The judge who sentenced Alex Murdaugh to life in prison said he felt sorry for him during an interview with NBC's TODAY show Wednesday.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman said that he believed that if Murdaugh "had an opportunity to do it over again, he'd never do it," adding that he shouldn't have been surprised at all the attention the trial received.
"You know, high profile lawyer. Death of a wife, death of a child. Accusations of stealing millions of dollars from clients. Allegations of a lawyer hooked on drugs," Newman said. "It had all the ingredients for something of major public interest."
Murdaugh, a personal injury lawyer and a part-time prosecutor before being disbarred last summer, was convicted for the June 2021 slayings of his wife, Margaret, 52, and their son, Paul, 22. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
"I cannot imagine him having a peaceful night, knowing what he did," he said. "I’m sure if he had an opportunity to do it over again, he’d never do it."
"I felt sorry for him," he said. "I felt that he was just in a position where he could not, where if there’s a hole that he could go into, he would dive in that hole and keep going to the lowest depths."
"And I wasn’t trying to pull him out of that hole, but I wanted to give him an opportunity to say something," he said.