🔴LIVE: Alex Murdaugh press conference after Supreme Court overturns convictions | FOX 10 Phoenix

Ajouté : 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]When we reported back to him after our argument in the South Carolina Supreme Court, we we told him it went as well as we could have hoped and that we were very optimistic that we would get a favorable result.

[00:00:13]And he appreciated our assessment but he he he was incredulous.

[00:00:19]He's his experience has been since he has been on the back end of similar suits and criminal indictments that that he's lost every single negative legal ruling along the way.

[00:00:32]And and that occurred almost daily during the trial.

[00:00:36]And when he got the order, he took and I he when I spoke with him he had already read the opinion of the Supreme Court and he says, "I'm reading it. I see it. It says reverse but I still have a hard time believing it. It's really just sinking in."

[00:00:54]And but he was very grateful and very thankful and he he thanked all of us uh here that are on this side of the podium and and and I mean he got somewhat emotional. He was so and and I don't think he'll mind for me telling you this. I mean he has always said and he told me very early that he deserves to be in jail prison for the financial crimes that he committed.

[00:01:21]But he says, "Being in jail for something you didn't do is a hard thing to swallow even though I'm here doing time for what I did do.

[00:01:31]But then he said, "What I was convicted of is so reprehensible.

[00:01:37]It's something that is so heinous and to be wrongfully convicted of that is almost unbearable." he says. And so he is very thankful that he's no longer a convicted murderer of his wife and son and and he and he he's appreciative to the court for applying the rule of law regardless of outcome. They did their job and we're all very appreciative of that. The rule of law won out last week. Have you spoken to Buster and how does he feel about what happened last week?

[00:02:17]Yeah, I think thanks for asking that question and and I want to say this.

[00:02:22]Buster Murdoch is hopefully we can all agree is entitled to his privacy.

[00:02:29]That kid has been through so much.

[00:02:32]And that's all he wants is his privacy.

[00:02:34]So we're not going to ask answer questions about Buster other than to say and I'd say it with 100% confidence that Buster supports his dad Alec.

[00:02:46]With the with the civil suit, are you hoping to get your hands on the SLED investigation into the jury tampering allegations by the AG's office? Sure. Now, we were given some information through the discovery during the motion for new trial stage.

[00:03:02]Um have they Is that all they've done? Um we don't know. Um but if that is all they've done, that really wasn't much of an investigation.

[00:03:10]And we really don't think they've done much of an investigation, but um but we certainly plan to. And and let me let me say this.

[00:03:22]It's also was a Freedom of Information Act served on SLED to get additional information. We've seen that, too.

[00:03:30]Does it make sense to have the agency who has an inherent conflict, they want the conviction sustained investigating whether it was valid or not? I mean, it just seems ridiculous. And again, I think the attorney general's fault is not asking for some independent He He have gotten a sheriff's department. to We on what? Folks or the the sheriff up in Spartanburg, not Spartanburg, Greenville have a very sophisticated sheriff's department. Charleston also.

[00:04:00]Use them. But SLED is invested in affirming the conviction. They don't want to find any fault.

[00:04:07]I mean, that's just human nature.

[00:04:09]So, we think there's going to be plenty of things that weren't looked into and we want to look into those. And the question is and Jim and and Phil and I have been talking about this.

[00:04:18]Did she do it alone?

[00:04:21]Did she have somebody help her with this? And if if you were sitting in the judge's chambers like we were when she brought in information on um the jury you would call the egg lady, we call Myra Crosby. Um and listen to what she had to say. One time it was totally made up about some Facebook page. The second time inexplicably inexplicably a a a anonymous uh email came to the judge. Um we weren't told about it. It was investigated by the attorney general's office and SLED without us being involved.

[00:05:03]Uh no guardrails on that, but I mean and call us naive cuz we were. We didn't press that and I I I I look back on it. We should have 20/20 hindsight.

[00:05:17]We maybe should have taken a little more aggressive but we still couldn't appeal that on your back then.

[00:05:22]But we will now. Hey, there's a question about the retrial. Um some have suggested that it may have been a mistake to put Alex on the stand.

[00:05:30]Any thoughts to whether you're going to put him on the stand in the retrial? Two things. One, the client makes that decision. Two, that'll be a game day call.

