Alex Murdaugh appears in court for first time since conviction overturned

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - Alex Murdaugh appeared in court Monday for the first time since the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his guilty conviction earlier this year.

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The hearing at the Lexington County Courthouse drew media members, law students, and law enforcement. Murdaugh appeared shackled and in an orange South Carolina Department of Corrections jumpsuit. He remains in custody on financial crimes charges to which he previously pleaded guilty.

Murdaugh is accused of killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul.

Motions discussed at hearing

The hearing allowed the judge to meet with the state and defense to address pending motions and schedule future court dates.

Motions discussed included a possible venue change for the retrial, a request to allow Murdaugh to wear street clothes instead of a jumpsuit during hearings, and a request for Murdaugh to have access to a laptop in his cell to review documents from his previous trial.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian argued that access to digital documents would help Murdaugh prepare as the legal team reviews materials and consults new expert witnesses.

“If we have that, he can be reviewing documents and experts as we are reviewing them,” Harpootlian said.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters pushed back, saying the Department of Corrections strongly opposes giving an inmate a laptop.

“One thing SCDC is adamantly opposed to is having an inmate have a laptop; they are absolutely, 100% opposed to that,” Waters said. “Then let me remind you that this is an individual who already had his tablet privileges taken away.”

Judge McCaslin did not approve unrestricted laptop access in Murdaugh’s cell. Instead, she said he may review documents on a laptop in a prison conference room, but only while accompanied by someone from his legal team.

She also said she will look into whether some documents can be reviewed through Murdaugh’s issued tablet.

Evidence and DNA testing

Attorneys also addressed whether additional evidence needs to be disclosed before the retrial.

The state said all evidence has been released; the defense said it could not confirm that until it has reviewed everything.

The defense also said it wants a Texas-based company to conduct AI-assisted DNA testing on DNA collected from Maggie Murdaugh. The judge said she wants to know how long the testing would take and whether a viable sample exists for testing.

Key dates

The judge said most pending motions will be addressed and ruled on at a future pretrial conference, currently set for Aug. 14.

All parties agreed to a trial date during the week of April 5. The judge emphasized she does not continue trial dates, indicating that date is firm.

“I’m trying to get past Easter and know hard it is to pick a jury when you have Spring Break,” Circuit Judge Debra McCaslin said.

She also made it clear that once a date is set, it won’t be easily moved.

“When I set a trial date, I don’t do continuances… it better be a really good reason,” she said.

The judge said she wants pretrial issues addressed well before jury selection begins.

“I like to address all pretrial matters beforehand because when I say April 5th, we are picking a jury and going forward,” McCaslin said.