The choose who presided over convicted assassin Alex Murdaugh’s trial and sentencing spoke out Tuesday about among the choices he made throughout the high-profile case.
In a speech at his alma mater Cleveland State College on Tuesday, South Carolina Circuit Court docket Choose Clifton Newman stated he didn’t anticipate for Murdaugh’s trial to captivate the nation’s consideration past South Carolina.
“It had the added notoriety as a result of it concerned a lawyer who had been accused of stealing over $8 million from quite a lot of shoppers,” Newman stated. “A lawyer who admittedly was strung out on medication and greater than the rest, a person who’s accused of killing his spouse and his son.”

“And regardless of these sort of details that would definitely make of us , I imagine after I determined to make your complete course of open to the general public and open to the media and broadcast wherever it wanted to be … nationwide and worldwide, I wasn’t experiencing any of that — I used to be merely a choose in a trial doing my job, as I’ve performed repeatedly through the years,” he continued.
Newman sentenced Murdaugh to 2 consecutive life sentences on March 3, in the future after jurors convicted the previous lawyer within the murders of his spouse, Maggie Murdaugh, and youngest son, Paul Murdaugh.
Earlier than saying his sentence, Newman spoke on to Murdaugh and stated he should cope with the deaths of his spouse and son in his “personal soul.”
“I do know you need to see Paul and Maggie throughout the night time time whenever you’re trying to fall asleep,” Newman stated. “I’m certain they arrive and go to you.”

Newman elaborated on these feedback in his speech at Cleveland State.
“I don’t imagine that he hated his spouse, and definitely I didn’t imagine that he didn’t love his son, however he dedicated the unforgivable, unimaginable crime, and there’s no method that he’ll be capable of sleep peacefully,” he stated.
He additionally spoke of his ruling to permit Murdaugh’s alleged monetary crimes into proof within the homicide trial. Murdaugh has been charged with 99 separate counts of monetary crimes, alleging he defrauded his former regulation agency shoppers out of about $8.8 million.
“I believe the file speaks for itself,” Newman stated.
“As soon as a defendant takes the stand and testifies, nearly every part is honest recreation at that time,” he added, referring to the second Murdaugh testified in his personal protection throughout the trial.
Murdaugh’s attorneys have stated they plan to attraction Murdaugh’s sentence. He has not entered a plea for the 99 different monetary crimes prices.
Newman additionally addressed his resolution to let jurors go to the scene of the murders on the Murdaugh household property often known as Moselle.
“It ended up, I believed, being useful to the prosecution and to not the protection, although requested by the protection,” he stated.
Moselle not too long ago offered for $3.9 million, and in accordance with court docket paperwork, Murdaugh’s surviving son Buster Murdaugh is ready to obtain $530,000 of these funds.
Newman is required by state regulation to retire this yr when he turns 72, however he’s nonetheless assigned to preside over the monetary crimes instances Murdaugh will stand trial for, that means he may end overseeing the trials even when they go into subsequent yr.