In a remarkable courtroom moment, the judge in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial spoke in stark terms before sentencing the disgraced lawyer to life in prison Friday for the murders of his wife and son. Judge Clifton Newman was personal and cutting in his lengthy remarks, saying Murdaugh’s slain wife and son must “come and visit” him whenever he tries to sleep.
The judge also described how “heartbreaking” it was to see Murdaugh, the once respected lawyer who he met many times in court and socially, go from being depicted as a grieving father and husband to being convicted of murder.
Here’s how Newman addressed Murdaugh before sentencing him to life in prison:
The downfall of a once prominent attorney
“This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases not just for me as a judge, for the state, for the defense team, but for all of the citizens in this community, all the citizens in this state, as we have seen based on the media coverage throughout the nation,” Newman said. “You have a wife who has been killed, murdered. A son savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from the respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather’s portrait hang at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense.
“It is also particularly troubling, Mr. Murdaugh, because as a member of the legal community, and a well known member of the legal community, you have practiced law before me, and we have seen each other at various occasions throughout the years, and it was especially heartbreaking for me to see you go in the media from being a grieving father who lost a wife and a son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them, and you have engaged in such duplicitous conduct here in the courtroom, here on the witness stand, and as established by the testimony throughout the time leading from the time of the indictment and prior to the indictment throughout the trial to this moment in time, certainly you have no obligation to say anything other than saying not guilty.
“Obviously, as appeals are probably expected or absolutely expected, I would not expect a confession of any kind. In fact, as I have presided over murder cases over the past 22 years, I have yet to find a defendant who could go there, who could go back to that moment in time when they decided to pull the trigger or to otherwise murder someone. I have not been able to get anyone, any defendant, even those who have confessed to being guilty to go back and explain to me what happened at that moment in time when they opted to pull the trigger, when they opted to commit the most heinous crime known to man.”
Murdaugh admits he lied ‘and continued to lie’
“This case qualifies under our death penalty statue based on the statutory aggravating circumstances of two or more people being murdered by the defendant by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty. 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.
“Remind me of the expression you gave on the witness stand. Oh, what tangled web we weave. What did you mean by that?”
“I meant when I lied, I continued to lie,” Murdaugh replied.
“And the question is when will it end? When will it end? And it has ended already for the jury, because they’ve concluded that you continue to lie and lied throughout your testimony. And perhaps with all the throng of people here, they for the most part all believe or 80, 90& or 99% believe that you continue to lie now when your statement of denial to the court.”
Opioid pills may have made Murdaugh a ‘monster’
“We conducted a pretrial hearing in which you claim to have been someplace else at the time the crime was committed, and then after all of the witnesses placed you at the scene of the crime, at the last minutes or days you switched courses and admitted to being there. And then that necessitated more lies and continued to lie, and I say when will it end, it has already ended for many who have heard you and concluded that it will never end.
“But within your own soul, you have to deal with that. And I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you, I’m sure.”
Murdaugh replied: “All day and every night.”
“I’m sure,” Newman said. “And they will continue to do so. And reflect on the last time they looked you in the eyes, as you looked the jury in the eyes.”
“A person whose always been such a gregarious, friendly person caused his life to be tangled in such a web, such a situation that yours has spun into. It’s so unfortunate because you had such a lovely family of such friendly people, including you. To go from that to this. Your license to practice law has been stripped away from you, you’ve turned from lawyer to witness and now you have an opportunity to make your final appeal as an ex-lawyer.
Murdaugh insisted: “I will tell you again. I respect this court, but I am innocent. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife Maggie and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son paw-paw.”
“And it might not have been you,” Newman replied. “It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills, and maybe you become another person. I have seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it is the same individual. We’ll leave that at that.”
Sentencing Murdaugh for the murders of his wife and son
“I can just imagine on that day, June 7, when a lawyer is confronted and confesses to having stolen over half a million dollars from a client, and he has a tagger like Mark Tinsley on his tail pursuing discovery in the case involving the death of Mallory Beach and having a father for the most part on his deathbed. I can imagine, or I really can’t imagine, but I know that it had to be quite a bit going through your mind on that day. But amazingly to have you come and testify that it was just another ordinary day, that my wife and son and I were out just enjoying life. It is not credible. It is not believable. You can convince yourself about it, but obviously, you have the inability to convince anyone else about that.
“So, if you made any such arguments as a lawyer, you would lose every case like that, cases you will never have an opportunity to argue anymore, except perhaps your own as you sit in the Department of Corrections.
“Anything further?” the judge asked.
“No, sir,” Murdaugh’s lawyer replied.
“Mr. Murdaugh, I sentence you to the state Department of Corrections on each of the murder indictments. In the murder of your wife Maggie Murdaugh. I sentence you for the term of the rest of your natural life. For the murder of Paul Murdaugh, whom you probably loved so much, I sentence you to prison for murdering him for the rest of your natural life. Those sentences will run consecutive. Under the statute involving possession of a weapon during a violent crime there is no sentence, where a life sentence is imposed on other indictments. That is the sentence of the court and you are remanded to the state Department of Corrections. And officers may carry forth on the imposition.”