Photo: Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty
For more than six weeks, the trial ofAlex Murdaughprogressed quickly — despite the media mob, a Covid outbreak among the jurors, and even abomb threat.
At the center of the trial was Clifton B. Newman, 71, who is serving out his fourth and final term as a judge with the South Carolina Circuit Court.
Known for his no-nonsense ways and his methodical demeanor, Newman rarely gave any window into what he was thinking during the proceedings — until the post-conviction hearing where hesentenced Murdaughto two consecutive life terms for the murders of his wife,Maggie, and son,Paul.
During sentencing, Newman addressed Murdaugh at length, saying, “I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you.”
After Murdaugh claimed he was innocent for the second time in the morning, Newman said, “It might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become. When you take 20, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills, maybe you become another person.”
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Newman was born in Kingstree, S.C. — just 93 miles away from the courthouse in Walterboro where the trial was held.
The son of a reverend and a domestic worker, he was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. After graduating as valedictorian from a segregated high school in 1969, he attended Cleveland State University in Ohio and then received his law degree from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law.
After working in private practice for 24 years, he was appointed as a judge in 2000.
“I enjoy the responsibility, the awesome responsibility,” he told theAmerican Bar Associationin 2017. “It’s also a challenge, carrying the weight of the judicial system on your shoulders and seeking to dispense justice in a way that it should be dispensed.”
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As he addressed Murdaugh, Newman criticized his “duplicitous conduct” and told him that the lies needed to stop.
“And the question is, when will it end?” he asked. “When will it end? And it has ended already for the jury, because they’ve concluded that you have continued to lie and lied throughout your testimony.”
source: people.com
