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As required by law, attorneys for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh served the state of South Carolina with notice of their intention to appeal his recent Colleton County convictions on murder and weapons charges.
The notice doesn’t lay out any specific grounds for Murdaugh’s appeal, it merely states that he “appeals his convictions and sentences.”
Murdaugh’s formal appeal will be forthcoming …
The notice was filed in the S.C. court of appeals by attorneys Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin and Maggie Fox – all of whom represented Murdaugh in his double homicide trial in Colleton County from January 23 – March 3, 2023. A copy was served on lead prosecutor Creighton Waters, who led a team including his boss – S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson.
“Our office handles all appeals and Alex Murdaugh’s will be no different,” Wilson said. “We’ll continue to defend our case throughout the entire appellate process.”
A nine-judge panel based in Columbia, S.C., the court of appeals hears cases from circuit court and family court. It consists of a chief judge (Bruce Williams) and eight associate judges – each of whom are elected by the S.C. General Assembly to staggered terms of six years each.
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The court can sits either as three panels of three judges apiece or as a whole – and can hear oral arguments and motions in any county of the state.
Murdaugh was found guilty last Thursday by a Colleton County jury in the savage slayings of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021 at Moselle – the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property straddling the Salkehatchie River on the border of Colleton and Hampton counties. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by S.C. circuit court judge Clifton Newman last Friday.
The scion of an influential South Carolina legal dynasty, Murdaugh once led the Palmetto State’s powerful trial lawyers’ lobby. Today, he remains squarely at the epicenter of a maze of alleged criminality known as the ‘Murdaugh Murders’ crime and corruption saga.
Speaking of that saga, Wilson’s office is preparing to move forward with the next round of criminal charges against Murdaugh.
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THE NOTICE …
(Via: )
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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9 comments
Looks like Dick Harpootlian is going to suck every dime out of whatever the Murdaugh family has remaining so that the Beach family and multiple other victims will be left trying to get blood from a rock.
He is just saving his own butt. Alex has the goods on all and he wants to make sure he isn’t named. Alex is naming everyone now (that’s the smirk he had). Harpootlian has the most to protect here as he probably has the most skeletons out there. It’s a show. Waste everyone’s time. This will never get over turned.
Sad, but probably true. I hope the Beach family get some kind of judicial relief. Great post.
I don’t think there’s too much to suck out of Murdaugh. Where did that nearly $9,000,000 go? That’s one hell of an oxycodone addiction.
Any money that Murdaugh stole should go to the victims that he stole from with PMPED and his brother Randy at the end of the money train.
Is it just me or has Pooty proven beyond any doubt that he has no morale or ethics? I mean to allow his client to lie and go blatantly with what he knows to be a lie, even saying it himself to an extent. That is not law. That is telling a lie under court oath himself. He has proven he is not fit for office. He should recuse himself from being in office anymore. Yes, the case which normally should be separated from his legal practices, but to the extent he lied in a courthouse judges how he governs in the chamber as well as there is no separation from the two to his character from how much he himself lied in there, and because of that he should no longer be in office. I call on you to do the right thing and step down. Hopefully someone will explain to him why he should.
Shame that Griffin allowed his wagon to be hitched to this jack ass and his rolling manure wagon of a case. Ol’pooty poot has been shown as an out of touch, doddering, has been, what a sad way to be remembered. I agree that they’ll suck ol’Elick dry, it will be interesting to see if the plead the financial mis-dealings down now as he has admitted 70-80% of the crimes and regardless of his appeal, that testimony can be used against him.
An appeal is unsurprising given what seems to be Murdaugh’s lifelong resistance to accepting responsibility. I suspect he will try to avoid the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life. Prison will be difficult for him.
Lots of facts not presented in the trial coming out:
The hair in Maggie’s hand was her own according to a CSI
Every one who steppped near Paul came away with a soupy blood/water mix that was NOT present on “Elick’s” feet/shoes according to a CSI indicating that he never actually went near the bodies after he changed clothes
Investigators noticed “Elick’s” ability to turn the tears on and off early on
Fox has a video of the “rehabilitated” Paul showing his ass in the Caribbean 2017
Looks like Southern vitriol is still going strong. Alex’s case should never have been tried in a place where everyone hates him. Absolutely should’ve been a change of venue. He had no chance of a fair trial based on all the comments posted on FITSnews articles. It’s obvious he committed a bunch of despicable financial crimes, but it’s a huge leap to killing one’s own family. Based on the talk show circuit the jurors are currently engaged in, their motives are clear. Everyone is all for a fair trial until the trial is for someone they don’t like.