Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Why Alex Murdaugh’s Second Murder Trial Could Look Very Different From the First (5/20/26)

Transcript

Why Alex Murdaugh’s Second Murder Trial Could Look Very Different From the First (5/20/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. Now
• 0:04
  that a retrial has been ordered for Alec Murdock, there
• 0:07
  are a lot of questions about what might be different
• 0:10
  this time around, and I think that one of the
• 0:13
  things that we're going to see that's very different is
• 0:16
  that Alec Murdock's team is going to really push the
• 0:20
  alternate suspect theory. And while I think it's a long shot,
• 0:23
  Alec Murdock and his team they don't really have much
• 0:26
  to work with because remember, it wasn't so much the
• 0:30
  merit of the evidence. Instead it was improper behavior from
• 0:34
  Becky Hill, the court clerk. And now, don't get that twisted.
• 0:38
  That's a big deal because Alec Murdoch, even if you
• 0:41
  hate him, he deserves a fair trial. Everybody does. And
• 0:45
  if you want to be mad at anybody, be mad
• 0:47
  at Becky Hill. She's the reason that we have to
• 0:49
  do this again. She's the reason that this conviction was overturned.
• 0:54
  And now the question is just exactly what this prosecution
• 0:59
  is going to look like. Today we have an article
• 1:02
  from Fox News and the headline murdad defense plans alternate
• 1:07
  suspect push as DNA questions loom over the retrial. This
• 1:11
  article was authored by Sarah rump Witten. The South Carolina
• 1:16
  Supreme Court just wiped the slate clean for Alec Murdoch,
• 1:19
  but the second round of his double murder trial is
• 1:22
  already poised to be a different beast. And look, during
• 1:26
  the first trial, I thought that the evidence was overwhelming. Now,
• 1:30
  they didn't have the smoking gun, but when you add
• 1:32
  all the circumstantial evidence up, it led me to believe
• 1:36
  that Alec Murdoch was guilty. And I still believe that.
• 1:39
  But I'm going to come into this trial with an
• 1:41
  open mind. New trial, new evidence, So I'll be open minded.
• 1:46
  Now that doesn't mean as we make our way through
• 1:49
  it that I'm not going to have some heavy opinions.
• 1:51
  It's going to be based on evidence, right, and whichever
• 1:54
  way that evidence leans, that's where we're going to go.
• 1:57
  But there are still a lot of things as far
• 1:59
  as evidence goes, that really broadside Alec Murdoch and his narratives.
• 2:06
  So I'm not going to sit here and tell you
• 2:07
  I think he's innocent, but I do think that he
• 2:10
  deserves a new trial. Just days after the conviction were
• 2:15
  unanimously overturned in the murder of his wife Maggie, and
• 2:18
  son Paul. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are previewing major disputes
• 2:23
  over the death penalty, Jerry selection, financial crimes, and floating
• 2:28
  in alternative suspect theory. So obviously we're going to try
• 2:32
  and get into the court documents too. And what I'm
• 2:36
  going to do in the next couple of days is
• 2:38
  I'm going to set up a whole last podcast and
• 2:41
  then that way you guys can just jump over that
• 2:43
  podcast and follow along with the story if that's something
• 2:46
  you're interested in. And considering the emails I've received, it
• 2:50
  seems like a lot of you are quite interested. Here's
• 2:54
  what could change the second time around. One The death
• 2:58
  penalty is now on the tape. South Carolina Attorney General
• 3:02
  Alan Wilson confirmed that his office is considering seeking the
• 3:05
  death penalty against Murdoch if he's found guilty again, despite
• 3:09
  not pursuing it during the first trial. I think that's bluster,
• 3:13
  and I don't think that they're going to pursue the
• 3:15
  death penalty. If you're looking for capital punishment and you're
• 3:19
  looking to get that conviction, it changes your whole case
• 3:24
  and the burden of proof is much more difficult to prove.
• 3:28
  So I don't think they're going to do that, and
• 3:30
  I think it's more bluster than actual threat. But of
• 3:33
  course we'll have to see. Defense attorney Dick Hartputlian blasted
• 3:38
  the possibility Monday, accusing Wilson of making a politically motivated
• 3:43
  move tied to his gubernatorial ambitions. Always got to keep
• 3:47
  that in mind. Everybody's always gunn in for a different office,
• 3:50
  right Oh, I want to be this kind of politician
• 3:53
  or that kind of politician, and one of the best
• 3:56
  vehicles to get there is being a prosecutor. That's always
• 3:59
  been the case. Here's the question, what does he know
• 4:03
  today he didn't know five years ago, hart Pootlian said
• 4:06
  during a defense news conference on Monday. Why is he
• 4:09
  saying he's going to seek the death penalty? Is there
• 4:12
  some new piece of evidence? And look, that's a legitimate question.
