Alex Murdaugh is trying to create “the premise for a down charge” as he admitted to lying to investigators in his murder trial testimony. Murdaugh is facing two murder charges for the killing of his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son Paul, 22. Judge Jeanine Pirro said Murdaugh, a lawyer by training, was exploiting his legal expertise to get the charge downgraded.
Murdaugh admitted to lying to the police investigating Maggie and Paul’s murder as he insisted he would have never “intentionally” harmed his family.
Speaking on Fox News, Pirro said: “The evidence is stacked against him. But the issue was how do you personalize a monster?
“They put him on the stand. He’s one of the best witnesses I’ve ever seen on a witness stand. He’s had a lot of reasons to react to the pitbull DA here, and he hasn’t reacted.
“But let’s talk about his saying sorry to ‘Maggs and Pawpaw.’ ‘I didn’t intentionally murder’ or whatever the actual statement is. I didn’t intentionally murder… or to hurt either one of them.”
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She suggested Murdaugh was intentionally leveraging the wording of the indictment to potentially have the charge reduced to manslaughter – as murder would involve the intent of killing.
Pirro continued: “Okay. So why does he use the word intentionally? Well, you can say he’s a lawyer.
“You could say he’s speaking in terms of how the indictment is written. Murder is an intentional crime, but it is prefaced with, ah, I am sorry to Maggs and Paul.
“All right. That means that he’s basically admitting to them, you know, I’m sorry I didn’t intentionally do anything to hurt you. What he is doing there is brilliant.”
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During his testimony, Murdaugh claimed his opioid addiction had rendered him “paranoid” and that pushed him into misleading detectives.
He also insisted he would “never intentionally do anything to hurt either of them. Ever. Ever.”
Pirro told Fox’s The Five: “He is creating the premise for a down charge.
“That means that even though he’s charged with intentional murder, there is evidence when the defence goes in to have a discussion with the judge about what the jury will be charged – the defence will say, ‘We want manslaughter in there’ and the judge will say there’s no evidence of manslaughter.
“Defence will say, yes, there is. He said he didn’t ‘intentionally’ hurt either one of them. So that was a very big moment in the cross-examination.”
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Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murdering his wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul near kennels at the family’s Colleton County home on June 7, 2021.
Paul Murdaugh was shot twice with a shotgun. The first wound skirted his chest with pellets and the second shot was to his head. The impact was so violent it left his skull nearly empty.
Maggie Murdaugh was hit by four or five bullets. The first two wounds happened as she faced the shooter and were not fatal, but a bullet did hit her kidney, the pathologist said.
Murdaugh is charged with about 100 other crimes, ranging from stealing from clients to tax evasion.
He is being held without bail on those charges, so even if he is found not guilty of the killings, he will not walk out of court as a free man.
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