According to South Carolina correctional officials, convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh has lost his phone privileges and his jail tablet computer after his lawyer videotaped him reading his journal entries on a call for a documentary about his case.
Inmates are not allowed to speak to the media under prison policy, according to Chrysti Shain, a state prisons spokeswoman. The request was for The Fall of the House of Murdaugh, a Fox Nation documentary series that will premiere on Thursday.
According to Shain, the media interview infraction, as well as another violation for exploiting another inmate’s password to make a phone call, are prison discipline concerns rather than crimes.
“The SCDC’s interview policy is based on victims’ rights and has been in place for a long time.” According to the statement, “the department believes that victims of crime should not have to see or hear the person who victimized them or a family member on the news.”
“When inmates enter SCDC, they lose the privilege of speaking to the news media,” it continued.
Murdaugh, 55, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of release for the murders of his wife and younger son. Prosecutors claimed Murdaugh, a now-disbarred attorney, was concerned that investigators would discover he stole millions from his law company and clients, and that he was attempting to gain sympathy and buy time to cover up the crimes.
Murdaugh’s murders sparked a massive wave of interest, fueled by a tangled tale of murder, corruption, and intrigue that spawned multiple documentaries and dominated media coverage of his final trial.