The sole surviving son of disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh is furious over the “nightmare” decision to overturn his father’s convictions for murdering his mother and brother.
“He’s not happy. This is going to put him through all of this again. He has to relive the hardest years of his life all over again,” a source close to Buster Murdaugh, 30, told the Daily Mail.
Early Wednesday, the state Supreme Court released a bombshell, 27-page report detailing the justices’ 5-0 ruling to overturn Murdaugh’s double-murder conviction – a decision centered around a local county clerk who had “placed her fingers on the scales of justice.”
The stunning twist will likely result in a retrial for Murdaugh, 56, who was serving two consecutive life sentences without parole for the grisly 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul.
Buster famously backed his father during his dramatic, six-week trial that gripped the nation in 2023, but began to distance himself after a jury unanimously found Murdaugh guilty of the vicious slayings.
Since then, the father-son duo have only had “a couple of phone calls,” according to the source, who said Buster will not visit Murdaugh to celebrate the new ruling.
“Buster needs some time to process this, but he’s not happy at all,” the source told the outlet, and slammed Murdaugh as a “selfish, selfish old man” for wanting a retrial.
“This is a nightmare. How is Buster supposed to move forward to have this happen again?
“It’s more poking at a wound that’s not even healed yet. What happens if the whole thing happens [again] and he’s convicted again? It’ll put us all through this s–t again,” the source said.
Buster, who tied the knot with his wife Brooklynn in May 2025, has largely stayed out of the public eye over the last couple of years. The couple now live in a modest, $445,000 house in a leafy, middle-class neighborhood about an hour south of the sprawling Murdaugh family estate, where Maggie and Paul were gunned down near the outdoor dog kennels on June 7, 2021.
“He’s a beach guy, goes to Hilton Head Island a lot. He loves to hunt and fish and stay busy,” the source said about Buster, who they said also worked as corporate counsel for a restaurant chain last year.
While awaiting a retrial, Murdaugh – who has long maintained his innocence in his relatives’ murders – will still not be allowed to walk free, as he is also serving concurrent 40-year federal and 27-year state sentences for financial crimes for stealing from his clients.
His lawyers appealed the murder convictions, arguing that former Colleton County clerk Becky Hill tampered with the jury during the trial – claims that were supported in the justices’ shocking decision Wednesday.
“Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial,” their report read.
Prosecutors’ efforts to secure a conviction for Murdaugh “were in vain” because of Hill, who “placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Hill pleaded guilty in December to obstruction of justice, perjury, and two counts of misconduct in office after admitting she showed sealed crime scene photos to a reporter and lied about it. She also fessed up to promoting her book about the trial through her public office.
It’s much more likely that Murdaugh will be acquitted during the retrial, criminal defense lawyer Tyler Bailey of Columbia, South Carolina, told The Post.
“They can try to attack the case from a different angle, so I think he has higher odds of being acquitted now than he did before, simply because it’s been some time and his team knows how people think about it,” Bailey said.
However, selecting a jury pool without knowledge of and personal opinions about the highly-publicized case will be “a true nightmare,” according to Columbia-based criminal defense attorney Dayne Phillips.
“I think it’s going to be impossible, just about, or highly improbable to find 12 people who don’t know anything about the case,” he said.
But Phillips agreed that if an impartial jury can be selected and Murdaugh’s lawyers “rework their defense strategy, it could significantly improve his chances of acquittal,” he said.
Murdaugh’s defense team said it “respected” the Supreme Court justices’ decision Wednesday to also limit the amount of testimony about Murdaugh’s financial crimes that the prosecution will be allowed to introduce during the double-murder retrial.
“The initial jury heard more than twelve hours of testimony about Alex’s financial crimes. The Court held that this evidence went far beyond what was necessary and gave rise to unfair prejudice. On retrial, that will not be permitted,” lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin wrote in the joint statement.
“Alex has said from day one that he did not kill his wife and son. We look forward to a new trial conducted consistent with the Constitution and the guidance this Court has provided,” they said.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office disagrees with the Supreme Court’s decision but “will aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible.”
“No one is above the law and, as always, we will continue to fight for justice,” Wilson said.
