Crime · Colleton County
Murdaugh Defense Seeks Dismissal of Colleton County Murder Indictments
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh filed a motion in Colleton County, South Carolina, seeking dismissal of the 2022 murder indictments underlying his retrial, alleging a law enforcement agent presented fabricated blood-spatter evidence to the grand jury. The defense filing claims SLED established no human blood was on Murdaugh's shirt within two months of the June 2021 killings but later produced a reversed expert opinion leaked to the press before being presented to the Colleton County grand jury. Murdaugh was convicted by a Colleton County jury in March 2023 and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, but the S.C. Supreme Court unanimously overturned those convictions in May 2026 due to jury tampering by the county clerk of court. Judge Debra McCaslin has set April 5 as the retrial start date, with a hearing on the dismissal motion scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13, at the Lexington County courthouse.