Alex Murdaugh is back in a Lexington County courtroom Monday for a pretrial hearing after South Carolina’s Supreme Court overturned his 2023 murder convictions. The brief session is expected to set evidence-exchange deadlines and schedule next steps, while his
By the time the courthouse doors open at 10 a.m. Monday, Alex Murdaugh will be marked as something more than a defendant again. He’ll be a global focal point—an incarcerated man returned to court in the middle of South Carolina’s highest court undoing his murder convictions.
Murdaugh will appear for a pretrial hearing on charges accusing him of killing his wife and younger son. The session is expected to be short on substance but heavy on public attention. with dozens of media outlets—ranging from international organizations to local TV stations—and true-crime podcasters heading to the Lexington County courthouse to capture every movement from the once prominent Southern lawyer.
Last month, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Murdaugh’s murder convictions and his life sentence. Monday’s hearing is being framed around process: setting deadlines for exchanging evidence between the defense and prosecution. and laying out dates for other hearings. and possibly the next trial.
Even as he remains in prison, Murdaugh’s lawyers say the details of how he is shown during proceedings should change. In a request to the judge, they argued that his prior televised presentation as a “shackled prisoner in a prison jumpsuit” should not be repeated.
“Mr. Murdaugh’s convictions for non-violent, white-collar crimes in no way justify presenting him to the jury pool as a shackled prisoner in a prison jumpsuit via video cameras at televised pretrial hearings,” defense attorneys wrote.
That request is part of a broader effort to shape what jurors and the public will later see, even though Murdaugh’s true crime case is already steeped in attention and ritual.
There is one additional item before Monday’s hearing begins. Even while he stays incarcerated, Murdaugh’s lawyers want the judge to allow him to wear civilian clothes and avoid having his wrists or ankles shackled at every hearing and during his retrial.
The defense has also filed other pretrial motions. One asks prosecutors to turn over DNA evidence found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails that investigators said came from an unknown and unrelated man, so it can be sent for testing at a private lab.
Other requests push into day-to-day preparation and trial strategy. Murdaugh’s lawyers want the judge to allow him a laptop in prison without internet access so he can review evidence without having it printed out. They also ask to move the next trial outside of Colleton County. where the killings happened and where the first trial took place.
Murdaugh’s denials are part of why this case keeps pulling people back in. While he has admitted he is a thief, insurance cheat, liar, and bad lawyer, he has “adamantly denied” shooting to death his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, since he says he found their bodies outside their home in 2021.
A jury convicted him of two counts of murder in 2023, and he received a life sentence in prison without parole.
But the Supreme Court’s reversal turned on what jurors were told and what they were forced to sit with during the trial. The justices ruled that guidance from the Colleton County clerk of court—telling jurors to watch Murdaugh’s body language as he testified in his own defense and not be fooled. confused. or thrown off by what he might say—was essentially a suggestion of guilt. The court also expressed concern that days of testimony about how Murdaugh stole from clients. some of whom were disabled or vulnerable. could unfairly steer jurors away from the central question of whether he killed his family.
The Supreme Court said brief testimony is fine, but the justices objected to how much detail there was around vulnerable victims, arguing jurors should focus on whether Murdaugh killed his wife and son.
Even as the murder case resets, Murdaugh is not stepping out of custody. He remains in a South Carolina prison while he serves a 40-year federal sentence and also a 27-year state sentence for financial crimes. The life sentence connected to the murder convictions was overturned—but his punishment for the financial crimes remains.
Monday’s hearing will not decide whether he killed Maggie and Paul. It’s meant to clear the way—deadlines, scheduling, and the machinery of evidence. Still, the clash over shackles, civilian clothes, and how he might be viewed during pretrial proceedings is not procedural theater. It’s tied to the question the Supreme Court already answered: what jurors are shown. what they are told. and what they are allowed to take from a courtroom.
As the cameras roll again in Lexington County, Murdaugh’s case will continue its turn back toward another trial—one built not only on evidence, but on what the courts say a jury must not be nudged to believe.
Alex Murdaugh murder retrial South Carolina Supreme Court Lexington County evidence deadlines shackles DNA testing Maggie Murdaugh Paul Murdaugh Colleton County