Alex Murdaugh conviction overturned

Accused on right; victims on left

Not exactly block news, but the South Caroline Supreme Court today overturned the murder conviction of Alex Murdaugh (confusingly and paradoxically pronounced “Alec Murdock”). Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering his wife and son (to the left in the picture above).

Billed as the “trial of the century” in South Carolina, the trial got a ton of attention (including from me) because of Murdaugh’s stature in the South Carolina “lowcountry”—the Murdaugh family had essentially acted as district attorney in the region for generations—and due to the crime itself. Murdaugh purportedly shot his wife and son at close range to take the heat off of himself in connection with being investigated for all sorts of drug problems and financial malfeasance. Murdaugh himself then made the situation even more bizarre than it already was by botching an attempt to hire a hit man to kill himself and testifying in his own defense at trial. This is the best and most twisted trial available on YouTube, with possible apologies to the Adelson family.

Conviction was overturned because of a court clerk that said things to the jury to the effect of “watch his [Murdaugh’s] body language”—suggesting that Murdaugh was guilty. Case is going to be retried soon.