COLUMBIA, S.C. — Attorneys for convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh on Monday, November 13, 2023, filed a motion to both change the location and delay by a year the state trial of Murdaugh for alleged financial crimes.
In requesting to change the trial venue, Murdaugh's attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin pointed to the "unprecedented media coverage since the murder of his wife an son in 2021," which they said would prevent the seating of fair and impartial jurors for the trial.
Attorneys noted that Murdaugh's criminal trial in the death of his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, which ended with a conviction in March of 2023, was broadcast live through many media outlets and seen by millions.
According to Murdaugh's attorneys, 147 of 167 potential jurors admitted having prior knowledge about Murdaugh and his criminal charges when answering a juror questionnaire.
"When a change of venue motion is predicated on pre-trial publicity, the relevant inquiry is whether potential jurors have 'such fixed options that they could not judge impartially the guilt of the defendant,' " Murdaugh's attorneys said in the motion.
Harpootlian and Griffin went on to argue that in a juror's statement, prospective jurors can say they can set aside what they had previously heard and can be fair and impartial, but that cannot be blindly accepted. "'[P]rejudice is presumed from pretrial publicity when pretrial publicity is sufficiently prejudicial and inflammatory and the prejudicial publicity saturated the community where the trials were held" they wrote.
While state law authorizes the court to impanel a jury from any county in the state and transport the jury Beaufort County for trial, Murdaugh's attorneys argue that it is unlikely that prospective jurors from any county in the circuit would be less exposed to media coverage and that should not be an option.
Attorneys further argued that while it is possible some prospective jurors in Upstate counties might not have followed the trial as closely, it is unlikely.
The better course of action, they argued, is to continue the trial and any related trials until at least one year after the conclusion of the murder trial. "What is the rush to dispose of this case before the end of 2023?" Harpootlian and Griffin wrote.
With Murdaugh having pled guilty to the federal charges for the same actions for which the state charges, attorneys said victims will have their day in court at Murdaugh's federal sentencing. "Certainly, there are older criminal cases pending in Beaufort County with victims who are waiting for their rights to be vindicated," they wrote.
"There is no good reason to try this case, or any other pending cases against the Defendant, ahead of older pending criminal cases," Murdaugh's attorneys wrote.
Back in September, prosecuting attorney Creighton Waters asked Judge Clifton Newman to schedule a trial before the end of this year.
"Alex Murdaugh represents 101 total charges for an alleged loss of almost $8.8 million dollars," Waters told the courtroom in September. "This is about allegations that represent an assault on the state judiciary and because of that they need to be answered."
Ultimately, Newman scheduled the new trial date for Nov. 27.
Meanwhile, the defense team has asked for a new trial in the death of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh based on potential jury tampering by Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill
The defense team has also asked that Judge Newman no longer work on any case associated with Murdaugh, including his hearing for a motion for a new trial and his state charges on financial crimes. Newman has presided over most of Alex Murdaugh's legal cases, including his murder trial earlier this year.
No hearings have been scheduled in connection with either the motion for a new murder trial or for Judge Newman to be removed from Murdaugh cases.