South Carolina attorney general says death penalty possible in Murdaugh retrial

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office may seek the death penalty if Alex Murdaugh is retried for the 2021 killings of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh. “In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, we’re back to square one on this case, and that means all our legal options are on the table, including the death penalty,” Wilson said.

The warning carried new weight because the South Carolina Supreme Court had already wiped out Murdaugh’s murder convictions on May 13, 2026, and ordered a new trial in Opinion No. 28329. The justices found that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill improperly influenced the jury, saying she “placed her fingers on the scales of justice.” That ruling reset the case after a six-week trial in Colleton County ended with Murdaugh’s March 2, 2023 convictions for murder and two weapons charges, followed by a life sentence from Judge Clifton Newman.

If prosecutors pursue capital punishment, the legal stakes change immediately. South Carolina law allows death or a mandatory prison term in murder cases when statutory aggravating circumstances are found, and it requires a separate sentencing proceeding if a jury convicts. That means the state would not just have to prove guilt again, but also build a second phase around the aggravating facts that justify a death verdict. For the defense, the retrial would likely demand a broader mitigation strategy, more intensive jury screening and a sharper focus on excluding anything that could push jurors toward a capital sentence.

The Supreme Court’s ruling also signaled that the next trial may not simply replay the first one. The justices said they were not reviewing every issue because they had already granted a new trial, but they specifically addressed the admissibility of Murdaugh’s financial crimes to guide the circuit court on remand. That guidance could shape how both sides present evidence and how much of Murdaugh’s financial collapse the jury is allowed to hear in a case that has already drawn extraordinary public attention.

Murdaugh remains behind bars because the murder convictions were not the only sentences he is serving. He received a 27-year state sentence in November 2023 for financial crimes and a 40-year federal sentence in April 2024 for 22 federal financial crimes. Those sentences mean the retrial will not decide whether he walks free, but it could determine whether South Carolina again seeks its harshest punishment in one of the state’s most closely watched criminal cases.