Sumter County to be site for Alex Murdaugh's new double murder trial

John Monk, The State (Columbia, S.C.) on Sep 8, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

South Carolina Judge Debra McCaslin has picked Sumter County as the site for Alex Murdaugh’s new double-murder retrial.

“After careful review of potential venues and courthouse facilities throughout the state, the court finds that Sumter County is an appropriate venue for the retrial of (Murdaugh),” McCaslin wrote in an eight-page order handed down late Tuesday afternoon.

“Sumter County provides an appropriate forum in which (Murdaugh) can receive a fair trial, while also offering the security measures, courtroom facilities, and technological capabilities necessary for the safe, orderly and efficient conduct of these proceedings,” McCaslin wrote.

McCaslin made her ruling after granting a motion by Murdaugh’s lead attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, to move the trial out of the five-county 14th Judicial Circuit because of the potential bias of jurors in that five-county region.

Murdaugh comes from an influential political and law enforcement family in one county — Hampton — in the 14th Judicial Circuit and the killings he is charged with committing happened in another county — Colleton — in that circuit.

In 2023, after a six-week trial, a Colleton County jury convicted Murdaugh of two counts of murder in the 2021 fatal shootings of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. The conviction and sentences were overturned in May by the S.C. Supreme Court, which ruled that jury tampering by the former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill deprived Murdaugh of his constitutional right to a fair trial.

In her ruling, McCaslin said that she was moving the trial from Colleton on several grounds, including “community prejudice” arising from long-standing association of the Murdaugh family with people in the 14th Judicial Circuit and the “unprecedented breadth, substance and form of the publicity surrounding this prosecution.”

The Sumter County courthouse, located about 45 miles east of Columbia, takes a little more than an hour to reach from downtown Columbia, depending on the traffic, road construction and time of day.