Alex Murdaugh's Trial Is Going Somewhere Neither Side Wanted

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews · Sep 11, 2026 · 14m

Judge Debra McCaslin just moved Alex Murdaugh's murder retrial to Sumter County — a location the defense never requested and the prosecution never suggested. The defense had pushed hard for Charleston, even offering to permanently waive all venue appeals if McCaslin gave them their preferred city. She didn't. The prosecution opposed Charleston on cost and logistics but never fought for a specific alternative. McCaslin made the call herself. Her eight-page order lays out why the trial had to leave Colleton County entirely. The Murdaugh family held the prosecutor's seat in the 14th Circuit for…