South Carolina’s Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh, vacated his life sentences and sent the case back to circuit court after finding that his right to a fair trial had been violated. The unanimous decision on May 13, 2026, means the man once convicted in one of the state’s most closely watched cases is no longer serving those murder sentences, but he is not walking free.

The five-member court said former Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca Hill made comments to jurors about Murdaugh’s testimony during the proceedings in Walterboro, South Carolina, and that her conduct amounted to egregious, shocking jury interference. The justices said Hill “placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury,” and concluded the state could not rebut the resulting presumption of prejudice. The ruling did not automatically order a new trial, but it cleared the way for the state to decide whether to prosecute the murder case again.

Murdaugh, 57, was convicted by a Colleton County jury on June 7, 2021, of murdering his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh, a case that drew national attention as South Carolina’s Trial of the Century. He later pleaded guilty to numerous financial crimes at the state and federal level, and he remains incarcerated within the South Carolina Department of Corrections system because of those separate cases even after the murder verdicts were thrown out.

The court’s opinion leaves the next move with the state. Attorney general Alan Wilson and the four candidates seeking to replace him have said they would retry Murdaugh, and there is no deadline for a formal decision. That means the murder case that once appeared finished is now back in the hands of prosecutors, with the question no longer whether the convictions were flawed, but whether the state will try to prove its case again.