[00:05:39]So, you'll know when we know.

[00:05:42]When will this uh any retrial take place?

[00:05:45]I I would suspect within a year of now, but not by the end of the year. No, hell no. And why is that? Why can't you go right to trial?

[00:05:53]>> Well, I'll give you a couple simple examples. One, we assume the same witnesses will testify in the retrial as the trial.

[00:06:00]We have a I don't know, 8,000 page transcript.

[00:06:04]We've got to break out each witness.

[00:06:06]We've got to read it, whoever's going to handle that person, outline it, and they can be used to impeach them.

[00:06:12]So, unlike This is like a civil case where you're taking a deposition.

[00:06:17]Um unlike any other criminal case you'll ever defend or prosecute. So, that's that takes time. We've got to go back and see if they've given us all the discovery. There's some inference that we didn't get everything from from the prosecution. We're going to back and scrub that real hard. We've got to hire experts.

[00:06:35]They've got to look at all the information, new experts, um and then, um give us an opinion.

[00:06:41]Do you have enough money to hire new experts?

[00:06:45]Jim, why don't you explain financially how this works? I think he's got a much better explanation for this than than I do. Go ahead. I mean, there is no new money, no found money, and and I've said previously, you know, we got paid to do a job, and we do criminal defense work.

[00:07:02]The one way you do it, you you charge by the job. Sometimes you come out ahead, and sometimes you come out behind, but you know, right now, um we're in the hole, but we ain't we got paid to do a job, and we're going to see all the way through.

[00:07:16]>> the job isn't finished yet.

[00:07:18]The job is not finished yet. And we we're not we're not walking away from it. So, we're we're going to see it through. Um the um I mean, that's where we are.

[00:07:29]Is there any chance the retrial could happen in Richland County instead of Colleton?

[00:07:34]You know, what one of the things that we're looking at is a motion to transfer venue to a different county.

[00:07:42]It would have to be if if that takes place and it's transferred, it'd have to be a in a county that has a very similar demographics as Colleton County. So, that would probably exclude Richland County, Charleston County, which I know all of y'all want to go to Charleston. Um but it it it is Charleston is contiguous to Colleton and one of the factors we considered I'm just saying.

[00:08:05]But we chose Colleton.

[00:08:07]And so, but you know, it's not our pick, but that'll be looked at very closely for sure. Jim, can we talk about new evidence? I know last week you you mentioned DNA evidence under Maggie's fingernails essentially Right.

[00:08:20]>> connected to a male. Can we go into that a little bit more and how that will play a factor in the next trial?

[00:08:26]Well, we pointed out during the last trial that that they did find a male unknown male DNA who was not related to any Murdaugh or or any of Maggie's family under her fingernail.

[00:08:40]That was you know, not really followed up on. We asked that they follow up on that uh before the last trial. We don't have possession of that DNA, so we can't do anything with it. We can perhaps with a new case back to square one, go and seek an order from the court to compel them to send it off to CODIS. CODIS is the national uh DNA database.

[00:09:04]So, I mean if we were in charge uh and we had the facilities, the the forensic lab down at SLED and we had search warrant abilities, we would we would have done things a lot different um and more timely.

[00:09:20]A lot of that opportunity is lost, and so that's unfortunate.

[00:09:24]More opportunities getting that sense do you believe this will go around?

[00:09:29]Well, it it would have been Judge Chief Justice Kittredge issuing an order last week saying he's going to appoint a new judge." Once the remittitur goes down, that'll be one of the things that that we will present to a new judge asking for that relief.

[00:09:45]Whether he or she will do it remains to be seen. Jimmy, you said the lawsuit is about holding Becky Hill accountable and also investigating what you say the state didn't do a good enough job of investigating her. What do you hope that investigation could yield?

[00:10:01]The truth. Yeah. How about that?

[00:10:03]>> Yeah, we just, you know, we we don't have a result in mind, but we have a lot of questions that we would like answered. Um you know, was she a lone wolf?

[00:10:13]Was she doing it just for the you know, siren of celebrity, which she definitely was?