• 4:16
  If they didn't think they had enough the first time around,
• 4:20
  they think they have enough now. Evidence is degraded, memories
• 4:24
  have faded, people have died, you know the story. So
• 4:28
  I think that would be a bad idea to try
• 4:31
  and go after him with the death penalty. He's already
• 4:33
  going to be in prison, for a bunch of years
• 4:35
  on the financial crimes. So how about you just get
• 4:38
  him on two murder charges and if you have enough evidence,
• 4:43
  get the conviction. He's never leaven prison again. So it
• 4:47
  probably is a little bit politically motivated coming out and saying, oh,
• 4:51
  I'm going to go for the death penalty. Now, if
• 4:53
  I was a betting man, I would say it's just
• 4:55
  part of the strategy being used by the prosecution and
• 4:58
  that it's not a serious strategy that they're going to use.
• 5:03
  Wilson pushed back hard on that criticism, calling Harripulian's allegations
• 5:07
  political theater and insisting the reconsiderations based on legal realities
• 5:12
  that have changed since twenty twenty two. Like what what
• 5:16
  exactly has changed in twenty twenty two? When we were
• 5:20
  first faced with these decisions, the death penalty was not
• 5:23
  a practical consideration for us because there hadn't been a
• 5:26
  death penalty execution in thirteen years, Wilson told Fox News
• 5:30
  America Reports Monday. We didn't have the ability to carry
• 5:33
  it out. That has changed since then. I'm sorry, I
• 5:37
  don't buy that. I don't buy that at all, and
• 5:41
  I think it probably is a political move Wilson said
• 5:45
  that prosecutors are considering everything because the retrial resets the
• 5:49
  case to ground zero. That much is true, and I
• 5:53
  think that if they want to get the conviction, they
• 5:56
  will do everything in their power to avoid making it
• 5:59
  a capital punishment kind of case. I don't think they
• 6:01
  have the goods for it. Two, the defense wants the
• 6:05
  trial moved. Hartpoulian has already confirmed that the defense plans
• 6:10
  to seek a venue change, arguing it may be impossible
• 6:12
  to find an impartial jury in the same county where
• 6:15
  the first nationally televised trial unfolded. This has gotten extraordinary notoriety,
• 6:21
  unlike most cases I've ever tried, Harpoulian said. The defense
• 6:26
  also wants attorney conductive wardeer, meaning lawyers themselves would directly
• 6:31
  question potential jurors, along with possible sequestration and deep dives
• 6:36
  into perspective juris, social media histories. Look, if I was
• 6:40
  on trial for my life, i'd want that too. Is
• 6:43
  that going to happen? I don't know. I just don't know.
• 6:48
  But as far as moving the venue, probably a good idea.
• 6:53
  And I think that if the state wants to avoid
• 6:56
  nonsense down the road, they'll do that now of the
• 7:00
  ability to get people's social media, their Instagram's, all of that,
• 7:03
  Hartpooley and said to Fox News Digital, and we'll scour
• 7:07
  that before they ever get a chance to appear. I
• 7:11
  don't know if that's acceptable, but I guess we'll have
• 7:13
  to see. Wilson told Fox News that they're looking at
• 7:17
  the venue and may consider other options. We have a
• 7:20
  current intention of trying to go back to the same venue,
• 7:23
  but we're going to evaluate all of our options and
• 7:25
  consider every decision, he said. We may change our minds,
• 7:29
  we may go the direction we've already decided to go.
• 7:32
  The thing is very fresh and very raw, and we
• 7:35
  want to get it right. I'm okay with that. Take
• 7:38
  your time, make a decision, then get it moving. Three.
• 7:44
  Prosecutors may face tighter limits on financial crimes evidence the
• 7:49
  South Carolina Supreme Court rule. Prosecutors can still use some
• 7:53
  of Murda's financial crimes evidence because it's relevant to motive,
• 7:57
  but criticized how extensively it was presented during the original
• 8:01
  six week trial. Harpootlian argues the prosecution spent nearly two
• 8:06
  weeks turning Murdoch into character assassination case before jurors ever
• 8:11
  fully considered the murder evidence, so by the time we
• 8:16
  got the real evidence, the jury wasn't interested in hearing
• 8:19
  it because he was such a horrible evil man and
• 8:22
  a liar. Harpootlian said. The Supreme Court criticized prosecutors for
• 8:28
  spending roughly twelve and a half hours presenting inflammatory details
• 8:32
  that could have been covered far more briefly. Well, that's
• 8:36
  not good, right, not good for prosecutors. When the court
• 8:39
  smacks you down like that, you're gonna have to reevaluate
• 8:42
  everything and have a new game plan. And I think
• 8:46
  they will. I think that there's enough evidence there that
• 8:49
  they can formulate a solid narrative to pitch to a jury.
• 8:54
  That means that the retrial could feature a significantly narrower
• 8:58
  presentation of Murdo's theft and financial misconduct. And remember, everything
• 9:03
  that's taken away from the prosecution is a big deal.
