Today could be the day of decision for disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh – whose fate is about to be entrusted into the hands of a jury of his peers. As dawn breaks on beautiful Walterboro, South Carolina – the self-proclaimed “front porch” of the Palmetto State’s picturesque Lowcountry – Murdaugh’s case could potentially land in jurors’ laps as soon as lunchtime.
Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin is scheduled to deliver the closing argument for the defense this morning at 9:30 a.m. EST. Once Griffin has concluded his remarks, assistant attorney general John Meadors is expected to provide a brief rebuttal from the state.
At that point, S.C. circuit court judge Clifton Newman will deliver his instructions to the jury – reminding them of the charges Murdaugh is facing, the burden of proof shouldered by the prosecution and their responsibilities under the law in discharging the oaths they took weeks ago when this trial began.
Of interest? Each of these jurors was chosen back on January 25, 2023 – with Murdaugh providing an ‘aye’ or ‘nay’ to his attorneys as to which members of the pool he wanted to see selected (and which ones he wanted to be struck).
“Alex picked this jury himself,” one court insider told me at the time.
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How long will jurors take once they receive this case? A general rule of thumb is that for every week of testimony, jurors take one day to deliberate – however many believe this jury could return a verdict within a few hours of being charged.
We shall see …
Murdaugh is accused of killing his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and youngest son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021 at Moselle – the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property straddling the Salkehatchie River on the border of Colleton and Hampton counties. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and for the last six weeks has been standing trial in Walterboro – part of a five-county region of the Lowcountry his famous family ruled like a fiefdom for more than a century.
The scion of an influential South Carolina legal dynasty, Murdaugh once led the Palmetto State’s powerful trial lawyers’ lobby. Today, he remains squarely at the epicenter of a maze of alleged criminality known as the ‘Murdaugh Murders’ crime and corruption saga.
To keep up with the very latest from inside the Colleton County courthouse, follow our live feed below …
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THE POLLS …
From the opening gavel of this trial, we have launched two daily polls asking readers to weigh in on 1) whether they think Alex Murdaugh is guilty or not guilty of murdering his late wife, Maggie Murdaugh and, 2) whether they think he is guilty or not guilty of murdering his late son, Paul Murdaugh.
The goal of our daily polls has been to track how perceptions of Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence related to the murders of his two alleged victims evolved over the course of the trial.
As of yesterday, 92 percent of respondents believed Murdaugh was guilty of killing his wife compared to roughly five percent who said he was not guilty and three percent who said they were unsure. Those guilty percentages were roughly identical when respondents were asked whether they believed Murdaugh murdered his son.
Here are today’s questions …
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QUESTION ONE …
Based on the information you have now, is Alex Murdaugh guilty or not guilty of the murder of Maggie Murdaugh?
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QUESTION TWO …
Based on the information you have now, is Alex Murdaugh guilty or not guilty of the murder of Paul Murdaugh?
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THE FEED …
9:21 p.m. EST – GUILTY.
RESULTS OF OUR LIVESTREAM POLLING:
3:42 p.m. EST – Any notes or questions from the jury will be on the record per Judge Newman.
3:30 p.m. EST – Judge Newman states, “As I stated earlier, you are the judges of the facts. Your verdict must represent the considered judgment of each juror. In other words, your verdict must be unanimous. Now you may have noticed that I have read these instructions. I do so to give you the law as accurately as possible. I will give you a copy of these instructions to have in the jury room. You may refer to these instructions to assist you in your deliberations. You must consider the instructions as a whole and not follow some and ignore others.”
