The retrial of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh is moving from the Lowcountry area that’s become entwined with the murder case, but his upcoming hearings will continue to be held in Lexington.

The presiding judge, Debra McCaslin of Lexington County, said at a hearing Friday, Aug. 14 that she’ll decide on the new trial location since the prosecutors and defense attorneys could not agree on one.

Wherever that may be, the judge allowed state prosecutors to use Murdaugh’s testimony from his first trial against him. The statement he made from the witness stand at the Colleton County Courthouse in February 2023 included why he denied being at his property’s dog kennels shortly before his wife and 22-year-old son were killed there on June 7, 2021.

In a video that investigators uncovered from the phone of his late son, Paul Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh could be heard interacting with his wife, Maggie, and the young man that night. At the end of a six-week trial, a jury found Murdaugh guilty of murder and firearm charges.

This May, the S.C. Supreme Court threw out Murdaugh’s convictions. The court ruled that he did not receive his constitutional right to a fair trial, because former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill had tainted the jury with comments against Murdaugh.

McCaslin, a Chapin resident that the Supreme Court appointed to preside over the case, has scheduled Murdaugh’s retrial to begin in early April.

“I set the trial for April the 5th, and I intend to stick by it,” McCaslin said at this week’s hearing, which was live-streamed and covered by journalists from inside and outside the state.

Jacket and no shackles

Murdaugh, 58, appeared in court unshackled, wearing a dark-colored jacket and light-blue tie. It was the first time, since he was convicted in March 2023, that the former Lowcountry prosecutor was seen in public without chains and dressed in civilian clothes.

He remains under the custody of the S.C. Department of Corrections, where he is concurrently serving time for state and federal financial crimes. His admitted offenses included stealing millions of dollars from the legal settlements of his vulnerable legal clients. 

Prosecutors have argued that Murdaugh killed Maggie and Paul to gain sympathy for their deaths and divert attention from the growing investigations into his financial crimes.  

McCaslin ruled Aug. 10 that Murdaugh’s coming to court shackled and wearing a prison jumpsuit could prejudice his case, since he is presumed innocent on the murder charges. With his hearings closely covered by the media, the judge said, photos and videos of him as a convicted felon could potentially contaminate the potential jury pool. 

Trial transferring from Colleton County area

Murdaugh’s attorneys are now insisting his new murder trial take place in Charleston County. The location, they said, offered a big pool of jurors who could be fair and impartial.

Colleton County and the wider 14th Judicial Circuit, the defense team said, was closely tied to the case and the Murdaugh family’s legal and political history. Colleton County was also reminiscent of the former clerk of court’s juror misconduct.

Hill, who resigned as clerk of court in 2024, pleaded guilty last year to showing a reporter sealed court exhibits in the Murdaugh murders and then lying about it. She was sentenced to probation.

“Colleton County is poisoned,” Murdaugh’s lead attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said. “The courthouse is the scene of the crime. We can’t go back there.”

Deputy Attorney General Creighton Waters, the chief prosecutor, said the state was also vested in getting a fair and impartial jury. But holding a new trial in Charleston County, he said, would be too expensive and logistically difficult, given the traffic and limited parking around the county courthouse downtown.

“To contend it’s not the most expensive city in the state, I don't know what to say,” Waters said.

McCaslin agreed that cost was a concern with Charleston County, especially since Colleton County taxpayers were picking up the trial’s tab.

“Colleton County is not a rich county; it's a poor county,” she said, “so that will be at the foremost of my thoughts when I transfer this case.”

DNA testing from fingernail evidence

The judge allowed the defense team to take the lead in processing the remaining evidence from Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails, ahead of DNA testing.

The S.C. Law Enforcement Division laboratory previously tested the extracted DNA against known samples and found it belonged to an “unknown and unrelated male.”

Murdaugh’s attorneys want an independent laboratory in Texas to conduct a different type of DNA test, one where the results can be compared against larger consumer genetic databases.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys wrangled over who would have priority over the material. Both sides were concerned they’d run out of usable material for their respective tests. 

Murdaugh’s attorneys were also worried the limited DNA material, which could be exculpatory  to their client, might get destroyed under state investigators’ handling. 

Harpootlian pointed to the SLED lab’s analysis of the shirt that Murdaugh was wearing when he discovered the bodies of his wife and son. The defense team asserted some investigators did not share with them the lab results that showed the shirt did not have blood stains, contrary to what state police had earlier reported. 

“We were lied to,” Harpooltian said, adding that the shirt’s evidentiary value got destroyed under SLED’s handling.

Waters took offense at the accusation that the state was deliberately tampering with evidence.

“There is a difference between two ships passing in the night and intentional fabrication,” the prosecutor said, his voice rising. “That's not what the evidence reveals.”

McCaslin set Murdaugh’s next pretrial hearing for Nov. 13 at the Lexington County courthouse. A moment of levity came when the attorneys told the judge that day was Friday the 13th.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that,” McCaslin said, chuckling. “I’m not superstitious. I hope you’re not.”