COLUMBIA, S.C. — Prosecutors from the South Carolina attorney general’s office have leaked derogatory confidential information to news outlets calculated to hurt disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh in his upcoming trial for the 2021 killings of his wife and son, Murdaugh’s lawyers alleged in a court filing Monday.
The damaging information was from a video taken from deceased son Paul’s cellphone, the motion says.
Not only is the attorney general’s office selectively leaking to media, prosecutors continue to withhold information vital to Murdaugh’s case from his lawyers, the motion said.
“This conduct is grossly unfair to the defense and a violation of Alex’s constitutional rights to due process of law and a fair trial,” said the motion by attorneys Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin and Margaret Fox.
“For months on end, the State’s prosecutors have selectively leaked information about evidence obtained through sealed search warrants to various media outlets,” Murdaugh’s lawyers charged in the six-page motion.
Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office had no response. But a spokesman said prosecutors will file in court a response to the defense motion. The office has previously denied leaking information to the media.
Meanwhile, Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman has scheduled an Aug. 29 hearing on the matter in Colleton County.
At that hearing, Newman is expected to hear prosecutors explain why they are keeping evidence from the defense and defense lawyers’ contentions that they need the evidence. Prosecutors also contend that Newman should order that defense attorneys abide by sweeping secrecy guidelines; defense attorneys are objecting.
Under South Carolina rules of court, prosecutors are supposed to begin turning over evidence — as required by the U.S. Constitution — within 30 days of getting a request from the defense. The material was supposed to have been given to the defense on Aug. 15.
In Monday’s motion, Murdaugh’s lawyers specifically accuse state prosecutors of leaking an audio recording obtained from Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone “that allegedly places Alex Murdaugh at the scene of the murders ... any search of Paul Murdaugh’s phone would have been the result of a search warrant issued under seal.”
Lead state prosecutor Creighton Waters has said that orders sealing search warrants were signed by Newman and placed under seal, the defense motion says. Numerous search warrants in this 14-month old case are still under seal.
Another item mentioned Monday by Murdaugh’s lawyers is a recording from Paul’s cellphone that showed Paul taking a video of his friend’s dog while a conversation is taking place between Paul, Maggie and Alex.
That video shows “Maggie, Paul and Alex ... having a convivial conversation about the behavior of their own dog, Bubba. There is absolutely no indication of a disagreement or dispute between Paul, Maggie and Alex, according to family members who viewed the recording,” the defense attorneys’ motion said.
State prosecutors are contending that “within minutes of this light-hearted, convivial conversation, Alex murdered both Maggie and Paul for no apparent reason,” defense lawyers wrote.
“The news story about this recording did not include any information about the convivial nature of the conversation and how incongruent the tone and tenor of the conversation is to the State’s theory of the case,” the defense motion said. “Perhaps this crucial information was intentionally omitted from the media leak to portray Alex Murdaugh in the worst possible light.”
The motion also alleged that South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents under the direction of state prosecutors played the video found on Paul Murdaugh’s cellphone to Murdaugh family members on Aug. 17, even through the video was sealed by court order.
The leak allegations and Monday’s hearing add to the already charged atmosphere surrounding the numerous crimes Murdaugh is accused of, including the June 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie, and Paul.
A trial is likely as soon as January, and it is expected to be watched by millions around the country as Murdaugh — a descendant of a powerful Lowcountry legal and political family — will go on trial in the killings of his wife and son, who were shot to death on the family’s 1,700-acre estate in Colleton County. Maggie was shot with a rifle and Paul with a shotgun, according to indictments in the case.
Wilson’s office said last week that “It is categorically false that the attorney general’s office leaked any information in the Murdaugh murder case.”
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