A judge has authorized new DNA testing sought by Alex Murdaugh’s defense, despite prosecutors’ objections and the possibility that the process will consume the remaining testable material from the samples. The decision was issued Friday by Judge Debra McCaslin, who said a defendant must have a meaningful chance to present a complete defense.
The approved samples are swabs from Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone and clippings collected from beneath her fingernails. The defense plans to use Othram for Y-STR testing, a technique that examines DNA on the Y chromosome to develop a profile of a male contributor, including in samples where female DNA is more prevalent.
Murdaugh’s attorneys say each of the three samples contains unidentified male DNA. They want to learn whether the same man contributed DNA to them. Defense attorney Phil Barber said the results might exclude some people as contributors and could offer ancestry information. The test, however, cannot distinguish among men who share paternal ancestors. The defense expects the process to take about 90 days.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters described the decision as a high-risk approach. He told the court that the defense’s own expert had characterized the material as essentially a sole-source sample and that preliminary quantity information from Othram showed no detectable Y-chromosome material. Waters argued that this made a significant result unlikely.
Barber acknowledged that unidentified DNA could have an innocent explanation or turn out to be unrelated to the crime. But he said the presence of male DNA across samples from the fingernails and cellphone made it important for the defense to investigate whether the source was the same person. He argued that DNA from an unknown person could matter if it was found beneath Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails and on a phone that was discarded after the killings.
Both sides told the court that testing would leave insufficient material for another examination in later proceedings. Barber said Murdaugh had agreed to waive the possibility of post-conviction retesting. That means the authorized examination could use the remaining samples without preserving enough for a subsequent test.
Joshua Ritter, a former prosecutor who spoke to Fox News Digital, said the defense might have been better served by leaving the DNA untested. He said an unknown profile could have been used to argue that investigators had not linked the DNA to Murdaugh. But if testing identifies someone whose DNA has an innocent explanation, Ritter said, the defense could lose that avenue of argument. He described the choice as one where uncertainty might have been more useful to the defense.
Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, at the family’s Moselle property in Colleton County, South Carolina. The state Supreme Court later overturned those convictions after finding that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill improperly influenced the jury. Murdaugh has maintained his innocence. His retrial is set to begin April 5, 2027, and he is due back in court Nov. 13.
