Evidence dispute goes public in Alex Murdaugh case

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh say prosecutors are taking too long to share their evidence alleging the disbarred attorney killed his wife and his son, making it unfairly difficult to defend him at his next trial.

It’s a technical legal dispute that precedes many trials, but because of the overwhelming public attention to the Murdaugh case, attorney Dick Harpootlian called a news conference Wednesday that drew a dozen cameras, declaring that prosecutors want a “trial by ambush”

Prosecutors responded. “This fabricated drama is just one well-known part of the defense attorney’s playbook,” the state Attorney General’s Office responded in legal documents.

Murdaugh, 54, was indicted in July on murder charges in the shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, who were killed on June 7, 2021, in one of the houses. of the family in Colleton County. . He has flatly denied killing them.

Murdaugh’s attorneys immediately requested the prosecution’s evidence, and court rules require authorities to provide it within 30 days. That deadline was Monday, and defense attorneys said prosecutors didn’t provide the evidence because they wanted a judge to decide whether to require a protective order that limits who the defense can show evidence to and how it handles documents, photos and recordings.

Defense attorneys said prosecutors waited until Friday to make the protection request so they could delay the release of evidence after the deadline. Since it took 13 months to complete the investigation, the defense said, prosecutors should have had plenty of evidence ready to send by now.

“I don’t have a piece of paper. I don’t have email I don’t have exposure. I don’t have any evidence,” Harpootlian said. “We want to try this case in January.”

Prosecutors said the only reason the deadline was missed was because defense attorneys initially seemed to agree with the protective order on Friday and then changed their minds, according to their legal filing on the matter.

Authorities said they want to prevent autopsy or crime scene photos from being made public and other evidence from being revealed before trial.

Someone at the Attorney General’s Office has already leaked information, Harpootlian said. “All I know about blood spatter is what I read on some blog,” he said.

Neither prosecutors nor state investigators have released information about the case, state Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement.

If a judge finds that prosecutors intentionally delayed giving evidence to the defense, that evidence could be left out of a trial, though judges will almost always try to resolve the dispute in other ways, if possible.

The defense said it is waiting for the evidence so it can hire experts to review GPS data that authorities say links Murdaugh to the scene of the shooting or physical evidence such as blood and DNA that investigators say show he fired one of the guns. the two weapons they said were used in the killings.

There is the mobile phone data. There’s the data from the black box in his truck. There is forensic medicine. We have never seen an autopsy or time of death analysis,” Harpootlian said.

If convicted of murder, Murdaugh would face 30 years to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors could also choose to seek the death penalty under state law because more than one person was killed, but they have given no indication of what they might do.

The June 2021 deaths prompted authorities to investigate every corner of Murdaugh’s life. At least half a dozen investigations resulted in charges that he stole $8.5 million of the people who hired him and that he lied to the police by saying that he was shot by a stranger on the side of the road. Authorities say he actually asked a friend to kill him so his surviving son could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy just days after the family business determined he was stealing money. . Friend he said the gun went off when he tried to wrestle it from a suicidal Murdaugh.

Murdaugh is familiar with legal disputes. his family has dominated the legal scene in neighboring small Hampton County for nearly a century with his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, the area’s elected district attorneys for 87 years in a row.

Defense attorneys want to bring Murdaugh to trial as soon as possible to clear his name. Both sides appear to have agreed in January, with Harpootlian saying at the news conference outside his law office that he wants to stick to that schedule “come thick and thin” and that the attorneys and the rest of his firm will do whatever it takes. to review the evidence, whether it’s five pages or 5 million pages.

“Walk by here at 11 or 12 at night, you’ll see the lights on,” said Harpootlian, who when asked another question later in the news conference smiled and said “not me, but someone who works for me.” . .”

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.

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