years.

[00:01:51]Um now maybe the Supreme Court steps in and says I want it tried immediately.

[00:01:56]So, um this isn't the answer you're looking for, but it could be probably as short as 6 months, probably as long as 2 years.

[00:02:09]Richardson says another loss from the first trial is on South Carolina's taxpayers as a whole. All the tax dollars spent on the first case is now wasted. Anthony Win, ABC 15 News.

[00:02:22]South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who brought the charges against Murdaugh,