3:27 p.m. EST – Judge Newman instructs the jurors “Do not try to find any information from any source outside the courtroom. Do not look at dictionaries or other reference materials, search the internet websites or blogs or use any other electronic tools to get information about this case, or help you make a decision. You may not use computers, telephones, cell phones, smartphones, tablets, the internet or other tools of technology with communication capabilities at any time during your deliberations, except on as provided by the court to review the digital evidence in this case if your deliberations in this acetate and overnight break. You may use these devices as necessary. But you may not use them to communicate with anyone about the case until the case is over. This means that you must not use phone calls, video calls, emails, text messages, instant messages, blogs, chat rooms, websites or any social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit and Discord to send or receive any information about this about a party with an attorney, a court officer or your fellow jurors. During your deliberations do not read listen to or watch any news reports about this case. This includes anything that you that may be in the newspapers or on the Internet, radio or television. You must not consider anything you may have read or heard about the case outside of a courtroom, whether before or during the trial. Information on television, radio, internet or from other sources may be wrong or incomplete. In our judicial system, it is important that you are not influenced by anything or anyone outside of this courtroom if your deliberations necessitate an overnight break, even though you may use electronic devices as necessary for purposes unrelated to this trial, I must urge you to minimize your use of such devices. Many internet browsers, smartphone apps and social media services as well as traditional media like television and radio will provide information and news that you do not seek with little or no prompting. It is a strong possibility that information about this case may be, thrust upon you every time you use an electronic device. You must therefore use these devices only as absolutely necessary.”
3:25 p.m. EST – Judge Newman explains, “In order to find the defendant guilty of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, you must first find the defendant guilty of committing a violent crime.” He continues, “The state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the weapon furthered advanced or held in the commission of the crime.”
3:22 p.m. EST – Judge Newman tells the jury, “The statements proved beyond the reasonable doubt that the defendant killed Margaret Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh with malice aforethought. Malice is hatred, ill will or hostility towards another person. It is the intentional doing of a wrongful act without just cause for excuse and with an intent to inflict an injury or under the circumstances that the law will infer an evil intent malice aforethought does not require that malice exists for any particular time before the act is committed. It is the intentional doing of a wrongful act without just cause for excuse and with an intent to inflict an injury or under the circumstances that the law will infer an evil intent. Malice aforethought does not require that malice exists for any particular time before the act is committed.”
3:20 p.m. EST – Judge Newman, “If based on your consideration of the evidence, you are firmly convinced that the defendant is guilty of a crime charge, you must then find him guilty. If on the other hand, you think there’s a real possibility that he is not guilty, you must then give him the benefit of the doubt and find him not guilty. The indictments in this case allege four separate offenses against the defendant. The indictments are murder of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, murder of Paul Murdaugh, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime involving the murder of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime involving a murder of Paul Murdaugh. Each indictment charges a separate and distinct offense. He must decide each indictment separately on the evidence and the law applicable to it.”
3:17 p.m. EST – Judge Newman, “A person charged with committing a criminal offense and South Carolina is never required to prove himself innocent. I charge you that it is an important rule of the law that the defendant in a criminal trial no matter what the seriousness of the charge may be, will always be presumed to be innocent of the crime for which the indictment was issued. Unless guilt has been proven by evidence satisfying you that guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” He continues, “This presumption of innocence does not end when you begin your deliberations, but it accompanies the defendant throughout the trial. Until you reach a verdict of guilt based on evidence satisfying you have that guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The presumption of innocence is like a robe of righteousness placed about the shoulders of the defendant which remains with the defendant until it has been stripped from the defendant.”
3:15 p.m. EST – Judge Newman continues to instruct the jury on prior bad acts, “In particular, the South Carolina Rules of Evidence provide that evidence of other crimes wrongs or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity there with. Put another way, evidence of other crimes or bad acts cannot be shown and cannot be used to show that the defendant is a bad person and therefore is more likely to have committed the crime for which he is accused. You may not consider evidence of other crimes and bad acts for this purpose or for any other purpose other than it as it relates to the motive of the defendant. In addition, while you may have heard that other crimes and bad acts of the defendant have resulted in and other charges or indictments, not before you. The fact that defendant was arrested, charged and indicted in these matters is not evidence, and cannot be considered by you as evidence of guilt in this case. Nor do these indictments create any presumption of guilt as to any other pending charges.”
