Newly filed court records show South Carolina prosecutors are pushing back against Alex Murdaugh’s allegation that the state failed to turn over crucial “raw” cellphone data.
The state submitted its response Tuesday to a motion filed by Murdaugh’s attorneys in September. His defense claimed it had not received smartphone extraction files, keychain files or the logs documenting those extractions.
Murdaugh was convicted in March 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, in 2021.
Alex Murdaugh, right, is pictured with his family. His former law firm filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that he created fake bank accounts to take money from the firm and its clients. (Fox News)
He received two life sentences. But in May 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill had improperly affected the jury.
A retrial is scheduled to begin in April 2027.
In the latest filings, prosecutors argue that Murdaugh’s lawyers possessed the disputed evidence all along—sometimes in more than one copy. The state described the defense’s account as “false” and “manufactured,” saying it is also inconsistent with the team’s own emails.
Circuit Judge Debra McCaslin listens as attorneys debate motions before Alex Murdaugh’s April 2027 murder retrial in Lexington, South Carolina, on Aug. 14, 2026. (Tracy Glantz of The (Columbia, South Carolina) State/POOL)
To support its position, the state filed 40 pages of emails, screenshots of file folders and signed discovery receipts covering the period from late 2022 through early 2023.
The records indicate that investigators with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, gave defense experts complete, unredacted cellphone extractions, password records, keychain files and related reports as early as October and November 2022.
Alex Murdaugh appears at a court hearing Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, South Carolina. He is set to face a retrial in the June 7, 2021, shootings of his wife and son after his original conviction was overturned over jury tampering concerns. (Tracy Glantz/The State via Pool)
Prosecutors also cited emails dated Jan. 20, 2023, just three days before jury selection in Murdaugh’s first trial. In those messages, the defense requested another copy of the phone extraction, acknowledging that the original had been misplaced.
“The State will be glad to send the cell phone evidence to the defense yet one more time if they have somehow messed up or lost their copies again,” prosecutors wrote in the motion.
News Outlet has contacted Murdaugh’s defense team for comment.