[00:10:21]And and then and then I'll I'll tell you this, removal of the egg lady juror is very suspicious. And that really wasn't a part of the case. Uh we do make it a part of our complaint. We point out all of the inconsistencies of what she said according to Judge Newman, that the egg lady, Ms. Crosby's ex-husband, had posted something on Facebook, which we now know was a bald-faced lie, or someone lied to her. I mean, it makes no sense. And if you have questions, and I would encourage all of you to follow up with Joe McCullough, who represents Mary Crosby, who can who who is investigating this as as um strenuously as we intend to do so. He's been working on it for quite some time.

[00:11:08]I mean, the way she was targeted, um it just is very curious, and we hope to get to the bottom of that.

[00:11:19]Is there any possibility of taking a plea deal for a lesser charge?

[00:11:24]Say again? Is there any possibility of taking a plea deal for a lesser charge?

[00:11:28]>> No. No plea deal. No Never will plea deal.

[00:11:32]Off the table. We go on a trial. Yeah, they can dismiss it. Yeah, they can dismiss these charges.

[00:11:38]You know what I mean?

[00:11:40]Um but he'll never enter to a plea which would require some admission that he did something he didn't do. And but that's murdering his wife and son.

[00:11:51]That's not going to happen.

[00:11:52]Who do you think did kill Maggie and Paul?

[00:11:56]We wish we knew. We think we we could have found out if we were had the tools available. I mean, that opportunity was lost when they failed to follow the tire tracks in the grass leading away from the murders of Maggie and Paul.

[00:12:10]Um that opportunity was lost when they failed to um maintain the integrity of the GPS data on Maggie's phone. Instead, it said SLED downloading uh GPS coordinates at SLED that that ultimately overwrote her act where her phone was and when it was on the night of the murders.

[00:12:31]And when they finally get into Maggie's phone and able to access the GPS data, you know where it said that phone had been the last Bratton Road, SLED allowed.

[00:12:42]I mean, that is outrageous that that was allowed to happen. So, you know, John, we've gotten a lot of information. People are out there working on behalf of Alec for free, kind of like we are. And and they've unearthed some really interesting stuff. And they've turned a significant amount over that to SLED.

[00:13:02]We'll be curious to see if SLED has done anything with it or will do anything with it.

[00:13:06]If any of that investigation now goes back to the house at the property, is that a done deal?

[00:13:14]Um there's nothing that I'm aware of um that's of evidentiary value on the property. Let me just jump in and say that the actual scene the actual scene has been you know, destroyed, right?

[00:13:26]It's been torn down. property's been sold, the kennels, all of that are gone.

[00:13:30]So, that's no longer in existence.

[00:13:33]But, our experts for in preparing for the first trial, did all kinds of forensic tests on the the crime scene.

[00:13:44]Um you know, a number of We put in evidence that if somebody could be in the house and shots fired down at the dog kennel, never hear them.

[00:13:55]I mean, we proved that without any contradiction whatsoever. So, the story that he was up at the house and they Oh, he he had to have heard the shotgun and the AR.

[00:14:04]Not. We had an expert run test. Can't do that anymore. So, the uncontradicted evidence is going to be if he was in the house, he wouldn't have heard the shots.

[00:14:13]So, I mean, it's those kinds of things.

[00:14:15]And we've got measurements. I mean, very, very, very specific measurements on where everything was. Which, by the way, Sled did not do.

[00:14:23]You know, the night of of the murder, as they processed, it may not be Sled, maybe local law enforcement.

[00:14:30]They didn't dust for fingerprints. And if they didn't not dust, they don't do that anymore, but they did not process the feed room for fingerprints. They didn't look for DNA. Was it their hair?

[00:14:39]Let's pick it up and get it tested.

[00:14:41]If there was a bloody footprint right next to Paul's body, it was a Colleton County Sheriff's Deputy's foot.

[00:14:49]I mean, I'm not a big CIS CSI fan, but this looks to me like they violated every basic rule. We had a witness testify to that. So, um they've got a lot of explaining to do.

[00:15:01]What do you think the odds are of Alex getting an acquittal in the retrial?

[00:15:06]You, John Monk, are playing the internet betting sites too much. I have no idea what his chances >> them at all.

[00:15:13]Well, you ought to try.

[00:15:15]What do you think the odds are?

[00:15:17]We have no idea. I mean, we don't predict football, basketball, or trials.

[00:15:23]What just following up on what Dick said about the failures.

