Later status: The first trial’s verdicts were set aside after a new trial was ordered in May 2026. This report explains the earlier jury proceeding. [1]

The first murder trial of Alex Murdaugh ended with four guilty verdicts. Before the jury decided the charges, Judge Clifton Newman explained the rules it had to follow. Those instructions mattered because a verdict had to rest on the admitted evidence and the law, not on the attention surrounding the family. [1] [2]

Four charges, four decisions

The prosecution concerned the deaths of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and her son, Paul, at the family’s Colleton County property. The grand jury had charged Alex with murdering each of them and possessing a weapon during each alleged violent crime. The indictments brought the accusations into court; they did not themselves prove guilt. [3]

In the filed transcript of the charge, Newman told jurors to decide each indictment separately. A conclusion on one charge could not automatically decide another. He also explained that Alex did not have to prove his innocence. The burden belonged to the state, which had to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. [2] [6]

How jurors were told to weigh evidence

Jurors were responsible for judging whether witnesses were believable and how much weight their evidence deserved. Newman discussed both direct evidence and evidence that required reasonable conclusions from a set of facts. Expert testimony was also for the jury to weigh. An expert’s title did not require jurors to accept the opinion. [2] [6]

The judge gave a separate limit for evidence about other wrongdoing. Jurors could consider it for the prosecution’s claimed motive, but could not simply reason that Alex was a bad person and therefore must have committed the killings. Contemporary courtroom reporting recorded that distinction as Newman delivered his charge. [4] [6]

The courtroom was the boundary

Newman told jurors to avoid outside research and information about the case. They were not to search online, consult outside sources, or discuss the case with other people. He required a unanimous verdict and told jurors to consider the instructions together. FITSNews’s live courtroom account records those directions as well as the judge’s statement that jurors would receive a written copy. [4] [6]

The filed transcript records deliberations beginning at 3:40 p.m. and the jury returning to the courtroom with a verdict at 7:04 p.m. The elapsed interval was 3 hours 24 minutes. These entries do not establish the exact moment jurors agreed or show that they discussed the case without interruption. The start and return entries appear on PDF pages 456–457. [6]

The jury returned guilty verdicts on the two murder charges and two weapon charges, recorded on PDF page 458 of the filed volume. [6] Sentencing followed the next day. The Supreme Court’s later assignment order confirms both dates and the four-count result. Those historical events remain part of the record even though the first trial no longer supplies a final murder judgment. [1]

Why It Matters

The instructions explain what the jury was supposed to decide and what it was supposed to leave out. They help readers separate the legal task from public reactions to a witness, a lawyer or the family’s history. Reading the charge alongside the verdict also avoids treating the verdict as a detailed explanation of every juror’s reasoning.

What Happens Next

The case has since returned for a new trial. Its scheduled start is April 5, 2027, in Sumter County. A new jury’s instructions and decisions will need their own record; they cannot be supplied by copying the first trial’s result. The case Court Calendar tracks the current schedule. [5]