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Federal prosecutors are pushing back against convicted killer Alex Murdaugh‘s bid to reduce his federal sentence, arguing the confessed fraudster “entered into a knowing and voluntary appeal waiver” as part of his plea agreement – and that any challenges to his sentence “fall within the scope of that waiver.”
In a document filed in U.S. district court on Thursday (August 8, 2024), attorneys in the office of Adair Ford Boroughs – the top federal prosecutor in the Palmetto State – said Murdaugh’s frustration that his forty-year federal prison sentence was too high was “not a basis for escaping his valid and enforceable appeal waiver.”
At the time of his guilty plea, Murdaugh promised to cooperate fully with federal investigators – and to forego any appeal related to his sentencing on the charges. After judge Richard Gergel doled out a harsher sentence than Murdaugh expected, however, his attorneys shifted course and filed an appeal claiming his Eighth Amendment rights had been violated.
According to the feds, Eighth Amendment claims “are not exempt from the waiver.”
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“If the court holds that his claims can move forward simply because he couched them in Eighth Amendment terms, every defendant discontent with his sentence could evade his binding and valid appeal waiver just by calling the sentence ‘disproportional,'” attorneys Emily Limehouse, Winston Holliday and Kathleen Stoughton wrote in the federal filing (.pdf). “The exception would swallow the rule, and appeal waivers would become meaningless.”
According to the prosecutors, Gergel determined “Murdaugh was fully competent and capable of entering an informed plea, and that his plea was knowing and voluntary.”
In other words, he “knowingly and intelligently waived the right to challenge his sentence.”
Not only that, federal prosecutors pushed back at arguments from Murdaugh’s counsel that his sentence was “grossly disproportionate” – or that they had attempted to use the financial crimes trial to hold him accountable for the murders he was convicted of committing at the state level.
“Murdaugh’s sentence is not grossly disproportionate to his offenses,” they wrote. “It is just and wholly deserved. Murdaugh committed two sets of heinous crimes: he executed his wife and son, and he stole over $10 million from people who trusted him. He should be punished for both.”
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Murdaugh originally signed a plea deal related to his federal financial offenses in September of 2023, but this agreement nearly collapsed when prosecutors accused him of failing to fully disclose “hidden assets” while under polygraph examination. This alleged failure resulted in a prosecutorial motion to revoke Murdaugh’s plea deal.
Eventually, both sides came back to the table – and reached a plea agreement.
At a federal court hearing on April 1, 2024, Gergel sentenced Murdaugh to forty years in prison for nearly two dozen financial crimes – and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $8.8 million. This federal sentence is running concurrent with the life imprisonment Murdaugh received in March 2023 for the murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and their younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh. Additionally, Murdaugh is serving a negotiated sentence of 27 years in the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) as part of a plea agreement involving financial crimes prosecuted by the state.
While Murdaugh is unlikely to prevail on the appeal of his federal fraud conviction, his attorneys – Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Phillip Barber and Maggie Fox – have him well-positioned at both the state and federal level as it relates to various appeals of his murder conviction.
Count on this media outlet to keep our audience up to speed on the very latest developments as this case continues to play out on multiple fronts in state and federal courtrooms.
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THE MOTION…
(U.S. District Court)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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3 comments
Again FITS, I am NOT a lawyer (only better than most), but you made an error and Richard Alex Murdaugh’s (RAM) is making a serious one.
Yours, FITS, that the Government’s motion is not to U.S. District Judge Gergel in Charleston but to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit which sits in Richmond, Va.
RAM’s defense team is making the most serious error in arguing MAINLY that the sentence is excessive. If I were his lawyer, and according to some U.S. Supreme Court decisions, an inmate may use non-lawyers to assist him, I would argue to withdraw RAM’s guilty pleas ALTOGETHER in both state and federal courts.
Yes! RAM testified that he was sober, etc. But how could a lay person know how depressed he really was and incapable of making rational decisions after the murders of his wife and younger son were FALSELY pinned on him?
That is where it is at, not some claim of excessiveness.
Anyone searching for the “real killers”?
Nobody should enter into a plea agreement with the feds, since federal judges are not bound to abide by the agreed upon sentences. Generally, federal proceedings seem unfair to defendants.