Alex Murdaugh's Defense Says the Shirt Was No Accident

South Carolina taxpayers are about to fund a second Alex Murdaugh murder trial because Becky Hill talked to a jury while selling a book about the case. That means a new prosecution, courthouse security, and months of court time. On August 5, a federal judge ruled Hill owes Murdaugh nothing for the first one. His $600,000 lawsuit against the former clerk is dismissed, on the logic that he'd have paid his defense lawyers whether she tampered or not. She pleaded guilty in December to obstruction, perjury, and misconduct: charges about a book photo, bonuses, and sealed exhibits, not the tampering. She received no prison time. She keeps whatever the book made. Everyone is paying for what happened in that courtroom except the person who caused it.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer joins Tony Brueski to work through that math, and through the second filing that landed a day later. Murdaugh's defense is demanding prosecutors search every file, every witness deal, and every disciplinary record, then certify in writing that nothing favorable to him remains hidden. The motion names no specific missing evidence. It doesn't have to — the state's record does the arguing. Lead investigator David Owen is connected to a separate murder case dismissed over undisclosed evidence. Agent Ryan Kelly, who cleared Eddie Smith on the stand, was fired this June from an internal affairs job for unrelated and undisclosed reasons. And the white shirt at the center of the forensic case tested negative for human blood before a testing chemical destroyed any chance of a second opinion.

Coffindaffer answers the questions this channel's audience has been asking all week: why Hill isn't in prison, who searches SLED besides SLED, and whether the shirt was ruined by accident. Murdaugh is presumed innocent. April will test the case. This episode tests the casework.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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