Murdaugh defense says detectives found male DNA under victim's nails but skipped key testing
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh have filed a motion asking a judge to force South Carolina prosecutors to hand over pieces of key forensic evidence, like the unidentified male DNA found under Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails that they say the state crime lab never fully tested.
The 93-page filing by Alex Murdaugh's attorneys on Friday seeks the additional DNA and ballistics evidence, along with raw data from a laser scan of the crime scene in Colleton County, South Carolina.
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh accused the state of stalling in a way that could jeopardize the defense's trial preparation.
"Every week the State withholds this material is a week taken from the preparation of the defense, and if the delay continues the defense may be forced to seek a continuance that Mr. Murdaugh does not want and that the Court has said it will not grant. The State should not be permitted to create, through inaction, the very delay it would then oppose," the motion states.
Alex Murdaugh's defense team previously requested that DNA evidence from underneath Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails be released to Othram, Inc. After Othram tested the DNA, the defense argued that additional testing is needed to recover a male DNA profile that the defense says the state crime lab found but never fully pursued.
READ IT: Alex Murdaugh defense team's motion to compel evidence
His defense argued that the partial DNA profile from swabs on Maggie Murdaugh's phone should be further tested as well.
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Defense attorneys are also asking for a list of every shooting in the counties surrounding the crime scene where .300 Blackout cases or projectiles were recovered, along with details about each crime. They also asked for raw data from a 3D laser scan SLED took of the crime scene. Prosecutors handed over a read-only viewer file in 2022, but the defense says it needs the raw data to reconstruct the scene.
Alex Murdaugh's defense also accused prosecutors of flip-flopping on the murder weapon. The state argued at his 2023 trial that the .300 Blackout rifle was uncommon, pointing toward the family's guns, but now calls it one of the most popular AR cartridges in the country, according to the motion.
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"The State has had continuous and exclusive custody of every item of physical evidence in this case, including the biological material that is the subject of Part III of this motion, for more than five years. It has tested what it wished to test, in the sequence it wished to test it, without notice to the defense and without the defense's consent. It now proposes that the defense may not do the same," defense attorneys argued.
Joshua Ritter, a former prosecutor and Fox News contributor, said Murdaugh's request for additional DNA may backfire, calling it a "big gamble."
"I think it's probably better left alone by the defense so that they can make that argument about this unknown male. 'Who is that? Why didn't the prosecution test it? Why didn't they do anything about it?' Maybe they're concerned that the prosecution could point the finger right back at them and say, well, you guys didn't test it either, you had it for as much time as we did," he said.
Alex Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at the family's Moselle property in Colleton County. The South Carolina Supreme Court later overturned the convictions after finding that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill improperly influenced the jury. His retrial is scheduled to begin April 5, 2027.
Fox News Digital reached out to SLED and Attorney General Alan Wilson for comment.