Murdaugh disbarred, but still has not been charged with murders

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By Heather Ruppe

The S.C. Supreme Court has stripped Alec Murdaugh of his law license.

The top court acted on Tuesday, and officially disbarred Murdaugh.

Murdaugh is a former Hampton County attorney and heir in the prominent Murdaugh family, which has carried heavy weight in the prosecutorial community of the Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office in South Carolina. However, Murdaugh is now facing dozens of embezzlement and fraud charges, as he is charged with stealing more than $8.5 million from former clients.

Additionally, Murdaugh is facing legal charges for planning his own botched suicide-for-hire scheme, where he hired his alleged drug dealer to shoot him in the head for an insurance payoff. Murdaugh told local authorities he was going to have his insurance money go to his eldest son.

The former lawyer’s fall from grace also includes him being the prime suspect in the 2021 double murders of his wife, Maggie, and his youngest son, Paul. The two were found shot to death on their Islandton property: Alex Murdaugh is the one who discovered their bodies and reported the homicides to authorities.

News began circulating through international media outlets on July 12 about Murdaugh being charged with these murders; however, officials with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) have not formally announced any murder charges against Murdaugh, as of Wednesday morning.

We will continue to follow this story.