Alex Murdaugh’s “highly risky” decision to take the stand in his own murder trial “doesn’t appear to be going well so far,” a law expert told Fox News Digital.
The 54-year-old disgraced lawyer was part of South Carolina law royalty, with three family members serving as the lead prosecutor in the state’s 14th circuit district from 1920 to 2005.
Now he’s on trial for double murder and weapon possession in connection with the 2021 fatal shootings of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. Alex is also facing 99 counts of financial crimes stemming from 19 separate indictments.
With so much that can go wrong, it’s rare for defendants to testify in their own trials, but that’s what Alex did in the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina at the end of this past week.
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Alex Murdaugh weeps as he testifies Thursday, Feb. 23 in his own defense at his double murder trial in Walterboro, South Carolina. ( Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier/Pool)
Prosecutors’ “harsh questioning” during cross-examination can cause the defendant’s narrative to quickly unravel,” said Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor and prominent defense lawyer who has represented high-profile clients like Anna Delvey and Harvey Weinstein.
“That is exactly what is happening with Alex Murdaugh. His testimony has been a disaster for him,” Levin said.
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“He has floundered during cross-examination, admitted abusing a law enforcement badge during the boat wreck that killed Mallory Beach, came across as disingenuous with a seemingly made-up nickname for his deceased son and admitted to stealing from clients.
“Most importantly, he admitted to lying to investigators about his whereabouts on the night of his wife and son’s murders.”
Alex Murdaugh is led into the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. Murdaugh is on trial for the killings of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, in June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital )
Although rare, it’s not unheard of for defendants to testify at their trials. Here are four other high-profile examples.
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Jodi Arias
Jodi Arias was accused in the grisly 2008 murder of her lover, Travis Alexander, in suburban Phoenix, Arizona. She went to trial in 2013 and testified on her own behalf for 18 days.
Jury foreman William Zervakos later told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Arias’ testimony didn’t do her any good.
“I think 18 days hurt her. I think she was not a good witness,” he said. “We’re charged with going in and presuming innocence, right? But she was on the stand for so long, there were so many contradicting stories.”
She was ultimately convicted in May 2013 and sentenced to life in prison two years later.
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Jodi Arias testified for 18 days in her murder trial before she was convicted. (Mandatory Credit: David Wallace-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Jussie Smollett
Jussie Smollett, an actor most known for his role on “Empire,” was accused of staging a vile hate crime against himself in Chicago in January 2019 and filing false police reports.
He denied the allegations during his two-day testimony, but some legal experts believed he likely hurt his own defense by taking the stand.
“Smollett testifying in his own defense is one of two things, or maybe both: a narcissistic criminal defendant who is doubling down on his charged lies to law enforcement or defense attorneys who know they are way behind and are throwing a low probability Hail Mary to try to get their client off,” former U.S. attorney Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital in a December 2021 interview.
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Jussie Smollett visits the SiriusXM Studios on June 14, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord)
James White, a high-powered attorney in Michigan, echoed Rahmani’s comments at the time and called Smollet’s testimony “an unparalleled disaster.”
The experts who spoke to Fox News Digital in December 2021 were ultimately correct, as Smollett was convicted on five felony counts of disorderly conduct and sentenced in March 2022 to 150 days in county jail.
Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes, who founded the now-defunct health company Theranos in 2003, was named America’s youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire by Forbes in 2015.
Her life quickly unraveled shortly after that. By June 2018, a federal grand jury indicted her and former Theranos chief operating officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, whom she was romantically involved with, on fraud charges.
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During her seven-day self-defense testimony, she denied, deflected and blamed essentially everyone else.
Elizabeth Holmes, center, enters federal court in San Jose, Calif., Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. (AP photo/Nic Coury)
Holmes claimed her staff misled her about technology and her ex-lover subjected her to years of emotional and sexual abuse and controlled her.
She was ultimately convicted in California in January 2022 of defrauding investors but was acquitted on other charges connected to defrauded patients. Holmes was sentenced in November to 11 years in prison.
Nancy Crampton-Brophy
The romance novelist who wrote “How To Murder Your Husband” was on trial for killing her real-life husband, Daniel Brophy, on June 2, 2018 while the couple slogged through financial hardships.
The 63-year-old writer took the stand during her trial in May 2022.
Years before Nancy Crampton-Brophy allegedly murdered her husband, she penned an essay titled, “How to Murder Your Husband.” (Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office)
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During her testimony, she claimed that the day her husband was murdered she was at the now-defunct Oregon Culinary Institute, where her husband worked. She said she was there that day by coincidence, and she bought the ghost gun and firearm materials for research for her new book.
The jury didn’t buy it and convicted her of second-degree murder in May 2022. In June 2022 she was sentenced to life in prison.