Alex Murdaugh Retrial Update (Sept. 2026): Venue Moved to Sumter County, Jury Selection April 5, 2027

Short version: Alex Murdaugh's murder retrial will not be held in the county where he was convicted. On Tuesday a judge moved it about 80 miles north to Sumter County, and jury selection is set for April 5, 2027.

• Circuit Judge Debra McCaslin picked Sumter County on Sept. 8, 2026, after ruling the case could not be tried anywhere in the 14th Circuit.
• The retrial exists because the South Carolina Supreme Court threw out the 2023 convictions in May over a court clerk's contact with jurors.
• Murdaugh is not going anywhere in the meantime. His financial-crime sentences — 27 years in state court, 40 in federal — are untouched by all of this.

Where will Alex Murdaugh be retried?

Sumter County. McCaslin signed the order Tuesday, Sept. 8, choosing it over the two counties Murdaugh's lawyers had pushed for, Richland and Charleston.

Her reasoning was practical more than symbolic. She wrote that the Sumter courthouse has the security, the courtroom space and the technology a trial this size needs.

The defense motion had argued the Colleton County jury pool was tainted by wall-to-wall coverage of the first trial. McCaslin agreed and went further, ruling out the entire 14th Judicial Circuit.

When does the retrial actually start?

Jury selection begins April 5, 2027. That is about seven months from now, and just under four years after the first jury convicted him in March 2023.

Put the two calendars side by side and the gap is stark. The 2023 trial ran six weeks. This one has been on the books for months and still has a full winter of motions ahead of it.

Why was the first conviction thrown out?

On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously vacated both murder convictions. The problem was not the evidence. It was Becky Hill, then the Colleton County clerk of court, and what she said to jurors during the trial.

Court filings describe Hill telling jurors not to be "fooled" by the defense. The justices wrote that a fair trial means a jury "untainted by external forces bent on influencing" its verdict, and ordered a new one.

👈 A retrial order is not an acquittal. The state's case — the kennel video, the phone data, the timeline — comes back with it.

What is he charged with this time?

The same counts as before: two counts of murder in the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their younger son, Paul, 22, at the family's Colleton County property, plus weapons charges.

He has said from the start that he did not kill them, and nothing about the Supreme Court ruling changes that posture.

Is Alex Murdaugh out of prison while he waits?

No. This is the part readers get wrong most often. The murder convictions were vacated; the financial-crime convictions were not.

He pleaded guilty to stealing from clients and settlement funds and drew a 27-year state sentence and a 40-year federal sentence. Either one keeps him in custody through 2027 and long past it.

Which shows have covered the case?

Both of the big Friday newsmagazines have gone back to it repeatedly. Dateline ran an hour built around the trial itself and returned to the case again this spring; ABC's 20/20 has followed the family since the financial collapse first surfaced.

If a new special turns up on the schedule, it will show up in our weekly true crime TV rundown, and the air times for all three shows are collected in our how-to-watch guide.

FAQ

Was Alex Murdaugh found not guilty? No. His convictions were vacated on procedural grounds and the charges are live again.

Can the state appeal the venue change? The state left the choice of county to the judge, so there is no dispute to appeal on that point.

Where is he now? In South Carolina Department of Corrections custody on the financial-crime sentences.

More case files

Two other appeals are moving on similar tracks: Richard Allen's Delphi appeal gets oral argument on Sept. 21, and Lori Vallow Daybell's reaches the Idaho Supreme Court in November. On the sentencing side, the Menendez brothers' parole date moved up this week and Luigi Mangione's state trial is on hold. The rest sit in our case files.

Sources

• ABC News — Judge picks new location for Alex Murdaugh's double-murder retrial (Sept. 8, 2026)
• Fox News — Judge orders retrial moved to Sumter County (Sept. 8, 2026)
• CNN — Court overturns Murdaugh's murder convictions, orders new trial (May 13, 2026)
• CBS News — Murdaugh convictions overturned, new trial ordered
• PBS News — South Carolina Supreme Court ruling

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By the True Crime On Air desk · Updated 8:40 a.m. ET