- Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of all four counts – murdering his wife and son, and using a weapon in the commission of those crimes. The jury took only about three hours to return that verdict.
- As I may have mentioned 1,273 times in this column, my total legal education consists of three hours of Con Law at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750.
- As a young reporter for WMOA Radio (1490 on you AM dial) I regularly covered municipal court where the typical case dealt with alcohol consumption and its aftermath.
- We had one murder case in Washington County Common Pleas Court that had to do with an argument between two neighbors over a dog pooping on the other’s lawn which escalated to one neighbor going to the workplace of the other neighbor and shooting him dead.
- We only had three full-time reporters in Marietta at the time: The beat reporter for the Marietta Daily Times, the Marietta reporter for the Parkersburg (WVa) News, and me.
- The verdict, as I remember it, was “Not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.”
- The defense asked that the accused be examined by the state’s psychiatrist, or some agreed-upon mental health professional.
- The accused was examined and found to be sane, able to understand the charges against him, and to participate in his own defense.
- The judge was not allowed to tell the jury this, but when they found him guilty by reason of TEMPORARY insanity, he was free to go because the state that had accused him of murder (or manslaughter) had found him sane except for the few hours when he stalked his victim and shot him.
- The jury was astounded and asked the judge if they could revisit their verdict.
- They, of course, could not.
- I wasn’t a good enough reporter, nor in Marietta long enough to follow up with what happened to that man. I only raise it in the wake of the Alex Murdaugh verdict.
- I have tried to avoid being swept up in the Murdaugh case but, like you, I couldn’t avoid it. It was on CNN and MSNBC for long periods of time. Fox might have carried it as well, but I don’t want Neilson to track my having ever watched Fox – at least since they too it upon themselves to be the propaganda arm of the GOP.
- I watched a three-hour documentary which CNN aired during the trial – with no hint that Murdaugh would be convicted. There was no question that Murdaugh and his family more or less – no, actually – ran Hampton County.
- Hampton County has a population (at the 2020 census) of 18, 561. It seemed like about half of them were kin to, friends with, or clients of Murdaugh’s law firm.
- There was a segment at a local hospital after Murdaugh’s son, drunk, drove a boat into a bridge pier and killed a young woman.
- A tragedy to be sure. But the documentary seemed to indicate Alex Murdaugh was at the hospital offering comfort to the parents of the dead girl and the other injured kids, he was at the hospital to make it clear that his son had not been driving the boat.
- My verdict was set when the prosecution showed a still photo of Murdaugh at the hospital with his Assistant (or Courtesy, or Deputy) Solicitor’s badge clearly visible hanging from his khakis pocket.
- Almost everyone has been confronted by someone who used their fame, wealth, or influence to the detriment of friends or colleagues.
- “He’ll get his,” or “She’ll get hers,” is a common soothing mechanism we’ve all employed.
- They almost never got theirs.
- Alex Murdaugh got his.
- See you next week.
