appeal

Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill denies improper conversations with jurors as part of the state's response to Alex Murdaugh's motion for a new trial.

Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh have filed a notice to appeal his convictions for the murder of his wife and son along with his two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The trial in rural South Carolina lasted six weeks and included more than 75 witnesses, but the jury took less than three hours to find the 54-year-old Murdaugh guilty last week. The appeal to the South Carolina Court of Appeals was filed on Thursday.

South Carolina Supreme Court justices are questioning whether a prosecutor offered to show photos of five dead children to a jury to unfairly upset them so they would sentence the killer to death. The high court heard 39-year-old Timothy Jones' request to overturn his murder convictions and death sentence on Tuesday. Jones killed his children in their Lexington home in 2014. The photos of the children were taken after their bodies were discovered in trash bags days later. They say prosecutors waited until the last moments of the case to shock jurors. Solicitor Rick Hubbard says he gave jurors a choice to view the photos to not hurt them.