‘Categorically false’: State claims Murdaugh attorney lied about polygraph results
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - State prosecutors claim Alex Murdaugh’s defense lied about whether he passed a previous polygraph test.
The claim came via a new filing Wednesday, days after Murdaugh last appeared for a pretrial hearing.
Murdaugh lie detector motion by WIS News 10
In its filing, prosecutors claim Murdaugh attorney Dick Harpootlian was not honest when he said his client passed a polygraph with “flying colors.”
That comment came as both sides argued over whether the results of such a test should be admissible during Murdaugh’s retrial.
“I am saying that it’s an issue, not now, but much closer to trial that we need to be able to litigate. And there may be others,” Harpootlian said during the Aug. 14 hearing. “I will tell you, Mr. Murdaugh passed a polygraph. Flying colors. Same polygrapher. It may play a role in this trial. I’m not willing to concede that no under any circumstances can a polygraph be used. I’m just giving you this example of Eddie Smith failing the polygraph and them [the state] relying on it to cancel his deal.”
Prosecutors said after Harpootlian made that statement, other members of Murdaugh’s defense team “can be observed to look at each other in a way that can only be called incredulous, and then start to whisper to one another.”
The state said in its filing that Murdaugh never took a polygraph test when he was tried in 2023 for the deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
He did, however, take a test after the trial with the FBI in October 2023 as he was under federal investigation for financial crimes. The state said that Murdaugh failed that test, with results noting that he was “trying to use possible countermeasures against the test.”
Prosecutors are now asking Judge Debra McCaslin to rule that no mention be made of polygraph/lie detector tests due to what the state called “questionable reliability.”
How we got here
Murdaugh was previously convicted of murder in a decision that was later overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court - which also ruled that he could be tried a second time.
During a hearing in June, McCaslin set a tentative April 2027 date for Murdaugh’s retrial.
McCaslin has also stated that second trial would not take place in Colleton County, with his defense recently putting in a request to have it held in Richland County. The state, meanwhile, has presented other alternatives across the state.
Regardless of the outcome of a second murder trial, Murdaugh is still serving a 40-year federal prison sentence for various financial crimes, of which he pleaded guilty to in 2024.
When is the next pretrial hearing?
The next scheduled pretrial hearing is set for Nov. 13 in Lexington County.
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