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As Alex Murdaugh’s legal team pushes for a new murder trial, they have a bold request for the South Carolina Supreme Court: ban Judge Clifton Newman from having anything to do with the case.
In a Wednesday filing, defense lawyers argued that Newman should be removed from future hearings related to Murdaugh’s double homicide case, claiming that the judge who presided over the murder trial cannot be impartial.
The 256-page motion is the latest legal filing in defense lawyers’ fight for a new trial over claims that Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca Hill tampered with the 12-person jury. After the six-week trial, it took jurors only three hours to convict Murdaugh of murdering his wife and son at their home in June 2021. He was handed two life sentences, and still faces over 100 separate pending charges for other crimes.