Alex Murdaugh was heckled on his way out of court today after being sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son in what is the death knell of a once-revered southern dynasty family and its disgraced patriarch.  Murdaugh will serve two consecutive life sentences for murdering Maggie and Paul  the family’s hunting lodge in June 2021. He faces between 30 years and life in prison. Among those in court today and throughout the trial was Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster, who was crestfallen as Judge Clifton Newman announced his father would spend the rest of his life behind bars. 

The jury’s lightning-fast verdict stunned many after the six-week trial, which produced a mountain of evidence  and testimony. Prosecutors today requested the maximum sentence available – two consecutive life sentences.  Before handing down his sentence, Judge Clifton Newman gave a searing assessment of Murdaugh’s ‘duplicitous’ character and said it’s possible his opioid addiction turned him into a ‘monster’. 

Murdaugh spoke briefly before sentencing, telling the judge: ‘I am innocent. I would never my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paul Paul.’  Judge Newman also told of the irony that Murdaugh had been spared the death penalty when his legal dynasty family had spent over a century sending others to their deaths in the same courthouse.