If you spent any time watching the "Trial of the Century" in Walterboro, South Carolina, you probably remember that chilling moment when Alex Murdaugh finally took the stand. The air in the room was thick. Everyone wanted to know the same thing. Did he do it? And more importantly, would he actually admit it?
The short answer is no—but also yes.
It’s complicated. If you're looking for a scene where he broke down and said, "I killed Maggie and Paul," you won't find it. That never happened. In fact, to this day, as he sits in a maximum-security cell in 2026, he still maintains he didn't pull those triggers. But that doesn't mean he didn't confess to a lot of other things that basically paved his way to prison.
The "Almost" Confession at the Kennels
For twenty months, Alex stuck to a rock-solid alibi. He told SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) agents over and over that he was nowhere near the dog kennels at the time of the murders. He said he was napping on the couch.
Then came the kennel video.
Paul, his son, had recorded a video of a friend's dog just minutes before the shootings began. In the background, clear as day, you can hear Alex’s voice. It was the "smoking gun" that forced a confession of a different kind.
When Alex took the stand in February 2023, he dropped a bombshell. He admitted he had been lying the whole time.
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"I did lie to them," Murdaugh testified, referring to the investigators. "Once I told a lie, and then I told my family, I had to keep lying."
He blamed the lie on "paranoid thinking" fueled by a 20-year addiction to opioids. He confessed to being at the kennels at 8:44 p.m., the exact window the prosecution said the murders occurred. He admitted to the deception, but he drew a hard line at the violence.
"I did not shoot my wife or my son. Anytime. Ever," he told his defense attorney, Jim Griffin.
Confessing to the Financial Carnage
While he wouldn't budge on the murder charges, the cross-examination by prosecutor Creighton Waters was a different story. Waters didn't start with the blood. He started with the money.
Alex Murdaugh basically confessed to being a prolific thief.
He admitted, on the record and under oath, to stealing millions of dollars from his law firm, PMPED, and from clients who were often at their most vulnerable. We’re talking about settlement money for a quadriplegic man, for a child who lost a mother in a car accident, and even the estate of his own longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield.
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In April 2024, he was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for 22 financial crimes. He had already pleaded guilty to dozens of state-level financial charges by then. He didn't fight these. He sat there and admitted he looked people in the eye, promised to help them, and then siphoned their money into a fake account he called "Forge."
The logic from the prosecution was simple: if he could lie to his best friends and steal from a grieving family for a decade, why should anyone believe him about the night of June 7, 2021?
The Roadside "Suicide" Admission
There was another weird confession that happened before the murder trial even started. Remember the Labor Day weekend shooting in 2021?
Alex initially claimed a stranger shot him in the head while he was changing a tire on the side of the road. A week later, that story fell apart. He confessed that he had actually hired a man named Curtis "Eddie" Smith to kill him.
Why? So his surviving son, Buster, could collect a $12 million life insurance policy.
This admission was massive for the prosecution. It showed a "pattern of behavior." It painted Alex as a man who, when backed into a corner by his own lies and financial ruin, would resort to extreme violence and elaborate staging to get out of it.
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Where the Case Stands in 2026
Even though he confessed to the lies, the thefts, and the staged suicide, the murder conviction itself is still being fought in the courts.
As of early 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court is looking at the case. The focus isn't on whether he confessed, but on whether the jury was "tampered with" by the former Clerk of Court, Becky Hill. Alex's lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, argue that Hill influenced the jurors to reach a quick guilty verdict so she could secure a book deal.
Hill eventually resigned and faced her own legal troubles, including pleading guilty to showing sealed court exhibits. This mess has given Alex his strongest chance at a new trial, despite his admitted history of lying.
Quick Summary of What He Actually Admitted:
- Lying about his alibi: He was at the kennels minutes before the murders.
- Systemic Theft: He stole roughly $9 million to $10 million from clients and his firm.
- Staged Suicide: He hired a hitman to kill him for insurance money.
- Drug Addiction: He had a massive, long-term opioid habit.
What He Never Confessed To:
- The Murders: He has never admitted to killing Maggie or Paul.
- The Weapons: He never disclosed where the rifle or shotgun used in the killings went.
Honestly, the "confession" most people expected never arrived. Instead, the world got a front-row seat to a man admitting he lived a double life for nearly twenty years. Whether that makes him a murderer in the eyes of an appeals court remains the big question.
If you’re following this case, the next major milestone is the evidentiary hearing regarding jury tampering. You can keep tabs on the South Carolina Supreme Court's public docket for the specific hearing dates scheduled for February 2026. This will determine if the original "guilty" verdict stands or if the whole circus starts over again with a new trial.
Next Steps for Information Seekers
- Search the SC Judicial Department website for the case "State vs. Richard Alexander Murdaugh" to see the latest filings regarding his appeal.
- Watch the full cross-examination of Alex Murdaugh from February 2023; it is arguably the most revealing look at his "confessional" style of testimony.
- Review the federal sentencing documents from April 2024 to see the specific list of victims he admitted to defrauding.