Alex Murdaugh sentencing: Disgraced SC attorney gets life in prison

Alex Murdaugh was sentenced Friday to life in prison after being convicted of murdering his wife and their youngest son.

The life sentences for each murder will run consecutively.

0:25

Alex Murdaugh to court before sentencing: ‘I’m innocent'

The disgraced lawyer addressed the court ahead of his sentencing.

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Before the judge imposed the sentence, Murdaugh said, “I’ll tell you again. I respect this court. But I am innocent, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son, Paul."

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Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison

The disgraced lawyer was found guilty in the 2021 murders of his wife and youngest son.

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Judge Clifton Newman responded, "It might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. Maybe you become another person. I've seen that before."

The judge said, "The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it's the same individual."

2:28

Alex Murdaugh’s lies are ‘unfortunate,’ judge says

Judge Clifton Newman said “the monster you’ve become” could be responsible for the murders of Murdaugh’s wife and youngest son.

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Before the sentence was announced, prosecutor Creighton Waters asked the judge to impose a maximum of consecutive life sentences.

Waters called Alex Murdaugh “a cunning manipulator, a man who placed himself above all others, including his family, a man who violated the trust of so many, including his friends, his family, his partners, his profession. But most of all, Maggie and Paul.”

“Both of them, like everyone else, was unaware of who he really was,” he said.

“I've looked at his eyes. And he liked to stare me down as he would walk by me during this trial. And I could see the real Alex Murdaugh when he looked at me,” Waters said. “The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning. The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he lies, including here sitting right over there, in this witness stand. Your honor, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law-abiding citizens again.”

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Alex Murdaugh is 'chilling', prosecutor says

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters addressed the court ahead of the sentencing of Alex Murdaugh.

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Alex Murdaugh gave a brief statement to the judge before sentencing, saying, “I’m innocent. I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paw-Paw.”

0:25

Alex Murdaugh to court before sentencing: ‘I’m innocent'

The disgraced lawyer addressed the court ahead of his sentencing.

ABCNews.com

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said he hopes no one forgets the victims at the center of Alex Murdaugh's trial, even as the case became "sensational" and "grabbed the attention of the world."

"At the end of the day, two people were brutally murdered, they lost their lives, a family was destroyed, a legacy was torn asunder and there’s been a wake of victims going back decades, and we want to put the attention on them and let them know that their voice can be heard," Wilson told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview Friday on "Good Morning America."

Wilson said the disgraced lawyer has "been weaving a tangled web of lies for decades," which the South Carolina attorney general said was evident when Murdaugh took the stand to testify in his own trial, after cellphone video had placed him at the scene minutes before the crime occurred.

"For so long, he's been able to manipulate people and bend them to his will because he's so good at what he does," Wilson said. "He was a master at manipulating and communicating with juries and I believe when he took the stand, that was his last closing argument. He had done this for so long, he believed that he could get what he wanted out of this jury. And I think when he took the stand, he confirmed for many of those jurors what they had heard in that video -- that he was a liar."

Wilson said he was "pleasantly surprised" when he learned that the jury had returned a verdict in less than three hours and hoped it was a good sign.

"I didn't know what to think," he recalled. "I respect the process too much to be that confident, but I was guardedly optimistic when they came back as quickly as they did."

Wilson said the guilty verdict sends a message to those "who question the criminal justice system" and who think "it doesn’t apply fairly and equally to all people."

"We are here to say that it does, that no one is above the law in South Carolina and when you brutally murder your wife and son, you will be held accountable no matter who you are," he added.

The South Carolina attorney general thanked the authorities, investigators and prosecutors behind the case, saying: "They made this conviction possible."

3:32

South Carolina attorney general speaks out ahead of Alex Murdaugh sentencing

Alan Wilson weighs in on the case, in which a jury found Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife and younger son.

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