Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers teased that they have “multiple alternative theories” about the murders of the disgraced legal scion’s wife and son – and revealed he was “surprised” by his overturned conviction.
Murdaugh, 57, had been serving two consecutive life sentences without parole for the grisly 2021 executions of his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, after a jury found him guilty of the slayings following a dramatic six-week trial in 2023.
Now, he will get another chance to argue his long-professed innocence after the South Carolina Supreme Court shockingly tossed the conviction over jury tampering by former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill.
“I certainly did talk to him yesterday on our way up. He is very thankful for the result of the Supreme Court,” Murdaugh’s lead attorney, Jim Griffin, told “Fox & Friends” anchor Lawrence Jones Thursday, a day after the justices’ sensational 5-0 ruling was passed down.
“Interestingly, he’s somewhat surprised because in every step of the way during this process, every legal ruling seemed to have gone against him,” Griffin added.
Murdaugh – who had been “very skeptical” about his defense team’s appeal of the murder convictions over Hill’s misconduct – was initially in disbelief about the court’s decision, according to Griffin.
“Frankly, he said, ‘Jim, I just read the opinion and I still have a hard time believing it. It’s just sinking in now,’” his attorney said.
“I can tell you he is very relieved that he has gotten the label of convicted murderer of his wife and son off of him – and we plan to keep it off of him,” he continued.
Griffin disputed the anchor’s claim that “most people believe that your client did this” – and revealed that the defense team is sitting on “multiple alternative theories” for the murders of Paul and Maggie.
The mother-son duo were found gunned down near the outdoor dog kennels at the family’s sprawling hunting estate in Colleton County on June 7, 2021.
“I can tell you that most people that I talk to don’t believe [Murdaugh] did it,” Griffin said.
“His family doesn’t believe he did it and they don’t believe he could have done it. The evidence, frankly, doesn’t support that he did it,” he insisted.
Murdaugh’s sole surviving son, Buster, famously backed his father during the first trial, but distanced himself after the jury unanimously found him guilty.
Buster, now 30, was furious about the “nightmare” decision to overturn the conviction, a source close to him revealed Wednesday.
“Do we have an alternative suspect? No, we wish we did, but we have multiple alternative theories. After he was convicted the first time, we got a lot of tips and we suspect that the state got a lot of tips,” Griffin continued during the Fox & Friends interview.
“We’ve tried to follow up on those tips, but, you know, we’re limited with our resources. Now that we’re back to square one, you know, we think that that gives us more,” the attorney continued, before Jones interrupted him by asking about the alleged “tips.”
“I can tell you generally we received tips about where the murder weapons are. We’ve received tips about who was in the area that night and what motives they have,” Griffin said, and declined to provide more information.
Another member of Murdaugh’s defense team, Dick Harpootlian, insisted Hill, as well as the amount of time prosecutors focused on his client’s financial crimes, were solely responsible for the outcome of the first trial.
“He was not only prejudiced by these financial crimes – the court said yesterday [they] should not have come in,” Harpootlian said, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision to limit the amount of testimony about Murdaugh’s financial crimes that the state will be allowed to introduce during the double murder retrial.
Additionally, “he’s got somebody back there lobbying the jury to find him guilty.
“If you strip all that away, what do they have? They don’t have any forensics tying him to the murder scene. No DNA, no blood, no fingerprints. They have no weapons. They have no ballistics…matter of fact, there is technical evidence that would indicate he wasn’t there,” Harpootlian said.
“And there’s no motive,” Griffin interjected. “The manufactured motive that the state presented is ludicrous.”
Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh, the heir of a storied legal dynasty, killed Maggie and Paul to cover up his extensive financial crimes and over stresses related to a lawsuit by the family of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who died after Paul drunkenly crashed a boat into a bridge in December 2019.
A pre-trial hearing in the boat crash case, which had been scheduled to take place just three days after the murders, would have exposed Murdaugh’s criminal financial dealings, prosecutors said.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson told “Fox and Friends” Thursday that his office has “credible evidence that supports the conclusions that we came to the first time, and we intend to pursue those again.”
But legal experts told The Post that the second trial could play out very differently.
“[Murdaugh’s lawyers] can try to attack the case from a different angle, so I think he has higher odds of being acquitted now than he did before, simply because it’s been some time and his team knows how people think about it,” said criminal defense attorneyTyler Bailey of Columbia, South Carolina.
However, selecting a jury pool without knowledge of and personal opinions about the highly publicized case will be “a true nightmare,” according to fellow Columbia-based criminal defense attorney Dayne Phillips.
“I think it’s going to be impossible, just about, or highly improbable to find 12 people who don’t know anything about the case,” he warned.
But if an impartial jury can be selected and Murdaugh’s lawyers “rework their defense strategy, it could significantly improve his chances of acquittal,” Phillips agreed.
“It’s still an incredibly difficult position that he’s in, given the strength of the evidence that the prosecution has against him,” Phillips said.
Despite the overturned conviction, Murdaugh will remain behind bars serving concurrent 40-year federal and 27-year state sentences for financial crimes for stealing from his clients.
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