Jailed lawyer Alex Murdaugh learned on Monday that he will be put on trial again to face charges that he killed his wife and son.
His murder convictions and life sentence were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court, The Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors claim he shot and killed his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, thinking that sympathy over their deaths would get him extra time to fix financial crimes brought to light after Paul crashed a boat while drinking, killing a teen.
Murdaugh denies killing his family, saying he found their bodies outside their home in 2021, the AP reported.
He was convicted on two counts of murder in 2023 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
But during the trial, the Colleton County clerk of court told the jury to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he took the stand, adding that they should not be fooled, confused, or thrown off by his testimony, according to the AP.
The state’s high court said the clerk’s advice was suggestive of guilt and overturned his conviction.
The clerk, Rebecca Hill, later pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the case, but not to jury tampering, CNN reported. She pleaded guilty to showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court.
She pleaded guilty to four charges, including obstruction of justice and perjury, as well as two counts of misconduct in office in relation to her book, which she wrote covering the trial. Hill was sentenced to three years of probation, according to CNN.
The justices also questioned the drawn-out days of testimony over Murdaugh’s financial crimes, which he was convicted of in a separate trial, saying that it could have turned him against jurors who should have been focused on the murders.
Murdaugh is still in prison for his 40-year federal sentence, along with a 27-year state sentence on the financial crimes.
On Monday, Circuit Court Judge Debra McCaslin set Murdaugh’s new trial to begin April 5, 2027, CNN reported.
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