Murdaugh Defense Says Male DNA Found, Key Testing Skipped

Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys are asking a South Carolina judge to order prosecutors to release additional forensic material, including unidentified male DNA recovered from beneath Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails. The defense says the state crime lab located the DNA but never completed the testing needed to develop a full profile.

In a 93-page motion filed Friday, Murdaugh’s legal team also requested more DNA and ballistics evidence, as well as the original data from a laser scan of the Colleton County crime scene.

The defense accused prosecutors of delaying the release of evidence in a way that could interfere with preparations for Murdaugh’s upcoming murder retrial.

“Each week that the State withholds this material takes time away from the defense’s preparation,” the motion states. It argues that continued delays could leave Murdaugh’s attorneys no choice but to seek a postponement—something Murdaugh opposes and the court has indicated it will not allow. “The State should not be permitted to create, through inaction, the very delay it would then oppose,” the filing says.

Murdaugh’s lawyers had previously sought access to DNA collected from beneath Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails so it could be examined by Othram Inc. After Othram conducted testing, the defense said further analysis was necessary to identify a male DNA profile that the state laboratory allegedly detected but did not fully investigate.

The defense is also seeking additional testing of a partial DNA profile obtained from swabs taken from Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone.

Murdaugh’s attorneys want prosecutors to identify every shooting in nearby counties in which .300 Blackout shell casings or projectiles were recovered, along with information about those incidents. They are also demanding the original data from a 3D laser scan conducted by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division at the crime scene. Although prosecutors provided a read-only viewer in 2022, the defense says it needs the underlying files to independently reconstruct the scene.

The defense further alleged that prosecutors have changed their position on the weapon involved. At Murdaugh’s 2023 trial, the state described the .300 Blackout rifle as unusual and used that argument to focus attention on firearms owned by the Murdaugh family. Prosecutors now characterize the round as one of the country’s most widely used AR cartridges, according to the motion.

“The State has had continuous and exclusive custody of every item of physical evidence in this case, including the biological material that is the subject of Part III of this motion, for more than five years,” the defense wrote. The attorneys argued that prosecutors tested evidence on their own schedule and without notifying or obtaining consent from the defense, but are now seeking to prevent the defense from conducting comparable testing.

Joshua Ritter, a former prosecutor and Fox News contributor, described the defense request for more DNA testing as a potentially risky strategy and called it a “big gamble.”

Ritter said the defense might have been better served by leaving the evidence untouched so it could question why prosecutors failed to pursue the unidentified male DNA. He cautioned that additional testing could give the state an opportunity to respond that Murdaugh’s own attorneys had access to the material for a similar length of time but chose not to analyze it.

Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, at the family’s Moselle property in Colleton County. The South Carolina Supreme Court later threw out the convictions after determining that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill improperly influenced jurors. His retrial is scheduled to begin April 5, 2027.

News Outlet contacted the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and Attorney General Alan Wilson seeking comment.