A murder conviction that gripped the nation and touched on power and privilege in the South has been tossed out. Former South Carolina prosecutor Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife and son. But the state’s Supreme Court threw out his double-murder conviction, pointing to jury interference by a court clerk during the trial. Lisa Desjardins discussed more with Valerie Bauerlein.Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Geoff Bennett:
A murder conviction that gripped the nation and touched on power and privilege in the South is being tossed out.Former South Carolina prosecutor Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife and son on their estate. But, today, the state's Supreme Court threw out his double murder conviction.Our Lisa Desjardins has more.
Lisa Desjardins:
In a unanimous opinion, the justices overturned Murdaugh's life sentence for the murders, pointing to shocking jury interference by a court clerk during the trial.Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife Maggie and son Paul on a summer night in 2021 at their secluded family compound. He took the stand insisting he was innocent, but had to acknowledge he lied about his initial claim that he was not at the murder scene, disproven by incredible cell phone video taken by his son shortly before his death.No murder weapon was found, but the jury deliberated just three hours before convicting him. State Attorney General Alan Wilson says he will hold another trial. Meantime, the disbarred lawyer Murdaugh will remain in prison, where he is serving a separate decades-long sentence for stealing more than $12 million from his clients.No one knows this case better and what it means than Valerie Bauerlein from The Wall Street Journal, the author of "The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty."Valerie, this is a dramatic decision, but is it surprising?
