Murdaugh’s protection workforce plans to attraction his conviction, lawyer says

The protection workforce for Alex Murdaugh, who was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the murders of his spouse and son, plans to attraction the previous lawyer’s conviction, his legal professionals mentioned.

The workforce plans to file a discover of intention to attraction the choice inside 10 days. Legal professional Richard “Dick” Harpootlian shared the timeline in response to a query from a reporter exterior the courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, Friday.

A reporter adopted up with a query about what the protection believes is the strongest grounds for an attraction.

One other of Murdaugh’s attorneys, Jim Griffin, highlighted the admission of financial crimes evidence to be thought of in assist of the prosecution’s presented motive for the killings — to distract and delay investigations into Murdaugh’s rising monetary issues.

“That was being provided as motive for why he would go house and kill his spouse and son, which we thought was illogical and ludicrous,” Griffin mentioned. “There actually was no proof linking one to the opposite, and we didn’t suppose it ought to (be admitted).”

Extra context: The prosecution’s deal with Murdaugh’s monetary motive underscored the lack of direct evidence — comparable to a homicide weapon, bloody clothes or eyewitnesses — that related him to the killings. As a substitute, they hinged their case on circumstantial proof, together with a consequential video putting Murdaugh on the crime scene that evening.

Although the monetary proof was circuitously associated to the homicide expenses, the decide overseeing the case dominated to permit it, saying it was “so intimately related” with the state’s case “that proof of it’s important to finish the story.” He instructed jurors to solely think about the monetary proof as a part of the motive and never as a broader criticism of the defendant’s character.

CNN’s Eric Levenson and Alta Spells contributed to this submit.