Murdaugh Retrial Prep Begins as Sides Spar Over Jury and Evidence

The legal battle over Alex Murdaugh’s retrial is already underway. Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian and lead prosecutor Creighton Waters outlined their positions in separate interviews with Fox News Digital.

The interviews followed the South Carolina Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to overturn Murdaugh’s convictions in the killings of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. The court ruled that Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill improperly influenced jurors during the six-week trial.

Harpootlian said the defense will ask for a change of venue, attorney-led jury questioning and possible sequestration. He added that the team will examine prospective jurors’ social media accounts before they appear in court.

“They’d already been pre-conditioned,” Harpootlian said, referring to testimony that Hill encouraged jurors not to believe Murdaugh.

Waters said widespread publicity in high-profile cases is now unavoidable. “The genie is out of the bottle,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to go back with that.” He argued that publicity alone cannot disqualify jurors and that the system relies on citizens following their oath to decide cases only on evidence presented in court.

When asked whether Murdaugh will testify again, Harpootlian said the decision will be made closer to trial. He noted that Murdaugh, a lawyer, understands the process and that the defense reviewed the choice with him.

Harpootlian said the defense will have subpoena power for the retrial and can gather records to support or challenge evidence. He criticized prosecutors for spending roughly 12.5 hours on financial-crime details that he said were meant to portray Murdaugh as morally reprehensible before the jury heard the murder evidence.

Waters defended the original approach, saying both the trial judge and the Supreme Court accepted the state’s motive theory linking the financial crimes to the killings.

Harpootlian also attacked the murder investigation, accusing investigators of tunnel vision from the night of the killings. He said they failed to collect fingerprints or DNA and did not properly preserve Maggie Murdaugh’s phone. He added that the defense will present new forensic cell-phone analysis and vehicle data at retrial.

The original prosecution relied heavily on a kennel video recorded by Paul Murdaugh shortly before the killings in which witnesses identified Alex Murdaugh’s voice. Harpootlian said the state’s timeline remains uncertain and questioned how Murdaugh could have thrown Maggie’s phone from a car window if he was starting his own vehicle at the same time.

Waters declined to discuss specific evidence disputes ahead of the retrial, saying it would be inappropriate to litigate the case in the media while Murdaugh is presumed innocent.