Alex Murdaugh back in court as attorneys prepare for retrial

Accused killer and disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh returned to a South Carolina courtroom today. As Jonathan Seary reports, a judge ruled on several defense motions as attorneys prepare for a retrial scheduled for next year. I don't want this tit-for-tat back between y'all. This isn't a soundbite. Prosecutors and defense attorneys arguing over evidence ahead of Alec Murdoch's April retrial in the deaths of his wife Maggie and son Paul. A judge granted a defense request for an independent analysis of DNA from an unknown male that was found under Maggie's fingernails. If you have an unknown person under both her fingernails and throwing the phone out of the side of the road after she's murdered and it's not him, that's extremely important to the defense. During Friday's hearing, the state also agreed to give the defense raw cell phone data and crime scene scans. It comes after Murdoch's attorneys asked the court to order prosecutors to hand over more details on evidence collected during the 2021 murder investigation. He's in here just now saying what I keep calling a false discovery issue, which they do repeatedly, and saying they dumped all this stuff on us three days before trial. In May, South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Murdoch's double murder conviction after finding former clerk of court Becky Hill made inappropriate statements to jurors that may have influenced the verdict. Still, Murdoch remains behind bars after pleading guilty to dozens of state and federal financial crimes. But while he admits he's a thief, he denies he's a murderer. Attorneys will be back in court next month for another pretrial hearing.