Alex Murdaugh’s attorney says he is ‘mad as hell’ after jailhouse phone call is leaked

A jailhouse phone call between Alex Murdaugh and his defense attorney Jim Griffin that occurred during the convicted murderer’s trial has been revealed.

In a leaked audio recording, released by the Hidden True Crime podcast on one of its episodes, Murdaugh can be heard talking to Griffin about his trial for the murder of his wife Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22. .

Speaking from inside the Colleton County Jail, Murdaugh can be heard saying in the leaked call: “Please don’t think I’m being critical because I’m not, I don’t think you could have done a better job with him.” .

“But I do think it’s something to think about because it seems like a big deal to me and that, I don’t know if the jury understands at this point,” Murdaugh adds. It is not clear who he is referring to.

Griffin, who is appealing Murdaugh’s life sentence for the murder of his wife and son on their 1,800-acre hunting ground in South Carolina, confirmed the authenticity of the leaked call, saying he was “mad as hell” that it had been published.

The Hidden True Crime podcast obtained the recording, which took place when Murdaugh was in the Colleton County Jail during his murder trial, after the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office sent it to them in “mistaken way.”

After the episode, a social media user shared a clip of the call and questioned whether its disclosure was a breach of client-attorney confidentiality. Griffin later tweeted that he was furious that he had taken the plunge.

‘It’s me and I’m mad as hell. Stay tuned,’ Griffin tweeted, suggesting he might take action on the leak. Most conversations between attorneys and their clients are protected by the attorney-client privilege.

The Colleton County Sheriff’s Office said the phone call was accidentally put out through “human error.” They said that when they realized the error, they asked the podcast not to share it.

They said in a statement issued to carolina fox: ‘The Colleton County Sheriff’s Office became aware of an attorney/client privilege call that was on social media this past weekend.

The release of the attorney/client call was an unintentional human error. The release of the jail calls was a response to a FOIA request.

‘All jail calls had to be reviewed by listening to the first few seconds of each call to determine if they fell under attorney/client privilege. Several calls were removed, but this call inadvertently remained on the list for publication.

“An email was sent to the requester to inform them that the call was under attorney/client privilege and that they would not share the call.”

But the Hidden True Crime podcast said on Twitter that they released the audio recording because they believe in transparency and providing the public with information deemed public by officials.

‘As a trained journalist, I am passionate about FOIA and transparency. If government employees consider a recording to be PUBLIC, I believe in releasing it to the public. The Murduagh family represents secrets and cover-ups. I value otherwise,’ Hidden True Crime tweeted.

Murdaugh is currently in the high-security Kirkland Correctional Institution, one of South Carolina’s most notorious prisons.

And while the disgraced former lawyer escaped death row for the murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul, a third life sentence would mean Murdaugh will spend the rest of his life behind bars under the state’s ‘three strikes’ law. ‘.

He is currently appealing his murder conviction, but the state is specifically seeking three additional breach of trust convictions totaling $10,000 or more.

Three additional convictions on the breach of trust charges would result in a life sentence, eliminating his chance for parole.

Murdaugh’s trial lasted six weeks and included more than 75 witnesses, but culminated in a jury that took less than three hours to find the 54-year-old man guilty of fatally shooting his wife and son.

Murdaugh called 911 on the night of June 7, 2021, and said he found his son and wife dead as he returned home from an hour-long visit with his mother, who has dementia.

Authorities said Paul was shot twice with a shotgun, each round loaded with different sized buckshot, while Maggie took four or five bullets from a rifle.

A crime scene report suggested that both victims were shot in the head after initially being wounded near the kennels on the Murdaughs’ sprawling rural property.

Prosecutors took more than a year to charge the disgraced lawyer with murder, but decided against the death penalty. Murdaugh, who is also charged with around 100 counts of financial and other crimes, strongly denied any involvement in the killings.

Murdaugh could have received as little as 30 years behind bars, but the judge gave him the maximum: two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

After the trial, some jurors said the key piece of evidence in finding the lawyer guilty was a video on his son Paul’s cell phone that was filmed minutes before the killings at the kennels near where the bodies were found.

The voices of all three Murdaughs can be heard in the video, although Alex Murdaugh had insisted for 20 months that he had not been in the pound that night.

When he took the stand in his own defense, the first thing he did was admit that he had lied to investigators about being in the kennels, saying he was paranoid with law enforcement because he was addicted to opioids and had pills in his pocket. the night of the incident. the murderers

Murdaugh’s testimony only cemented what they were already thinking: that he lied easily and could turn his tears on and off at will, jurors said.

Attorney Dick Harpootlian filed Murdaugh’s appeal with the South Carolina Court of Appeals.

Prosecutors did not have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence such as confessions or blood spatter.

But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including video showing Murdaugh at the scene of the murders five minutes before his wife and son were to stop using their cell phones for good.

Through more than 75 witnesses and nearly 800 pieces of evidence, jurors heard about betrayed friends and clients, Murdaugh’s failed attempt to fake his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal boating accident in the one involving his son, the housekeeper who died in a fall at the Murdaugh house and the grisly scene of the murders.

The now-disbarred lawyer admitted to stealing millions of dollars from the family business and from clients, saying he needed the money to finance his drug addiction. Before being charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.