Standing in shackles and a beige prison jumpsuit, the once prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh continued to claim he was innocent Friday as a judge slammed him as a “monster” whose conduct was worse than many offenders who got the death penalty.
Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to life in prison for the June 7, 2021, murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul—but not before giving a searing speech on Murdaugh’s conduct.
“I don’t question at all the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty,” Newman said. “But as I sit here in this courtroom and look around the many portraits of judges and other court officials, and reflect on the fact that over the past century your family, including you, have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom, and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct.”