NEWS
Convicted Murderer Alex Murdaugh Loses Prison Phone Privileges After Speaking to Media
Courtesy of Instagram
Alex Murdaugh, the former attorney convicted in March of murdering his wife and adult son, has lost his prison phone privileges after speaking to media for a documentary, officials said.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections in a Wednesday statement said Murdaugh was convicted of two internal disciplinary charges: abuse of privileges and unauthorized use of an inmate’s PIN number. At a disciplinary hearing on Monday, Murdaugh lost his phone privileges and his canteen privileges for 30 days.
Earlier this month, the Office of the Inspector General alerted the prison warden to reports that Murdaugh had spoken to news media.
According to corrections officials, on June 10, Murdaugh phoned his lawyer, Jim Griffin, on a legal call, which is not recorded or monitored due to attorney–client privilege, and read aloud from a journal he kept during his trial in Colleton County. Griffin recorded the call, and passed the recording to news media.
According to corrections officials, the recording was used for an upcoming Fox Nation documentary, “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh.”
“Inmates in the custody of the S.C. Department of Corrections are not allowed to do interviews, the department said in a statement. “The department believes that victims of crime should not have to see or hear the person who victimized them or their family member on the news. Inmates lose the privilege of speaking to the news media when they enter SCDC.”
The department also said Murdaugh used a fellow inmate’s PIN to make a phone call, which is not allowed.
Murdaugh, 55, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the June 7, 2021, murders of his wife, Margaret, and their younger son, Paul, who was 22. Murdaugh was a prominent lawyer in the area, and the murders and his trial were highly publicized.
TMX contributed to this article.
