Alex Murdaugh put his lies 'on full display' when he took the stand: lawyer

Disgraced former South Carolian lawyer Alex Murdaugh damaged himself at his double murder trial when he took the stand in his defense by putting his deceit "on full display," wrote attorney and legal commentator Katie Phang for MSNBC on Monday.

Phang compared the whole affair to the moment in the 1996 film "The Devil's Advocate" in which Keanu Reeves' lawyer character tells the jury of his client, “I don’t like Alexander Cohen. I don’t think he’s a nice person. I don’t expect you to like him. He has been a terrible husband ... I want you to ask yourself: Is not liking this man reason enough to convict him of murder?”

"We witnessed a real-life version of that scene play out in a South Carolina courtroom when accused double-murderer Alex Murdaugh took the stand in his own defense last week," wrote Phang. "As soon as he was sworn in to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, Murdaugh immediately confessed to the jury that he had lied to law enforcement, his family and the world at large for 20 months, while denying that he was physically present at the scene of the double homicide of his wife and his son back in June 2021. Murdaugh tearfully explained that his addiction to painkillers made him 'paranoid' and caused him to lie to investigators, originally claiming that he last saw his wife and son at dinner and that he was not at the dog kennels/crime scene that bloody and violent night. Later, and only after video evidence revealed he was in fact present at the scene, did Murdaugh admit to his prior lies."

Murdaugh, who is now the subject of an explosive Netflix documentary, even admitted to lying to and defrauding his own clients and law partners, plundering $9 million from his law firm to support his $50,000 a week pill habit.

"The decision to have a criminal defendant testify is not one that is easily made; the potential for disaster usually far outweighs any true benefit," wrote Phang. "Before Murdaugh was disgraced and disbarred, he had a long career as a trial lawyer, likely leading him to believe he is smart enough and experienced enough to outwit and outmaneuver the prosecutor. But, just like the saying, 'doctors make the worst patients,' lawyers can make the worst clients in their own defense."

The big problem for Murdaugh, argued Phang, is that while juries are supposed to disregard personal feelings about the defendant when determining the facts — as Reeves' character asked his jury to do — in practice, whether a defendant is a sympathetic person goes a long way to determining whether their claims of what happened are credible. "I submit that in doing so, the jurors wouldn’t be abiding by their duties as jurors to follow the law — but the reality is that regardless of what the law requires them to consider, it’s basic human nature to judge. And juries do exactly that," wrote Phang.

"By his own admission, Murdaugh has had lots of practice to deceive," concluded Phang. "And by taking the stand in his own defense, his practiced deceit is on full display. At his arraignment, Murdaugh was asked by the judge: 'How shall you be tried?' His response: 'By God and my country.' But lest he forget, he’s also being tried in the court of public opinion, and by all accounts, the verdict is leaning toward one of unmitigated guilt."