Alex Murdaugh will appeal his 40-year federal sentence for financial crimes

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Convicted killer and fraudster Alex Murdaugh will appeal his 40-year sentence for federal financial crimes.

His lawyers on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 40-year sentence — perhaps the stiffest ever for financial crimes in South Carolina — was handed down on April 1 by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel in a hearing in Charleston.

Murdaugh, an ex-lawyer, had earlier pleaded guilty to a host of thefts and embezzlements totaling some $10 million from 27 victims over 15 years. Approximately $6 million is still missing, federal prosecutors charged. Most of his victims were former clients who had won big settlements. In most cases, he stole the money from his law firm’s client trust account without anyone noticing until he was finally caught in 2021.

“We are going to argue to the 4th Circuit that the sentence was unconstitutional and excessive for a non-violent crime,” said attorney Jim Griffin, who, along with Dick Harpootlian, Phil Barber and Margaret Fox, represents Murdaugh.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Carolina, which prosecuted the case, declined comment. In court on April 1, federal prosecutor Emily Limehouse had asked for only 30 years.

But Judge Gergel made it clear that while Murdaugh’s technical crimes were money laundering, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and wire fraud affecting a financial institution, he had committed a greater transgression: betraying the legal system and standards he had sworn to uphold as a lawyer.

“The defendant’s conduct has brought disgrace and disrepute to himself, his law firm, the Hampton County bar, the South Carolina bar, if not the entire court system,” Gergel said at the hearing.

Perhaps worst of all, Gergel indicated, was Murdaugh’s betrayal of the law, of his fellow lawyers and the duties that lawyers owe to protect clients. The stiff sentence is a warning to all lawyers, Gergel said, who should see their law license only as “a license to do good.”

Murdaugh, 55, is currently serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. He is appealing those convictions to the S.C. Court of Appeals.

He is also serving a concurrent 27-year sentence in state prison for roughly the same financial crimes for which he pleaded guilty in federal court.

Murdaugh had two partners in crime: his longtime friend and ex-banker Russell Laffitte and ex-lawyer Corey Fleming. Both are currently serving prison terms.

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