By admin 
Alex Murdaugh is back in court Friday for the latest hearing ahead of his second murder trial.
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A host of contentious issues are set to be addressed, including how Judge Debra McCaslin will handle evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes, DNA and phone data evidence, and even whether a new trial will be held back in Walterboro or somewhere else.
This will be the second hearing inside a Lexington courtroom before McCaslin since the S.C. Supreme Court overturned the former Lowcountry attorney’s 2023 murder conviction in the killings of his wife and son. The first hearing back in June set a provisional date for a second trial of April 5, 2027. Another significant development ahead of Friday’s hearing is a decision allowing Murdaugh to appear in street clothes rather than the prison garb and shackles he’s appeared in previously.
But other issues raised by the prosecution, led by Creighton Waters, and the defense team of Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian remain to be settled. McCaslin may not issue any final decisions Friday, but she has indicated she wants to move quickly toward a retrial on Murdaugh’s much-publicized murder charges.
This page will be updated frequently with breaking news from the hearing once it gets underway at 10 a.m.
9:30 a.m.
Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian was chatting with reporters before court begins about the length of today’s hearing. Speculation ranged from a few hours to all day.
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Prosecutor Creighton Waters has now arrived and was talking with Harpootlian, Jim Griffin and Phil Barber at the defense table.
9:25 a.m.
Also making an appearance in the courtroom is Columbia attorney Joe McCulloch, who is represented the juror dismissed from the first trial before jury deliberations began. She was dubbed the “egg juror” because of her request to Judge Clifton Newman to remove a carton of eggs from the jury room after she was dismissed for allegedly discussing the case outside of court.
9:15 a.m.
Members of the defense team have now arrived and are setting up at the defense table. SLED general counsel Adam Whitsett is also at the courthouse, an indication of the seriousness of the issues expected to be aired in today’s hearing for the state’s top law enforcement agency.
9:10 a.m.
At 9 a.m., officers opened the large courtroom on the fourth floor of the Lexington County Courthouse. Twenty-one members of the public filed in as well as 13 reporters for cable news networks, print and social media. That is about a third of the crowd that showed up for the first retrial hearing in late June.
The hearing is supposed to start at 10 a.m. SLED agents and some members of the prosecution team led by Creighton Waters had arrived shortly after 9 a.m., but the defense team led by Dick Harpootlian was not expected to arrive until shortly before court begins. They and their client were expected to arrive on the fourth floor of the courthouse in a non-public elevator, and Murdaugh will emerge from a side door to the courtroom wearing street clothes.
Read more Follow Alex Murdaugh’s Friday murder hearing in SC court live here