3:12 p.m. EST – Judge Newman explains expert witnesses to the jury, “An expert witness is a witness who by education and experience has become expert and may state an opinion as to relevant and material matter in which the witness claims to be an expert and may also state the reasons for the opinion. You should consider any expert opinion received as evidence and like any other evidence give it the weight you think it deserves. If you decide that the opinion of an expert is not based on sufficient education and experience or if you conclude that the reasons given in support of the opinion are not found, or that the opinion is outweighed by other evidence, you may then disregard the opinion entirely. An expert witnesses testimony is to be given no greater weight than that of any other witness, simply because the witness is an expert. Further, you are not required to accept an expert’s opinion even though it is not contradicted in regard to evidence of other crimes, and evidence of alleged that acts on other occasions.”
3:10 p.m. EST – Regarding burden of proof, Judge Newman says, “If these circumstances merely portray the defendants behavior as suspicious, the proof has failed. The State has the burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This burden rests with the State regardless of whether the State relies on direct evidence circumstantial evidence or some combination of the to the rules of evidence ordinarily do not permit witnesses to testify to opinions or conclusions.”
3:08 p.m. EST – Judge Newman says, “Direct evidence directly proves the existence of a fact, and does not require deduction. Circumstantial evidence is proof of a chain of facts and circumstances, indicating the existence of a fact.” He continues, “The law makes no distinction between the weight or the value to be given either direct evidence, or circumstantial evidence. However, to the extent the state relies on circumstantial evidence, the circumstances must be consistent with each other. And when taken together point conclusively to the guilt of the accused, beyond a reasonable doubt.”
3:04 p.m. EST – Court has resumed. Judge Newman is explaining the charges to the jury. He states this is a matter for the jurors to determine weighing the evidence presented during the trial. The jury is to consider only the testimony presented to them on the witness stand and the evidence entered as exhibits. It is the juror’s duty to accept and apply the law as it is explained. They should not be concerned with what they believe the law ought to be, but with what Judge Newman tells them the law is. The jury should consider the credibility of the witnesses. They may choose to believe a small portion of a witnesses testimony and disregard the rest.
1:39 p.m. EST – Judge Newman breaks for 1 hour and 15 minutes for lunch. After lunch the jury will be charged and begin deliberations.
1:35 p.m. EST – Meadors tells the jury that the greatest power we have is the power to choose. For whatever was going on in Murdaugh’s mind relating to the finances, was not rational. He exercised his power of choice and now the jury is going to hear their instructions and exercise their power of choice. Meadors has completed his closing.
1:32 p.m. EST – Meadors is delivering a very effective and passionate closing argument. Meadors says the best witness of this crime was Bubba. He got Murdaugh to say something when he made him call his name to get the chicken out of his mouth.
1:25 p.m. EST – Meadors says this is the State of South Carolina versus Richard Alexander Murdaugh and not the State of South Carolina versus David Owen or SLED.
1:22 p.m. EST – Meadors tells the jury that the video at the kennel was “the big lie” because that was the time Maggie and Paul died. When the video came out, Murdaugh was stuck. What Murdaugh did when he took the stand was substantiate that he was liar. He gets passionate when he says, “What they are trying to do is put us on trial for doing our job. All the evidence of the guns, these lies, the gunshot residue, all of that is presented. Did we make mistakes, yes. But all of this happens in life. But you don’t lie. You don’t misremember.”
1:19 p.m. EST – Murdaugh was not taking that many pills. All the investigators said he understood their questions. He was in his right mind when he said he never went down to the kennels after supper.
1:17 p.m. EST – Murdaugh never checked Maggie and Paul’s pulses. He went and washed up. You hear the water running. He was clean. He reminds the jury that every expert said that Murdaugh throwing the phone would not have turned the backlight on.
1:15 p.m. EST – The clothes Murdaugh was wearing before the murders of Maggie and Paul in the video were never seen again.
1:10 p.m. EST – Meadors says Marian regretted telling Maggie to go to Moselle.
