Feb. 24, 2023
Creighton
Waters, the lead prosecutor, tries to hammer home a key argument: that
Alex Murdaugh has, for years, revised his stories and made up new lies
when he can no longer deny certain facts. ...Reporting from Walterboro, S.C.
Waters says Murdaugh is doing so yet again, admitting on the stand yesterday that he had lied about his whereabouts on the night of the murder, admitting he had been at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed, only after a video emerged in court proving that he was there shortly before the killings.
THAT is relevant.
Reporting from Walterboro, S.C.
Why the judge is permitting Murdaugh to "make many admissions--that he stole millions of dollars..." is astounding to me. Lying "about his whereabouts" at the time of the murder is clearly relevant.
Alex
Murdaugh is walking the lead prosecutor through his longtime oxycodone
addiction, including vivid descriptions of the withdrawal symptoms he
would get when he tried to detox. The prosecutor, Creighton Waters, is
clearly laying the groundwork for more direct questioning about the
murders, but so many questions about other topics could risk diverting
the jurors’ attention from the accusations at hand.Feb. 24, 2023
Reporting from Walterboro, S.C.
That is plausible risk to the prosecutor. However the constitutional right to free trial is applicable only to the defendant. The prosecution does not have a constitutional right to free trial. Therefore, the law looks at the risk of prejudice to the defendant of "so many questions about other topics'; that the jury may get distracted "from the accusations at hand" and convict the defendant based on "other topics."
Alex
Murdaugh continues to confess to financial crimes, for which he is not
currently on trial. He admits on the stand that he stole about $3.7
million in 2019, more than any other year. That was the same year that
his son, Paul Murdaugh, who was killed in the 2021 shooting, was charged
with drunkenly crashing a boat into a bridge, killing a passenger. Feb. 24, 2023
Reporting from Walterboro, S.C.
One of the dangers for the prosecution on appeal is that the other crimes "for which he is not currently on trial" not become a feature of the trial. There is NO WAY the financial crimes are not a feature.
Eric Bland
After some rough patches, Creighton Waters ended with a mic drop moment when he caught Alex flat out in a lie, after for last two days he said he only lied because of SLED as to whether he was at the kennels. Within five minutes, he lied to the Colleton county sheriff, who was first on the scene. Told him he hadn’t seen his wife and son for 45 minutes prior to 9 o’clock and said he was in the house. For two days, Alex said he had no problem with local law enforcement and trust them. You could feel the air come out of the court room for the defense. EB
