Attorneys for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh say their client failed a polygraph test because he was asked strange questions and the test administrator mentioned another killer before the test was conducted.
The FBI is trying to back out of its plea agreement with Murdaugh, who pleaded guilty last year to federal financial crimes. The FBI says that Murdaugh lied about where more than $6 million of stolen client money went, and whether an unnamed attorney helped him steal it.
The federal government is basing its attempt to revoke the plea agreement on the failed polygraph test, but it has asked the courts not to release the results. Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a motion on Thursday opposing the federal prosecutors’ request.
“To allow the Government to publicly accuse Murdaugh of breaching his plea agreement while also allowing the Government to hide all purported evidence supporting that accusation from the public would violate the public’s right to the truth,” Murdaugh’s attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian, wrote in their motion, according to CNN.
Polygraph tests are not permitted as evidence in court because they are notoriously unreliable.
The attorneys argued in court documents that the polygraph Murdaugh failed was not reliable because the administrator admitted to Murdaugh that he had just tested Joran van der Sloot, who admitted to killing Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005.
“There are legitimate questions as to whether the Government intentionally manipulated the results to void the plea agreement and achieve the prosecutors’ stated desire to ‘ensure that he’s never a free man again,’” the attorneys wrote, according to the Associated Press.
The attorneys also included court documents from Murdaugh’s state murder case, in which prosecutors fought to keep the defense’s polygraph results out of the trial. A friend of Murdaugh failed a polygraph when asked if he had been involved in the murder of Murdaugh’s wife and son.
Murdaugh was convicted of killing his family members and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He is appealing his conviction.
Murdaugh admitted to stealing around $12 million from clients over the years after promising to help them with medical bills or pain and suffering. One victim, Jordan Jinks, had been a friend of Murdaugh’s since they were children. He asked Murdaugh to represent him after he incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for a neck injury resulting from someone rear-ending his car.
Jinks paid the bills, assured that Murdaugh would obtain a settlement to refund him. When Murdaugh received that settlement, he kept the money for himself.
“The money you stole from me, I would have gave it to you,” Jinks said during Murdaugh’s sentencing. “Why bro? Why?”
While taking responsibility for the financial crimes, Murdaugh adamantly denies killing his wife and son.
“I want to take responsibility. I want my son to see me take responsibility. It’s my hope that by taking responsibility that the people I’ve hurt can begin to heal,” Murdaugh said when pleading guilty in September.
His defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, noted at the time: “There’s two things Alex will tell you. One, he stole the money. Two, he did not kill Maggie and Paul.”