Jury member Alex Murdaugh reveals how the verdict was reached
Alex Murdaugh watches as the jury convicts him of the murders of his wife and son.
It wasn’t long Thursday before a South Carolina jury convicted Alex Murdaugh of the murders of his wife and son, but it turned out the deliberation process was even shorter than initially thought.
A member of the 12-member Colleton County jury broke his silence on the verdict in one ABC News Interviewwhich revealed two reticent jurors initially got away from testimony in court and concluding arguments that they believed Alex Murdaugh was not guilty of murdering his youngest son Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52 to have.
But according to carpenter Craig Moyer, whether it was the two jurors who believed Murdaugh’s innocence or the only juror unsure how to vote, the panel Strictly speaking sealed the fate of the disgraced lawyer in just 45 minutes. Yesterday it turned out that the jury needed two hours and 50 minutes of deliberation.
Moyer listed some points from the process that struck him personally and the jury as a whole.
For one, Moyer said Murdaugh’s various admissions of crucial lies did not work in the defendant’s favor because the jury could see that he was at the scene of the murders before they happened. The judge also mentioned the video recorded in the kennel where Alex Murdaugh’s voice could be heard on that fateful June 7, 2021 on the Moselle.
All jurors agreed they could hear Murdaugh’s voice in the video, Moyer said.
Moyer himself said he took into account that Murdaugh was a lawyer by profession, but considered the defendant’s testimony in court rehearsed – and the defendant overall a “big liar”. Prosecutors emphasized in their closing statements that Murdaugh lied and lied again, and when he was caught in those lies, the defendant admitted that he did so because he alternately felt “paranoid” and thought he had no other Wahl (“Oh, what a tangled web we weave,” the defendant declared at one point). Likewise, prosecutors told the jury, Murdaugh should not be believed when he claimed he was a liar but not a murderer. To the state, that was just another lie, and the jury—especially Moyer—were convinced on that point.
While the jury said the defendant’s admission to the dog kennel video was the most damning, Moyer indicated that he also found Murdaugh’s feeling on the witness stand to be inauthentic.
Moyer reportedly told ABC that it appeared more like Murdaugh was blowing “snot” out of his nose — not actually crying because he was an innocent man blamed by the state for the extermination of his own family members.
The Law&Crime Network will report live on Murdaugh’s sentencing on Friday.
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https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/live-trials-current/alex-murdaugh/carpenter-who-sealed-alex-murdaughs-fate-breaks-silence-reveals-just-how-quickly-holdout-jurors-changed-their-minds-and-why/ Jury member Alex Murdaugh reveals how the verdict was reached
