The judge who presided over the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh “has no doubt” that the legal scion loved his wife and son, but says he will never “sleep in peace” after killing them.
Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh, 54, to two consecutive life sentences earlier this month for killing his wife, Maggie, 52, and their youngest son, Paul, 22, on the sprawling hunting estate of the family on the night of June 7, 2021.
Now he has spoken publicly for the first time since the trial concluded with a talk at his alma mater, Cleveland State University, which included fascinating insights into his approach to the trial.
Newman gained national attention during the trial, including for his powerful sentencing comments. Imprisoning Murdaugh for life, he told him: ‘I know you have to see Paul and Maggie at night when you’re trying to sleep. They will surely come to visit you.
Speaking at CSU on Tuesday, Newman elaborated on his comments, saying, “In my opinion, he certainly loved his family.”
Speaking publicly for the first time since he sentenced Murdaugh to life in prison, Judge Clifton Newman said he had “no doubt” the lawyer loved his family.
Alex Murdaugh with his wife Maggie and their sons Buster (left) and Paul (right)
“I don’t think he hates his wife and I certainly don’t think he doesn’t love his son, but he committed an unforgivable, unimaginable crime, and there’s no way he can sleep easy,” he said. said the judge.
Newman also shrugged off the international attention he garnered during the trial.
“I was just a judge in a trial doing my job, as I have done repeatedly over the years,” he said.
Newman also explained his decision to allow jurors to visit Murdaugh’s ranch, where the murders occurred.
“It ended up, I thought, being useful to the prosecution and not to the defense, even though the defense requested it,” the judge said.
“But this crime scene was a remote, remote, remote area, and it was easy for law enforcement to secure the scene and for jurors to go out and reflect on what they had been told through testimony and shown through the testimony. , through photos and videos, to see for themselves.’
He also conceded that his decision to allow Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds to be used in the trial was “controversial”.
Murdaugh stole millions of dollars from his legal clients and his law firm, but his lawyers in the murder trial argued that the jury shouldn’t know about it. Prosecutors said he pushed him to kill his wife and son.
During the trial, Newman said the jury “was entitled to consider whether Mr. Murdaugh’s apparent desperation, due to his dire financial situation and the threat of discovery for committing the crimes of which he was later charged, resulted in the commission of the [murders].’
During his talk on Tuesday, the judge said he initially planned to rule that much of the evidence should be limited to the “time of day of the murders.”
But he added: ‘The lawyers, I ruled, opened the door to many other things by the way they presented the evidence.
“Then, of course, once the defendant gets on the stand and testifies, then pretty much everything is fair game at that point.”
Murdaugh has maintained his innocence and his lawyers filed a motion on March 9 to appeal his conviction.
He is currently being held in his own cell at the Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center, where he will undergo 45 days of testing before the South Carolina Department of Corrections decides where he should be permanently placed.
During the trial, jurors heard from more than 75 witnesses and viewed almost 800 pieces of evidence.
They also heard about Murdaugh’s betrayal of friends and clients, his failed attempt to fake his own death in an insurance fraud scheme, a fatal accident involving his son, the housekeeper who died in a fall on the Murdaugh’s house and the spooky scene. of the killings.
Alex Murdaugh in a mugshot with a shaved head and dressed in a yellow jumpsuit after being booked into South Carolina’s Kirkland Reception and Assessment Center.
Justice Clifton Newman made a scathing assessment of Murdaugh’s ‘duplicity’; character
Eventually, the lawyer took the stand to admit that he stole millions of dollars from the family business and from clients, saying he needed the money to finance his opioid addiction.
He also admitted that he had lied to investigators about being at the kennels where Maggie and Paul died, saying he was paranoid with law enforcement because he was addicted to opioids and had pills in his pocket the night of the murders.
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.
When he gave evidence, Murdaugh appeared to cry as he repeatedly denied killing his wife.
But the jurors rejected his sad story. Juror Craig Moyer said he discovered another lie.
never cried All he did was blow his nose,” Moyer said after the trial. ‘Without tears. I saw his eyes. I was that close to him.
The jury took only hours to convict him.