Murdaugh portrait returned to courthouse after murder trial

WALTERBORO, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - A portrait of Alex Murdaugh’s grandfather has returned to the Colleton County Courthouse after his double murder trial.

The painting of Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh Jr. was taken down during the six-week trial at the request of Judge Clifton Newman. Randolph Murdaugh Jr. was the 14th circuit solicitor, a position held by a member of the Murdaugh family for more than eight decades.

When sentencing Alex Murdaugh, convicted of murdering wife Maggie and son Paul, the judge mentioned his family’s legal legacy in the community.

“You have a wife who has been killed, murdered,” Newman said. “A son savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from a respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century. A person whose grandfather’s portrait hangs at the back of the courthouse that I had to have ordered removed in order to insure a fair trial.”

He sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive life sentences in prison.