Jurors returned to the Colleton County Courthouse on Monday morning as Alex Murdaugh‘s defense team is set to rest their case to begin the final week of his trial on double murder charges for allegedly wife and son at the family’s hunting lodge in June 2021.
The 54-year-old disgraced legal scion – disbarred soon after murder allegations and various alleged financial improprieties came to light – is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and their youngest son Paul Murdaugh, 22.
The final handful of witnesses set to be presented by attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin will come on the heels of the defendant’s own rare decision to take the stand in his own defense – performance that elicited mixed reviews from legal experts.
Last week, lead prosecutor Creighton Waters spent considerable time and energy seeking to establish that Alex Murdaugh came from a “prominent” legal family in the Lowcountry region and that he was a “successful” lawyer. These suggestions produced a palpable amount of pushback from the defendant over the choice of words used to describe his esteem in the community and how well he plied his trade.
“I’m not sure about your adjective,” the defendant said at one point, while admitting he did make millions of dollars winning and settling cases, and “was the president of the trial lawyer’s association.”
“By those criteria I was successful, certainly, but I don’t feel successful sitting here today,” Murdaugh mused before the jury.
Additional Law&Crime coverage: ‘Horrible move’: criminal defense attorneys criticize Alex Murdaugh taking the stand in his defense
In a brief conference after jurors left last Friday, the defense signaled they would call four more witnesses to wrap things up. The state will likely want to cross-examine at least some of those expert witnesses. Closing arguments will follow soon after that.
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