• 9:05
  They want to have as many different avenues of pursuit
• 9:09
  as possible, and when you start taking that away, it
• 9:12
  doesn't work out so great for the prosecution. Number four,
• 9:17
  the defense may float in alternative suspect. Hartpoulian also accused
• 9:22
  state investigators of suffering from tunnel vision immediately after arriving
• 9:26
  on the Murdoch property off Mozelle Road in Colton County,
• 9:30
  South Carolina, on June seventh, twenty twenty one. They decided
• 9:34
  that night he was the guy, and everything they did
• 9:37
  after that excluded any other thought, Hartpoolian told Fox News
• 9:41
  Digital on Friday, and that's why they have no evidence
• 9:44
  connecting him with the murder scene. Well, that's kind of true, honestly.
• 9:51
  I mean heart evidence. They have a lot of circumstantial evidence,
• 9:55
  and the video that Paul took is damning, but I
• 9:58
  think that Heartpulian and Murdoch might have at least some
• 10:02
  tenable ground to stand on. When asked about new evidence
• 10:07
  for a guarding an unknown mal DNA profile found under
• 10:11
  Maggie Murdaw's fingernails, Griffin criticized the handling of the lead.
• 10:17
  We pointed out during the last trial that they did
• 10:19
  find unknown male DNA who is not related to any
• 10:22
  Murdoch or any of Maggie's families under her fingernails. Griffin
• 10:27
  said that was not really followed up on. We don't
• 10:30
  have possession of that DNA, so we can't do anything
• 10:33
  with it. We can, perhaps with a new case, go
• 10:36
  and seek an order from the court to compel them
• 10:38
  to send it off to Cotis. If we were in charge,
• 10:41
  and we had the facilities, the forensic lad they had,
• 10:44
  and we had search warrant abilities, we would have done
• 10:47
  the things a lot different and more timely. A lot
• 10:50
  of opportunity is lost. Look, if Murdoch's not the guy,
• 10:54
  then all of that's true. But there's one problem, and
• 10:58
  that problem is the evidence told us something completely different
• 11:02
  during the trial. Now, if they didn't put things in,
• 11:07
  if the prosecutors played games, different story, right, And I
• 11:10
  think this trial is going to be a whole last
• 11:12
  different trial. Five. Alex Murdoch may or may not testify.
• 11:19
  He should not. That's what sunk him the last time around.
• 11:23
  He had no business getting up on that stand. Murda's
• 11:27
  dramatic testimony during the first trial became one of its
• 11:30
  defining moments. Whether he takes the stand again remains an
• 11:33
  open question. That'll be a game day decision, Hartpoolian said.
• 11:38
  Prosecutors meanwhile, are treating the retrial as an entirely fresh
• 11:42
  case right now. We want to treat this as if
• 11:45
  the trial has not occurred. Wilson told Fox News Sandra
• 11:49
  Smith and John Roberts six, Becky Hill, and Jerry Tampering
• 11:54
  will loom. The retrial only exists because South Carolina Supreme
• 11:59
  Court the old former Colleton County Clerk of Court, Rebecca
• 12:02
  Becky Hill, improperly influenced jurors during the original trial, And
• 12:07
  when it was happening and we were talking about it,
• 12:09
  I was shocked that nothing happened then. But as we
• 12:14
  all know, the gears of justice they turned slowly. The
• 12:20
  justices wrote that Hill placed her fingers on the scales
• 12:23
  of justice, denying Murdoch his right to a fair trial.
• 12:26
  And that's really what it comes down to. Everybody in
• 12:28
  the country deserves a fair trial. It doesn't matter how
• 12:31
  scummy you are. Now, Murdock's attorneys are escalating the fight
• 12:36
  by suing Hill in federal court, accusing her of violating
• 12:40
  his constitutional rights and seeking damages tied to the original trial.
• 12:44
  They're going to win that. They're going to win that case,
• 12:47
  and Becky Hill is going to be blasted in the poverty.
• 12:53
  The lawsuit alleges Hill improperly pressured jurors against believing Murdoch's
• 12:58
  testimony because she wanted a guilty verdict. That would help
• 13:01
  sell books about the trial. The crazy thing is she
• 13:04
  would have got that guilty verdict anyway. Just another person
• 13:09
  with main character syndrome. Way too many people like that
• 13:12
  out there these days. Defense attorney said Monday they intend
• 13:17
  to use civil discovery tools, including subpoenas and depositions, to
• 13:21
  further investigate Hill's conduct and determine whether anyone else may
• 13:26
  have been involved. We're gonna find out exactly what happened,
• 13:29
  Harpoolian said Monday. Was she alone wolf? All right, folks, Well,
• 13:34
  there's where things stand currently when it comes to Alec Murdoch.
• 13:37
  And like I told you, I'm going to have in
• 13:39
  the next few days a whole website where we'll update it,
• 13:43
  you know, once twice a day, whereas the news becomes available,
• 13:47
  and we'll see if the State of South Carolina can
• 13:49
  make its case that Alec Murdock is the murderer they
• 13:55
  tell us he is. All the information that goes with
• 13:59
  this episode can be found in the description box.