BREAKING: Alex Murdaugh unanimously found guilty of murders after jury deliberates for 3 hours.
Guilty on all counts. I will note that (before now) most of the experts I saw on cable news lately discussing this case seemed to feel that the prosecution had done a terrible job.
One might assume that a key factor making this case ultimately so persuasive to the jury was the cell phone video that resulted in Murdaugh finally admitting in court that he had continuously lied about his stated whereabouts during the time frame of the murders, attempting to blame this on paranoia caused by his drug addiction.
@lauren I saw the same analysts saying the case was weak, but then when I read a full recap of the evidence presented it was pretty overwhelming. And the idea that your paranoia might make you lie in all these bizarre ways is hard to put out there without allowing the obvious inference that someone that far gone would turn to murder. Once you've admitted you're irrational it's not that far a step when there's also clear means/motive/opportunity
@mrcompletely @lauren Yep. If a defendant isn't going for a "by reason of insanity" defense, the defense has two jobs regarding motive:
1. Convince the jury no reasonable person would do that
2. Convince the jury the defendant is a reasonable person.
... Lose them on 2, and you're really rolling some weighted dice on the outcome.
