Alex Murdaugh's Lawyers Want Change Of Venue For 2027 Murder Re-Trial

Alex Murdaugh's lawyers want his re-trial moved to a different county because of the huge publicity surrounding the case. Judge Debra McCaslin said Lexington County is her "home county" and asked if the attorneys were fine holding pre-trial hearings there because "we have a big courtroom." "I already have security set in place. ... Both clerks and security have done a really good job. This is not the only courtroom in this courthouse, so I won't disrupt holding court in Lexington, which I would not want to do to any county. Sometimes I go to really small counties, and I don't think it would be good to hold a pretrial there," Caslin said. 06:25 next pre-trial August 14 08:23 Trial date: "I'm thinking April 5." A jury in 2023 convicted Murdaugh of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime for the June 7, 2021, shooting death of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh. The South Carolina Supreme Court appointed McCaslin to preside over Murdaugh's case after overturning his convictions on May 13. The court said a clerk's comments to jurors, including telling them defense attorneys are "going to say things that will try to confuse you," were "improper external influences on the jury" that demanded reversal. You can read the 27-page opinion here: https://www.sccourts.org/.../opinions... Murdaugh, the 58-year-old scion of a family legal dynasty, still is serving 40 years for federal crimes related to his decades-long embezzlement scheme, including wire fraud and bank fraud