1:06 p.m. EST – Before Murdaugh left his parents’ home the day the blue tarp/rain jacket was brought, he moved an ATV and a truck. Meadors says he can’t explain the tarp on the chair, but he doesn’t have to. That doesn’t mean there is reasonable doubt.
1:05 p.m. EST – Meadors continues telling the jury the reason Murdaugh killed his wife and son was to protect himself.
12:59 p.m. EST – Meadors tells the jury he was going to Almeda not because he loves his mother, but because he loves himself. He says what matters is not how long he was at Almeda, but how long he was with Shelly Smith and his mother. He goes on to the visit the next week to his mom after his father died. The visit that occurred at 6:30 a.m. which has never had happened.
12:57 p.m. EST – Meadors explains to the jury if they are convinced of the defendant’s guilt, they must find them guilty and if they are not, they must find them not guilty. He’s getting ahead of Judge Newman’s jury instructions.
12:53 p.m. EST – Murder is the intentional killing of another person with malice aforethought. Meadors discusses the meaning of malice and aforethought. He tells the jury that we don’t even have to have motive. Two shots to Paul, malicious. He says there were five shots to Maggie and he counts them out. That’s malicious.
12:50 p.m. EST – Meadors says the defense blames everyone but Murdaugh. He says the first time Murdaugh tried to call Buster was 40 minutes after he got to the scene. His first response should have been to call Buster and tell him to stay where he is.
12:47 p.m. EST – Meadors asks the jury if they can imagine not telling law enforcement that they were at the kennels. He says that in this case, circumstantial evidence turned into direct evidence.
12:41 p.m. EST – John Meadors has begun his rebuttal closing argument. He thanks the jury similarly to Jim Griffin. Meadors states that he finds it offensive that a family with a great-grandfather, grandfather, father with a long history in the role of solicitor is claiming that law enforcement didn’t do their job while he is withholding and obstructing justice.
12:38 p.m. EST – If you’ve had questions about wild hogs, we have answers. Check out our livestream for a interview with wild hog expert, Brett Flashnick.
12:26 p.m. EST – Jim Griffin has completed his closing argument. Judge Newman has sent the jury to the jury room for a break. John Meadors is closing for the State and says that he will take an estimated 40 minutes. Judge Newman has called for a 5-minute recess.
12:23 p.m. EST – Jim Griffin says the State’s evidence fails to meet the requirement. He says the State was manipulating the evidence to show guilt and left the jury to make inferences about what happened. The evidence does not prove Murdaugh killed his wife and son beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden of proof matters. The State does not get to bring an indictment by lying to the grand jury. This requires a verdict of not guilty.
12:13 p.m. EST – Jim Griffin tells the jury he’s almost done. He tells the court that the sequence of events after 9-1-1 isn’t indicative of his guilt as no one can say how one would approach that if they came across their wife and son murdered.
12:10 p.m. EST – Regarding whether Alex Murdaugh was concerned about Buster, he says after the roadside shooting of course there was no concern for Buster because Murdaugh knew who did it. He plays the BWC footage from McDowell where Murdaugh asks Buddy Hill to have a police officer get Buster.
12:08 p.m. EST – Griffin says “It’s not our burden. It’s their burden to prove to you that the defendant committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Griffin is not going to show the jurors pictures of Maggie and Paul, but reminds them that it was so bad. That Murdaugh said, “It was so bad. They did him so bad.” Agent Croft misspoke and said Murdaugh said, “I did them so bad.” Griffin says, “I think we can put that question to rest, but that raises a bigger question.” What would they be saying if it wasn’t videotaped?
12:07 p.m. EST – Griffin tells the jury the most common sense thing here is that there were two shooters. There were two guns and one was high capacity. If you were going to execute someone, why would you take the gun who only holds two or three shots.
12:03 p.m. EST – Griffin says if the murders occurred at 8:50 p.m. and Murdaugh left at 9:07 p.m., Murdaugh would have had to be a magician to clean that crime scene up.
