Federal court rejects Murdaugh’s appeal that 40 years is too harsh for stealing millions

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A federal court rejected this Alex Murdaugh’s request to have his 40-year prison sentence for theft from clients and his law firm waived. The disgraced South Carolina attorney said his sentence is 10 years longer than what prosecutors recommended.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said in April that he would for a heavier prison sentence because Murdaugh had stolen from “the neediest, most vulnerable people,” had clients maimed by wrecks or lost loved ones, and had pinned all their problems and all their hopes on the now-disbarred lawyer.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided Tuesday to dismiss the appeal, saying in a two-page ruling that when Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty, he waived his right to appeal except in extraordinary circumstances, and that a heavier than expected punishment was not the case. t count.

Murdaugh’s attorneys said they are now considering their options. The 40-year federal sentence is considered a safety net in case Murdaugh, 56, wins a separate appeal of the life sentence he is serving in a South Carolina prison for the murder of his wife and son.

Murdaugh testified in his own defense at the trial and adamantly denied shooting his family. The South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to consider whether his murder convictions should be as well thrown out because his lawyers said a clerk might have done so tampered with the jury.

In the federal theft case, Murdaugh’s lawyers said his right to cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution was violated because Gergel ignored the 17 1/2 years to just under 22 years in prison recommended by federal agents and the 30 years that proposed by prosecutors. he sentenced Murdaugh to 40 years.

In response to his appeal, federal prosecutors simply noted that when Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty, he signed a document stating he would not appeal unless prosecutors lied or his lawyers were inadequate.

Murdaugh admitted that he stolen from his customers in cases of wrongful death and injury. In handing down the harsh sentence, Gergel mentioned theft from a state soldier who was injured in the line of duty, and a trust fund intended for children whose parents had died in an accident.

Those people “placed all their problems and all their hopes” on their attorney, Gergel said.

Murdaugh’s lawyers compared his case to a 25-year prison sentence for crypto entrepreneurs Sam Bankman-Fried and the 11-year prison sentence imposed on the CEO of Theranos Elizabeth Holmessaying they stole billions, while Murdaugh only stole millions.

But the victims in those cases were investors, while Murdaugh stole from vulnerable people who trusted him to protect their legal interests.

Even though this federal appeal was denied, Murdaugh’s cases will remain on appeal for years to come.

The courts have not even begun to hear Murdaugh’s argument that the judge in his murder trial made mistakes, for example by allowing his monetary thefts to serve as evidence. That was crucial to the prosecution’s argument that the murders were intended to buy sympathy and time to prevent the thefts from being discovered.

Investigators said Murdaugh was addicted to opioids and that his complex plans to steal money from clients and his family’s law firm began to fall apart when he shot his youngest son Paul with a shotgun and his wife Maggie with one rifle in their Colleton County home in 2021.