Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 right
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Alex Murdaugh was convicted in March 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in June 2021.
- That conviction was overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court due to jury tampering tied to Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill.
- Murdaugh is now facing a retrial on the same double-murder charges.
- Murdaugh came from a prominent, influential South Carolina legal family.
Where they differ
- Fox News details the specific new defense motion alleging SLED agent David Owen presented fabricated evidence and false grand jury testimony; CBS News’s clip does not cover this filing.
- CBS News centers its account on Becky Hill’s jury tampering as the key event that undid the conviction; Fox News treats that ruling as brief background to newer pretrial motions.
- Fox News reports the defense’s request to move the retrial from Colleton County to Charleston County over jury-impartiality concerns, a detail absent from the CBS material.
- Fox News notes a pretrial hearing date tied to the Aug. 7 filing, giving a concrete near-term timeline not present in the CBS summary.
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh have filed a motion asking a South Carolina judge to dismiss the murder indictments against him, alleging the lead investigator lied to a grand jury and presented fabricated physical evidence. The filing comes as Murdaugh awaits retrial for the June 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, after the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his original 2023 conviction over jury tampering involving a county clerk.
What exactly are Murdaugh’s lawyers alleging?
In an Aug. 7 motion, Murdaugh’s defense team claims David Owen, the lead agent for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), gave “perjurious testimony” and introduced fabricated evidence to the Colleton County grand jury that indicted Murdaugh. According to the motion, Owen testified he presented physical evidence directly implicating Murdaugh, but the defense says Owen later admitted that evidence was false, and that the defense has since proven it was fabricated by law enforcement. The attorneys frame this as prosecutorial misconduct and say a fuller account of the allegations will come in a supporting memorandum still to be filed.
Why is a county clerk part of this story?
The case took its current turn because the South Carolina Supreme Court threw out Murdaugh’s original March 2023 double-murder conviction, pointing to alleged jury tampering by Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill. Legal commentators discussing the reversal on CBS News described Hill’s conduct as the specific reason the high court ordered a new trial, effectively upending a case that had already produced a conviction and sentence. That ruling is what set up the current pretrial fight over whether the indictments themselves should now be dismissed.
What else are the defense attorneys asking for?
Beyond the dismissal request, Murdaugh’s legal team has also asked to move the retrial out of Colleton County to Charleston County. They argue that the intense publicity surrounding the case — which they describe as unprecedented in South Carolina’s history — makes it impossible to seat an impartial jury locally. Moving to Charleston County, they contend, would preserve a trial with local ties while avoiding the prejudice built up in Colleton County over years of coverage.
Where does the case stand right now?
Both the dismissal motion and the venue-change request were filed ahead of a pretrial hearing scheduled for the Friday following the Aug. 7 filing. Murdaugh, once a prominent attorney from a powerful multi-generational Lowcountry legal family, was convicted in March 2023 of fatally shooting Maggie and Paul Murdaugh at the family’s hunting property on June 7, 2021. He is now set to be retried on those same charges after the conviction was vacated.
How are the two accounts of this story different?
CBS News approaches the story from the angle of the jury-tampering ruling that unraveled the original conviction, framing the clerk’s conduct as the pivotal turning point in the case’s history. Fox News focuses on the newer legal maneuvering — the defense’s fabricated-evidence claims against SLED agent David Owen and the push to relocate the retrial — treating the county clerk’s tampering only as brief background for why a retrial is happening at all.
Why this matters beyond the courtroom
The Murdaugh case has drawn sustained national attention since 2021, both for the brutality of the killings and for the unraveling of a once-powerful legal family with deep ties to South Carolina’s judicial system across generations. A successful dismissal motion or venue change would be a significant development, potentially delaying or reshaping the retrial and renewing scrutiny of how state investigators and prosecutors built the original case. For now, no ruling has been reported on either the dismissal motion or the venue request, and the outcome will likely hinge on the fuller memorandum the defense says it will file laying out its fabrication claims in detail.
Sources
Featured photo: Bill Fitzpatrick via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)