Overview
- At a pretrial hearing on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, Circuit Judge Debra McCaslin authorized the defense to perform limited independent testing of remaining DNA from Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernail clippings and cellphone swabs and ordered defense to disclose results if used at trial.
- Prosecutors told the court they will provide certain raw crime-scene scans and phone data but argued that sweeping requests for ballistics records and statewide SLED data are speculative and an undue burden.
- Defense filings point to a partial male DNA profile recovered from under Maggie Murdaugh’s nails and cite press reports that a Yemassee police chief may have handled guns or clothing after the killings, an allegation now touched by a secret grand-jury subpoena and a SLED inquiry with no arrests reported.
- Judge McCaslin admonished both sides for public posturing and unprofessional conduct, warned against trying the case in the press, and said she would not tolerate tactics that risk turning proceedings into a spectacle.
- The South Carolina Supreme Court vacated Murdaugh’s 2023 murder convictions and ordered a retrial set for April 5, 2027 in Sumter County, while Murdaugh remains imprisoned on long federal and state sentences for admitted financial crimes.