11:57 a.m. EST – Griffin says Alex Murdaugh is a fast driver despite the State’s assertation that he was attempting to compress the timeline.
11:48 a.m. EST – Griffin is going through Maggie Murdaugh’s phone records. He tells the jury there is a lot going on with Maggie’s phone.
11:42 a.m. EST – Griffin says the hose that was wrapped up neatly per Roger Dale Davis’ testimony was on the ground in the kennel video. He points out that in the kennel video, the dog beds were on top of the kennels. It is clear that Paul and Maggie had sprayed out the kennels, put the dog beds on top and put the hose away.
11:39 a.m. EST – Griffin plays the jury a clip of Rogan Gibson testifying about Paul’s cell phone usage. Meadors objects. The objection is sustained. Griffin reminds the jury that they may ask for the testimony to be played for them. He plays the audio version of the testimony. He plays the audio only of Nathan Tuten. Both discuss Paul’s phone habits and Tuten says that when Paul was working around the farm, he often put his phone down.
11:25 a.m. EST – Griffin says that the display light on Maggie’s phone did not come on at 9:08 p.m. which means he did not throw it. He says that only one person testified that it would not have turned on and that was Paul McManigal who spent the weekend throwing the phone without documenting it. The defense expert stated that is not true.
11:20 a.m. EST – Griffin addressed Waters’ discussion of Paul’s nickname, “little detective.” Griffin says that Waters just dropped that nickname for the jury without explaining it. He laid it out there for the jury to run with, “That was clearly the implication. He left that there for you to run with.” He asks the jury to consider if Paul was such a little detective that he found the people that Murdaugh was dealing to and told them to stop.
11:15 a.m. EST – Court has resumed. Griffin tells the jury that Creighton Waters said that Paul and Maggie were murdered with family guns. Griffin says that’s not true because they don’t have the murder weapons.
11:00 a.m. EST – Griffin is going to go through some things that Creighton Waters stated as fact that are not true. He tells the jury that as lawyers, they don’t take an oath. They are bound ethically. Judge Newman calls for a 10-minute break.
10:56 a.m. EST – On September 4, 2021, Murdaugh hired Curtis Eddie Smith to kill him. Griffin says this proves that when Murdaugh was at the verge of financial collapse, he doesn’t kill someone else. It’s totally “illogical, irrational and insane” for someone to kill their family due to the risk of being exposed.
10:53 a.m. EST – Griffin tells the jury there was no great pressure on Murdaugh on June 7, 2021. June 7 was no different than “any other day in the frenetic lifestyle of Alex Murdaugh. He had so many balls in the air.” Griffin reinforces that even if the State’s motive was valid, Murdaugh did not need to kill his wife and son because his father’s poor health and death would already buy him time from his law firm’s inquiries for about a month.
10:50 a.m. EST – The only permissible use of the financial evidence presented is if that is sufficient motive for provocation. Griffin says Murdaugh is an addict who lied, cheated and stole. But he did not commit murder.
10:47 a.m. EST – Griffin plays the portions of Blanca Simpson and Roger Dale Davis’ testimonies where they talk about how much Alex loved his wife and son. Why would he murder his wife and son? Griffin says causing a brief delay in accountability does not make sense.
10:40 a.m. EST – There was no direct evidence, so they went after Murdaugh for “the big lie”. He lied because he was an addict and he had a lot of skeletons in his closet. Griffin plays the kennel video again for the jury. He tells the jury, “There is nothing on that tape that indicates any strife, any conflict, any anger … anybody being afraid, anybody running, anybody scurrying. Nothing. It’s Maggie, Paul and Alex down at the kennel. That’s it.” Griffin says the State’s theory of when Maggie and Paul died is that if you’re not touching your phone, you’re dead. If you don’t answer a text as soon as you receive it, you’re dead.
10:35 a.m. EST – Griffin tells the jury that SLED showed Smith a picture of the rain jacket and not the tarp.
