One of South Carolina’s most consequential criminal cases is coming to Sumter County in April 2027.
Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Debra McCaslin released a signed order on Tuesday, Sept. 8, ruling that the retrial of Alex Murdaugh will take place in Sumter County.
The court stated the county is an “appropriate venue” for the retrial as Murdaugh would have an “appropriate forum” to receive a fair trial.
The county is also “best suited” as it will offer security measures, courtroom facilities and technological capabilities necessary for the safe, orderly and efficient conduct of these proceedings.
McCaslin set the tentative retrial date for April 5, 2027, during a status hearing in Lexington County back in June.
Murdaugh, a former personal injury attorney in Hampton, is charged with fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, 52, and 22-year-old son, Paul, at the family's Moselle Estate in Colleton County in 2021. He was also charged with two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Murdaugh maintained his innocence throughout the six-week trial in Walterboro but was found guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison in March 2023.
In May of this year, South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction after the court found that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill improperly influenced the jury, undermining Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial.
Hill resigned in 2024 and pleaded guilty last year to showing a reporter sealed court exhibits in the Murdaughs' killings and then lying about it. She was sentenced to probation.
Murdaugh’s attorneys asked McCaslin to move the trial outside the 14th Judicial Circuit, arguing that Murdaugh wouldn’t be able to get a fair and impartial trial after intense media coverage about him, his family and their role as prosecutors. The defense previously requested Charleston and Richland counties as potential venues for the retrial.
The decision was left up to McCaslin, who selected Sumter.
Though his double-murder convictions were reversed, Murdaugh remains in prison for financial crimes, including federal and state sentences.
He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2024 for 22 federal financial crimes, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud; bank fraud; wire fraud; and money laundering, according to U.S. Department of Justice.
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This article was contributed to by Tiffany Tan with Lexington Chronicle.
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