Alex Murdaugh to serve life sentence for killing wife, son in protective custody

Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina former attorney convicted of killing his wife and son, will serve his life sentence in protective custody, officials said Friday. 

Mental health and prison experts determined that Murdaugh should be kept in protective custody after they reviewed his case. A four-member board made the recommendation and Murdaugh was moved to a statewide protective custody unit in a maximum security prison. 

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“Inmates in the unit have validated protective concerns and are placed in a specialized unit to separate them from the general population,” the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a news release. “Their location is not disclosed for safety and security reasons.”

The unit currently has 28 inmates. 

Murdaugh will live in an eight-by-ten cell with a bed, toilet and sink, the news release said. Inmates in the segregated unit have all the same privileges as those in general population, officials said. 

The news comes after Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, 52, and 22-year-old son, Paul, on the family’s Colleton County property. 

The day of the killings, the chief financial officer of his former law firm confronted Murdaugh about missing fees, and he had a hearing scheduled later that week in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a deadly 2019 boat wreck.