10:31 a.m. EST – Griffin circles to Shelley Smith’s testimony about the blue tarp. He states Smith tells them about the tarp and SLED gets a search warrant and seizes a blue rain jacket. No one recognizes the rain jacket.
10:27 a.m. EST – Griffin is discussing the testing of Murdaugh’s shirt for blood. Pointing out that all preliminary testing came back negative for blood. Blood didn’t “surface” until the Bevel report. They took that report to the State grand jury and when got caught, David Owen said, “I didn’t get the email.” So here we are with the “Mr. Clean theory.” He tells the jury that they are supposed to believe Murdaugh washes himself off with a hose and gets in the golf cart naked.
10:22 a.m. EST – Griffin tells the jury investigators did not properly store Maggie’s phone to prevent location data from being overwritten. You heard about faraday bags. They could have done that. “Had they done it, I hope we wouldn’t be here.” Maggie’s phone was still pinging off satellites and because of this, the stored data was deleted due to the memory getting full. As a result, they don’t have the pinging data from her phone on June 7, 2021. It only went back to June 9, 2021.
10:18 a.m. EST – Griffin says Maggie’s phone wasn’t secured properly. Whoever killed Maggie threw that phone on the side of the road without a doubt. The response regarding the OnStar data initially was that they couldn’t get that data and that response was put in a file until somebody watching this trial somewhere, contacted somebody at General Motors and said, “Why don’t you guys cooperate with the FBI and SLED on this investigation?”
10:14 a.m. EST – Griffin says that Deputy Rutland talked about the hair in Maggie’s hand and reminds the jury that it was never mentioned again. He asks why the hair wasn’t tested. He says SLED failed to check the feed room for fingerprints and did not take footwear impressions. The thing that bothers the defense is, “Why did they never take DNA samples off of Maggie’s clothes or dress? Why did they never take DNA samples from Paul’s clothes?” The only person tested was Alex Murdaugh. Investigators decided, “Unless we find someone else, it’s going to be Alex.”
10:10 a.m. EST – Griffin states that Murdaugh called 9-1-1 on June 7, 2021 and when Deputy Green arrived, his wife and son were laying yards away in a pool of blood and he had a shotgun leaning against his vehicle. By virtue of the investigation, he was in the circle of suspects as an immediate family member. Griffin points out the failures in the SLED investigation, “And we believe that we’ve shown conclusively that SLED failed miserably in investigating and had they done a competent job that Alex would have been excluded from that circle a year ago, two years ago.”
10:05 a.m. EST – Griffin tells the jury that Judge Newman will give them instructions on proof beyond a reasonable doubt. He explains that the scales of justice depict lady justice blind and blindfolded so she does not bias one side or the other. He continues stating that the “law recognizes and it is you have to tilt the scales all the way to one side in order for the state to meet their burden.” The State has not met that burden according to Griffin.
10:00 a.m. EST – Griffin states, “In every criminal case, jurors are required to begin the process by presuming the defendant innocent.” He makes a sports analogy comparing this to an instant replay in football, “There’s a play called on the field and then this is reviewed and under the rules the call on the field stands unless there’s visual, incontrovertible evidence that the call was wrong. Here, the call on the field is Murdaugh is innocent. Innocent of these charges. That’s what the law requires.”
9:57 a.m. EST – Jim Griffin tells the jury he isn’t sure why they call it a closing argument because he is there to review the evidence with them. He says, “Here’s my opportunity to try to answer the questions that I think you have.” His approach is friendly and in stark contrast to Creighton Waters’ closing argument. He thanks the jury on behalf of the entire defense team and mostly on behalf of Alex Murdaugh.
9:53 a.m. EST – Jim Griffin is set to begin his closing argument.
9:49 a.m. EST – Judge Newman thanks the juror for her service and asks the court to get her dozen eggs from the jury room.
