Alex Murdaugh Speech at Sentencing Sparks Outrage

Disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh, who is serving two life sentences for the murders of his wife and son, sparked outrage for a speech he gave at a hearing in which he was sentenced to an additional 27 years in prison for financial crimes.

Murdaugh, once the scion of a well-known legal family in South Carolina's Lowcountry region, was sentenced Tuesday after accepting a plea deal on nearly two dozen state-level financial crimes. The charges included money laundering, breach of trust, conspiracy, forgery, tax evasion and other counts. The charges stem from a multiyear scheme in which the former lawyer stole about $12.5 million from his clients.

As laid out by Judge Clifton Newman, several of the charges will be served concurrently over the course of 20 years, with an additional seven-year sentence added as consecutive time. Murdaugh will be required to serve at least 85 percent of each period, roughly 23 years, before the possibility of parole.

"You seem empty, I don't see anything," Newman said during the sentencing hearing. "Hopefully something will emerge in your spirit, in your soul."

During the hearing, Murdaugh was given the opportunity to speak to his victims, delivering a speech that has been met with a strong negative reaction online, with a Daily Beast report characterizing it as "a rambling apology tour," in which he notably continued to assert that he did not kill his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. Numerous users took to social media, decrying the speech as manipulative and overly focused on Murdaguh himself.

To his other son, Buster, Murdaugh said that he was "so sorry that [he] let [him] down," while accusing "people on social media and some people in the media" or using his legal troubles as an excuse "to make false, baseless, unsubstantiated claims" about his son.

"My wife loved you, and you are absolutely right about everything you said," Murdaugh said to friend Jordan Jinks. "But you are dead wrong about one thing. I would never hurt Maggie and I would never hurt Paul. It is important to me that you know that. She did love you and I hope you know that."

"Leave it to Alex Murdaugh to turn what was supposed to be a day for HIS VICTIMS into a Grammy-type speech where he focused on HIMSELF and HIS FAMILY used the courtroom as a microphone to continue to manipulate the public," Mandy Matney, co-host of a podcast about the Murdaugh murders, wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter. "This is what a narcissist looks like."

Newsweek reached out to Murdaugh's legal team via email for comment.

"THIS IS IMO... the most self-serving, insincere statement I've ever seen," CourtTV host Julie Grant posted. "He's laying the groundwork for the re-trial on the murders *he believes* he's going to get."

"Alex Murdaugh's statement was a blueprint for how he was able to manipulate people for so long and it's further proof that he's NOT done," Liz Farrell, Matney's podcast co-host, wrote in her own post. "I have never been more convinced that he is the Original Evil ... and anyone who facilitates his freedom in anyway [sic] is right there with him."

"Alex Murdaugh's address today is painful to listen to," the account FITSNews posted. "Apologies upon apologies but his focus remains entirely on himself. Murdaugh is also seeking to cloak himself in his son Buster Murdaugh's innocence in the #Justice4StephenSmith matter. Such manipulation."

Update 11/28/23, 4:48 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.