Protection lawyer explains why Alex Murdaugh testified in his personal protection

The protection group 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 attorneys stated.

The group plans to file a discover of intention to attraction the choice inside 10 days. Lawyer Richard “Dick” Harpootlian shared the timeline in response to a query from a reporter outdoors 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 stated. “There actually was no proof linking one to the opposite, and we didn’t assume it ought to (be admitted).”

Extra context: The prosecution’s deal with Murdaugh’s monetary motive underscored the lack of direct evidence — reminiscent of a homicide weapon, bloody clothes or eyewitnesses — that linked him to the killings. As an alternative, they hinged their case on circumstantial proof, together with a consequential video inserting Murdaugh on the crime scene that night time.

Although the monetary proof was circuitously associated to the homicide costs, the choose overseeing the case dominated to permit it, saying it was “so intimately linked” with the state’s case “that proof of it’s important to finish the story.” He instructed jurors to solely contemplate 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 publish.