9:40 a.m. EST – Court has resumed. Judge Newman is addressing the court regarding a juror who has been removed for having conversations with individuals about the case. The hearing in Judge Newman’s chambers last night was regarding this juror. The juror has had conversations regarding the case with three people outside of court. The conversation was not extensive, but she did state her opinion. The juror has been removed and replaced by another juror. Juror 785 is being brought out. Judge Newman says, “Let’s make sure she brings everything with her.”
8:00 a.m. EST – In case you missed it, here is yesterday’s question-and-answer between Court TV and judge Clifton Newman regarding the jury process …
- How long will they deliberate? It’s up to the jury.
- Sequestration? There is no decision at this time.
- Jury Questions and Request? Yes, on the record.
- Will the jury have technology to view exhibits? Yes.
- Attorneys presence? They will be somewhere close, but not required to be in the courtroom.
- Time of notice of verdict? The longer the deliberations, the more notice will probably be given because the attorneys and staff will be dispersed
- Weekends? Yes, they will deliberate through the weekend if necessary.
7:49 a.m. EST – Been seeing these shirts everywhere …
7:22 a.m. EST – Interesting way of making a prediction …
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BANNER: Andrew J. Whitaker/ Post and Courier/ Pool
23 comments
I have to believe at this point that the (currently) 6% of you poll takers who say he is not guilty are either; trolls, media specialists in the employ of Pooty Poot, or, simply brain dead. The poll doesn’t ask “beyond a reasonable doubt”, it just asks whether you think he’s guilty. It defines credulity that anyone can believe “Elick’s” lies at this point.
??? off blowhard.
Based on the information I now have, I know he will be found “Guilty” of two murders. MSM is already reporting it. I can’t believe Fits doesn’t already have a big article on it.
I hope this story is allowed to quickly fade away and other news that is happening gets the coverage it deserves but has long been denied while this “Neverending Story” just trudged on…and on…and on…and on…
Don’t embarrass her!
“The juror has had conversations regarding the case with three people outside of court.”
What an idiot. You’re given explicit instructions on what not to do.
Jim has the charisma of a cactus.
A cactus is putting it nicely….
I think in ‘Elick’s’ mind he was saving his family in a very warped opioid sense of logic. Saving Paw Paw from going to prison and saving Mags from financial ruin and from seeing her husband go to prison for massive financial theft and a divorce she surely would have achieved. Buster would have survived both of ‘Elick’s’ disasters. So horrific.
Seeing Maggie’s bike in the videography from the farm was mind boggling.
Great coverage Fitsnews!
I do agree with you on all points.
“Paul confronted the drug dealers and said knock it off or I am going to tell on you” ~Jim Griffin. Guess he had help of a toddler to write that poignant moment.
Wondering about the decision for John Meadors for rebuttal???
I’m “astonished” too. Haven’t seen much of his questioning throughout the trial, but with Ms. Shelly, oh my word! Thought he was just AWFUL!
He’s doing the “down home rebuttal” and he’s killing it.
Meadors did a great job!
Yes, he was excellent. I was reluctant from earlier, but that he was great! Perfect way to end.
Alexs alibi has shrunk from his original hour and a half (at Almieda) plus 45 minutes (nap on couch) down to 13 minutes (8:49 to 9:02)
Meadows has beaten Harpootlean in court before…he’s no slouch
QUESTION: What do you make of Jim’s final tearful plea for “my friend, Paul”?
I don’t recall him revealing that friendship before.
Buh bye Murderaugh.
Guilty!!! Thanks jurors!!!
Cancel my subscription. Your otherwise fantastic coverage was an epic fail today. Biggest news ever in S.C. legal circles and as of now, nothing posted since 3.42 pm that I can find. I’ve been watching coverage on other outlets since you all dropped the ball.
I’m done.
Hey Will- where are y’all?
Good coverage on this trial.
Watching the AG press conference. Somebody better put John Meadors to bed. He about to fall out! Did a great job today.
What happened? Where is the coverage????? Been a subscriber for a while…
But had to find out the verdict on Facebook?!!! What in the world. Come on.