Alex Murdaugh Sentenced To Life In Prison For Murder Of Wife Maggie & Son Paul
March 3 2023, Published 10:15 a.m. ET
Alex Murdaugh received two consecutive life in prison sentences this week after being found guilty of murdering his wife and grown son, RadarOnline.com can confirm.
The disgraced attorney’s sentencing was announced on Friday morning at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina just hours after a jury found Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife Maggie and 22-year-old son Paul on June 7, 2021.
The 63-year-old convicted killer was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime after the jury in the case took less than one hour to reach a guilty verdict.
Prior to Murdaugh’s sentencing on Friday morning, the prosecutors in the case sought life in prison without the possibility of parole for the convicted killer – although they pushed to spare Murdaugh the death penalty.
“Justice was done today,” Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor in the case, said after Murdaugh was found guilty on Thursday. “It doesn’t matter who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, or people think you have. It doesn’t matter how prominent you are.”
“If you do wrong, if you break the law, if you murder, then justice will be done in South Carolina,” Waters added a few short hours before Murdaugh’s sentencing was announced.
Despite being found guilty of murdering his wife and son, Murdaugh insisted he was innocent both before and after his life sentence was announced on Friday morning.
Judge Clifton Newman, who oversaw Murdaugh’s two-week double-murder trial, also revealed Murdaugh was lucky not to receive the death penalty for his vicious crimes – particularly because Murdaugh previously prosecuted individuals who ultimately received the death penalty sentence.
"I don't question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty,” Judge Newman said in the South Carolina courthouse on Friday morning.
“But as I sit here in this courtroom and look around at the many portraits of judges and other court officials and reflect on the fact that over the past century, your family — including you — have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom, and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct," he added.
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Judge Newman also admonished Murdaugh for repeatedly lying to the jury regarding where he was on the night of June 7, 2021 when Maggie and Paul were murdered, and warned the convicted killer he will have to see his slain wife and son "all day and every night” while he lives out the rest of his life behind bars.
"It has already ended for many who have heard you and concluded that it'll never end but within your own soul, you will have to deal with that,” the judge said. “And I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you're attempting to go to sleep.”
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“I'm sure they come and visit you, I'm sure.”
Shortly after Murdaugh’s two consecutive life sentences were announced Friday morning, Judge Newman adjourned the court.
