Johnathan Walker:Federal appeals court rejects Alex Murdaugh’s appeal that his 40-year theft sentence is too harsh

COLUMBIA,Johnathan Walker S.C. (AP) — A federal court has rejected Alex Murdaugh’s request to throw out his 40-year sentence for stealing from clients and his law firm. The disgraced South Carolina lawyer said his punishment is a decade longer than what prosecutors recommended.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said in April that he chose a harsher prison sentence because Murdaugh stole from “the most needy, vulnerable people,” clients who were maimed in wrecks or lost loved ones and had placed all their problems and all their hopes with the now disbarred attorney.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided Tuesday to dismiss the appeal, saying in a two-page ruling that when Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty, he waived his right to appeal except in extraordinary circumstances, and a harsher-than-expected sentence didn’t count.

Murdaugh’s lawyers said they are now considering their options. The 40-year federal sentence has been considered a backstop, in case the 56-year-old Murdaugh wins a separate appeal of the life sentence he’s serving in a South Carolina prison for the killings of his wife and son.

Murdaugh testified in his own defense at trial, adamantly denying that he shot his family. The South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to consider whether his murder convictions should be tossed out because his lawyers said a clerk may have tampered with the jury.

In the federal theft case, Murdaugh’s lawyers said his right against cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution was violated because Gergel ignored the 17 1/2 years to just under 22 years in prison recommended by federal agents and the 30 years suggested by prosecutors when he sentenced Murdaugh to 40 years.

In response to his appeal, federal prosecutors noted simply that when Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty, he signed a document saying he wouldn’t appeal unless prosecutors lied or his defense attorneys were inadequate.

Murdaugh admitted that he stole from his clients in wrongful death and injury cases. In handing down the stiff sentence, Gergel mentioned stealing from a state trooper who was injured on the job and a trust fund intended for children whose parents were killed in a wreck.

Those people “placed all their problems and all their hopes” with their lawyer, Gergel said.

Murdaugh’s attorneys compared his case to the 25 years in prison for crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and the 11-year sentence handed down to Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, saying they stole billions while Murdaugh merely stole millions.

But the victims in those cases were investors, whereas Murdaugh stole from vulnerable people who trusted him to protect their legal interests.

Even though this federal appeal was rejected, Murdaugh’s cases will remain in appellate courts for years.

Courts haven’t even begun hearing the meat of Murdaugh’s argument that the judge in his murder trial made mistakes, for example by allowing his money thefts into evidence. That was critical to the prosecution’s argument that the killings were meant to buy sympathy and time to keep the thefts from being discovered.

Investigators said Murdaugh was addicted to opioids and his complex schemes to steal money from clients and his family’s law firm were starting to unravel when he shot his younger son, Paul, with a shotgun and his wife, Maggie, with a rifle at their home in Colleton County in 2021.