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Prominent US attorney Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murdering wife and son

2023-03-03T02:35:03.714Z


It was about fraud, drugs and a failed contract killing: The Alex Murdaugh case has been occupying the United States for months. Now the jury has reached a verdict.


Enlarge image

Alex Murdaugh during the proceedings

Photo:Jeff Blake/AP

Even Netflix has now taken on the case in a true crime format.

Now a double homicide trial, which is being followed with suspense in the USA, is about to be concluded.

The defendant has been found guilty in the case against well-known lawyer Alex Murdaugh.

A jury found Thursday in Walterboro, South Carolina that the 54-year-old shot his wife and son.

The lawyer faces life imprisonment, the sentence is to be announced at a later date.

The jury followed the prosecutor's allegations with their guilty verdict.

The lawyer, who belongs to a prominent legal family, shot dead his 52-year-old wife Maggie and his 22-year-old son Paul on June 7, 2021 at the family's property in South Carolina.

At the time, Murdaugh himself had alerted the police and said he had found the bodies.

Later, however, the lawyer came under suspicion – and was finally accused of double murder in July 2022.

The trial generated tremendous interest in the United States, with television stations broadcasting from the courtroom almost daily.

Murdaugh has denied the crimes.

However, he had to admit in court that he lied about his presence at the crime scene.

His voice can be heard on a cell phone video that his son Paul recorded shortly before the fatal shooting.

Alleged dependence on opiates

The sensational criminal case had occupied South Carolina for more than a year.

Murdaugh has previously been charged with insurance fraud, theft and other offenses and has been in custody since October.

He is accused of paying a man to shoot him dead in September last year so his son Buster would collect more than $10 million in life insurance.

Curtis Smith, a former client of Murdaugh's who Murdaugh allegedly hired as an assassin, botched the job and fired a bullet that only grazed Murdaugh.

He sustained a head injury, survived and was flown to a hospital.

The staged assassination attempt came a day after Murdaugh was fired from his law firm for alleged embezzlement of millions of dollars.

Murdaugh himself admitted a few days later that he had staged the assassination himself.

His lawyer Dick Harpootlian said in September that his client was addicted to opiates and had spent heavily on the highly addictive painkiller oxycodone.

He wanted to take his own life, but feared that in this case the life insurance would not be paid out to his son.

That's why he wanted to make it look like he was gunned down, Harpootlian said at the time.

jok/AFP

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2023-03-03

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