[00:15:28]Um during the trial you'll remember SLED explained how they do murder investigations and they do you know they draw an imaginary circle and then imaginary circle that they drew here Alec was in the middle of it.

[00:15:44]And he was in the middle of it from the night of the murders.

[00:15:47]And they knew that Alec left Moselle and went to his mother's house at Almeda.

[00:15:54]And then came back to the to Moselle and found his wife and son murdered brutally.

[00:16:02]And do you think for one minute that they should have gone to Moselle I'm excuse me Almeda to see if there's anything of evidence evidentiary value?

[00:16:14]Did he were there murder weapons at Almeda which they want to intimate you know during the trial? Oh he parked over here so he must have got rid of the guns over there. I mean they had the opportunity to exclude Alec from that circle.

[00:16:31]But they didn't do it because they just failed so miserably in what they were what their jobs were. Let me say one other thing that brings to mind.

[00:16:41]As most of you all know I was a prosecutor for 12 years and this is 40 years ago.

[00:16:46]If a body was found and they wanted to determine time of death the coroner or medical examiner would take his anal thermometer and get a body core body temperature. Then take a thermometer and get the ambient temperature. And in this case which hour and a half prior they'd been killed sort of the coroner showed up and he did something just amazed me.

[00:17:11]He took his hand and he stuck it under Paul's armpit and then that same hand took it under Maggie's stuck it under Maggie's armpit, and he could calculate the time of death based on that. I mean, that's what we're dealing with here, folks.

[00:17:25]Stuck his hand under the armpit? Really?

[00:17:28]And yet then they say, "Oh, well, we know that when when Maggie stopped using her phone and Paul stopped using his phone, that's the time of death."

[00:17:36]They ignore the fact that cell phone service down there was spotty at best.

[00:17:40]Number of people testified there was no cell phone service. So, simply because they weren't using their phone doesn't mean they were dead.

[00:17:46]I mean, this this thing had more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

[00:17:50]In your opinion, what ultimately got Alex acquitted?

[00:17:54]The board of that I think 2 and 1/2 weeks of that of widows and orphans and mentally disabled kids testifying not that he stole their money, but how just maliciously he stole their money, how he lied to them.

[00:18:09]Um he I mean, when they finish with that, they're not going to believe forensic evidence, they're not going to believe him, they're not going to believe anything. Because he was so vilified. And when he testified, the jury was programmed not to believe him by the clerk of court. And so, you know, no matter what he said, I mean, he got on the stand to answer, you know, questions about where he was and what he did that night. And we know now that, as the Supreme Court accurately described, she sought to undermine his credibility before he even testified. I understand.

[00:18:42]She's the number second highest ranked court official in the trial. And she has closest contact with the jury, develops close relationships with them over 6 weeks.

[00:18:54]And you know, she is the one that they see more, you know, she's the elected official.

[00:19:02]She summoned them all in. Her name's on the summons. Her name's on the check that they get, the payment every week for serving on the jury. I mean, and this person is back there in the jury room telling them, in so many words, don't believe Alec when he testifies. Don't believe the defense. Don't let them confuse you.

[00:19:20]All of that happened at the end of the trial right before we put up our case.

[00:19:25]So, that is one of the reasons he got convicted, I promise you.

[00:19:29]You mentioned um new evidence that you're you already addressed as a psychologist, but you mentioned new evidence you're going to bring out.

[00:19:34]Uh you mentioned the DNA found under Maggie's fingernails.

[00:19:38]Is there other new evidence?

[00:19:40]Well, let me say this. If there is, we tell you, you're going to I know you're not doing this intentionally, but you'll be telling them. So, I don't think we'd tell you.

[00:19:50]How about that?

[00:19:52]Fair enough.

[00:19:54]Maybe on Maybe not intentionally, but anyway.

[00:19:57]Anything else?

[00:19:59]Do Do you think that Becky has done this with other trials before down in Colleton County? How many times? Well, you don't You don't know, do you? Um Well, that's That's why this lawsuit is so important, because it's going to allow us to peel the onion on her and what she's done on this case, with other people involved, was she a lone wolf, uh has she done it on other cases? But, certainly um it was a despicable act, and the and the Supreme Court found it to be such.

[00:20:26]Anything else?

[00:20:29]Thank you very much for coming today.

[00:20:51]Can I bring you