Judge hears Murdaugh defense request as case shifts toward retrial in seperate county
LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC (WPDE) — Alex Murdaugh’s defense team returned to court for a major pretrial hearing in Lexington County, where a judge was expected to consider a request to dismiss the murder indictments tied to the killings of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
The hearing was scheduled before Judge Deborah McCaslin.
It centered on a 200-page motion Murdaugh’s defense team, led by Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, filed asking the court to dismiss the indictments without prejudice.
The defense alleged that lead agents with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and prosecutors fabricated or misrepresented evidence and misled the grand jury.
The motion focused on blood-spatter evidence on the white T-shirt Murdaugh wore the night Maggie and Paul were killed.
It argued that the state lab initially found no human blood on the shirt before pressure was allegedly applied.
Prosecutors from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office were required to file their formal response by Nov. 6, ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Nov. 13.
The session was expected to be the final pretrial hearing in Lexington County.
McCaslin had ordered the case to move to Sumter County for future proceedings, and Murdaugh’s double-murder retrial was scheduled to begin April 5, 2027.
