Alex Murdaugh’s lawyer vows appeal, says jury could have watched trial ‘on Netflix’

Alex Murdaugh’s defense team says the intense interest in his trial cost him a good chance, telling reporters outside today’s sentencing hearing that the jury “could have watched it all on Netflix.”

Murdaugh was found guilty yesterday of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul at the family’s South Carolina hunting lodge.

He pleaded their innocence during a successful six-week trial, but failed to convince the jury that someone else was responsible for their deaths.

Today, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms by a judge who called him a ‘monster’.

During the trial, Netflix released a documentary series about his crimes and about the family’s complicated web of controversy and death.

There was also 18 months of intense public interest in the family, Murdaugh and his alleged crimes, which include a failed suicide attempt, embezzlement from his law firm and theft from his late housekeeper’s children.

Today, Murdaugh’s attorneys, State Sen. Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, said he never got a chance at a fair trial given that interest, and that prosecutors won the case when they convinced the jury that he was a liar.

‘He [jury] I heard everything. We were hoping to have a jury that could ignore the noise and focus on the murder.

“They ended up trying a case that they could have watched on Netflix,” Griffin said.

Harpootlian also defended putting Murdaugh on the stand, a move that put off jurors, saying he had “no choice” but to try to defend himself against the image that had been painted.

‘He had been passed off as a monster who stole children and maimed people… he had to try to reject that.

‘If I had let that happen without taking the stand, I was fried. Take the stand, could you make it? He apparently he didn’t.

Harpootlian also criticized a ‘comedy of errors’ by the police while collecting evidence. Police were initially told by the grand jury that indicted Murdaugh that she found blood spatters on his shirt, when no such blood spatters have ever been detected.

Murdaugh maintains that someone else killed his wife and son, but that police were too focused on him from the start to seriously look for other suspects.

It’s not our job to find the real killer. If they had taken fingerprints, footprints… misrepresented to the grand jury that they had a shirt with his blood…

“It was a comedy of errors in forensic terms.

‘But do I have faith that they will find the real murderer? No,’ she raged.

They have promised to appeal the case and say they will take it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The lawyers added that Murdaugh’s family is “firm” in their support and more convinced than ever of his innocence.

“There was a lot of effort on the part of the state to convince the family that Alex is the killer. The family came to trial every day hoping to hear positive evidence that he killed Maggie and Paul.

“They came away more convinced that he didn’t do this,” Griffin said.

He also explained why Buster, Murdaugh’s surviving son, did not make an impact statement today before his term was handed down.

‘We could have had Mother Teresa there speaking in support of him and it wouldn’t have made a difference. He was to receive a double life sentence.

That was to be expected. This is Judge Newman. He is a very strict punisher when it comes to crimes and sentencing, that was never in dispute.

‘For Buster to stand up and speak for his father, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

‘And why would you want to put that child through more trauma than anyone we can imagine has gone through?’

Buster stood by his father every day in court, but has yet to make any public statement about the murders of his mother and brother, or about the accusations against his father.

As Alex Murdaugh was leaving the courthouse, a rioter yelled, ‘Buster’s next! Justice for Stephen Smith!

He was referring to Buster’s friend, 19, who died in 2015 and whose death remains unexplained.

The police reopened the investigation into Smith’s death after Maggie and Paul were killed.

Smith was found dead on the side of the road in 2015. His death was initially ruled a hit and run, but police now say he also had a blunt force trauma injury to his head.

The last name Murdaugh is mentioned throughout the police file detailing his death.

Alex Murdaugh told the court that at the time of his wife and son’s deaths, he was spending up to $50,000 a week on opioids to feed a crippling addiction that led him to lie frequently.

Handing down his sentence, Judge Clifford Newman said Murdaugh would be persecuted by his wife and son.

You have to see Paul and Maggie at night when you try to sleep. They will surely come to visit you. I’m sure,’ she said.

Murdaugh replied: ‘All day, all night.’

Judge Newman responded: ‘I’m sure. And they will continue to do so.