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Biden Fails a Death Penalty Abolitionist’s Most Important Test

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The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.
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South Carolina | Alex Murdaugh can ask judge to toss out murder conviction, appeals court rules

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Oct 17 (Reuters) - The South Carolina court of appeals on Tuesday ruled that Richard "Alex" Murdaugh, a lawyer found guilty of murdering his wife and son, can ask a lower court judge to toss out his conviction due to allegations of jury tampering. 

Lawyers for Murdaugh, who has maintained his innocence, said in a statement that they would now seek "a full blown evidentiary hearing" in a lower court on their allegations that the Colleton County Clerk of Court, Rebecca Hill, improperly communicated with jurors as they weighed Murdaugh's case.

The lawyers allege in court filings that Hill told jurors not to be "fooled by" Murdaugh's defense, among other comments. 

Hill did not respond to requests for comment. 

A spokesperson for the South Carolina Attorney General's office, which prosecuted the case, said that the office would "respond through the legal process at the appropriate time." 

A hearing on Murdaugh's allegations of jury tampering and request for a new trial has not been scheduled.

Even if he were eventually cleared of his murder conviction, Murdaugh would likely remain in prison - he pleaded guilty last month to federal financial crimes charges and is awaiting sentencing, expected to be several years in jail. 

Murdaugh, 55, a member of a powerful South Carolina family, was found guilty on March 2 on two counts of shooting his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, on their family estate on June 7, 2021. He was sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

During his trial, prosecutors said Murdaugh fatally shot his wife and son to distract from an array of financial misdeeds, including the theft of millions of dollars from his law partners and clients, money used to feed a years-long addiction to opioids and support an expensive lifestyle. 

Murdaugh's lawyers tried to paint their client as a loving family man who, while facing financial difficulties and a drug addiction, would never harm his wife and child.

For decades until 2006, Murdaugh family members served as the leading prosecutor in the area. Murdaugh was a prominent personal injury attorney in the state.

Source: Reuters, Brad Brooks, October 17, 2023


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde
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