After five and half weeks of testimony, the jury in the double-murder trial of Alex Murdaugh has begun deliberations to determine his innocence or guilt in the killings of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
The panel of 12 jurors was sent out to deliberate on Thursday afternoon after hearing dramatic closing arguments from the defence and prosecution.
My Murdaugh is accused of brutally murdering his wife Maggie, 52, and younger son Paul, 22, on 7 June 2021 by the dog kennels at the Murdaugh family’s 1,700-acre Moselle estate.
Paul was shot twice with a shotgun as he stood in the feed room of the kennels, with the second bullet blowing his brain from its skull.
Maggie was shot four to five times with an AR-15-style rifle a few yards from her son, as she backed into an ATV parked under a hangar.
Mr Murdaugh has pleaded not guilty.
The day before they began to deliberate, jurors went out to the scene of the crime at the Murdaugh family propert on Wednesday.
They were then brought back to Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, and the State of South Carolina‘s lead prosecutor on the case Creighton Waters, and his team, including the state’s Attorney General Alan Wilson, presented their closing argument outlining why Mr Murdaugh should be found guilty of the murders.
In his closing argument for the defence on Thursday, attorney Jim Griffin implored jurors to recognise reasonable doubt and acquit Mr Murdaugh, as he argued investigators “failed miserably” in their handling of the case and pinned the murders on Mr Murdaugh because they refused to look at anyone else.
The last word then came in a rebuttal from prosecutor Jim Meadors, who slammed the defence for “blaming” law enforcement for the investigation when the disgraced attorney “obstructed” the case by repeatedly lying about his alibi for the night of the brutal slayings.
Mr Meadors concluded: “I think he loved Maggie. I think he loved Paul. But you know who he loved more than that... he loved Alex.”
Judge Newman then issued jury instructions before the panel retired for their deliberations at around 3.40pm ET.
As with any trial, there are few clues as to how the jury has absorbed testimony from 61 prosecution witnesses, 14 defence witnesses, and six rebuttal witnesses over almost six weeks.
Reporters in the court have described them as attentive throughout the trial.
A unanimous guilty verdict is required for a murder trial, so only one juror needs to believe that the state has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
It is not expected that the jury will gather over the weekend, but this has been a trial full of surprises.
