COLUMBIA, S.C. — Disgraced former Lowcountry lawyer and convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh is back in the headlines after the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) said he has been reprimanded for two internal disciplinary charges.
SCDC said Murdaugh has been charged with abuse of privileges and unauthorized use of an inmate's personal identification number (PIN).
The department said it used its 43-page policy outlining the inmate disciplinary system to hold a disciplinary hearing, where Murdaugh appeared before an officer at the prison.
The department said this comes after Murdaugh provided information for an interview and used a fellow inmate's PIN to make a telephone call with his lawyer, Jim Griffin.
Taylor Bell is a South Carolina defense attorney unrelated to this case but gave general insight into these calls.
"All inmates have the ability to have legal phone calls," Bell said. "They're entitled to have a legal representative even after they're convicted. There's an appeals process, there's a post-conviction relief process even after appeals have followed, as well as potentially civil suits. And so legal phone calls are permitted with all inmates."
But, SCDC said these calls can't be used to facilitate interviews with the media. While SCDC said this is not against South Carolina law, it is against the department's policy, prohibiting inmates from interviews.
"Those statutes and regulations, rules have been promulgated over the years because it's especially once a state passes as ours has the victims bill of rights, but even before that, even predating the victims bill of rights, there's sort of a general consensus that folks, as wards of the state, inmates as wards of the state, and that's what they are, should not be allowed to profit from their crimes, and shouldn't be allowed certainly shouldn't be allowed to profit from their crimes in a way that re-victimizes their victims," current lawyer and former SCDC Director Jon Ozmint said. "So to do a TV interview or print interview, then their victims see their offender, the guy or gal who killed my loved one or robbed my house, raped my daughter, whatever it might be, out there sort of profiting and benefiting from the crime they committed."
SCDC said Murdaugh provided the interview information to his attorney through a legal call, which Griffin then gave to a media outlet. In a statement, SCDC said inmates have violated this policy in recent years "many times."
"It is a common disciplinary charge," a representative for the department said in an email to News19.
I asked Ozmint if SCDC could, theoretically, stop calls between a lawyer and an inmate if policy violations like this continue.
"Yes. And I think that has been litigated in cases where lawyers refuse to comply with reasonable and constitutional rules of the prison system. And I think DOCs across the country have won that battle," Ozmint said. "If people continue to violate the rule and as a correctional administrator, you really have no choice but to…your only control is what the inmate does, and you can limit the inmate's calls and limit his ability to call his attorney if those calls are going to be abused."
The department said this written policy is provided to inmates and attorneys, and both must follow the guidelines. Bell said he's aware of the policy.
"However, I'm not necessarily sure I agree 100% with that, given that you don't 100% lose your First Amendment rights once you are incarcerated. You could have, you know, actual valid grievances against the facility itself, and unless you're able to get out to you know, the media…how else are the inmates supposed to grieve their situation?" Bell asked. "So I'm not 100% certain that this having to get permission for an interview is appropriate given that SCDC could then want to stifle or silence those inmates from getting out those grievances is the idea that the government controls all and that's not necessarily always a good thing."
But Ozmint said it's about the victims in these cases.
"If you were the victim of a heinous crime and you see your inmate, your victimizer, the guy that impacted your family forever on TV, it wouldn't much matter to you what he was complaining about, would it?" Ozmint said. "Instead of trying to draw those lines and devote a bunch of resources that corrections generally don't have to go to making those judgment calls, the courts in the fourth circuit and at other places and other circuits across the country have said, 'Look, as long as you enforce this rule evenly across the board, you're okay to enforce the rule."
If this were to happen, Bell said in-person meetings could still be allowed theoretically.
"You have the option to do an in person visit with your clients. They take a little bit more work. You have to travel to the facility, which our state and where these prisons are located are some remote locations," Bell said. "However, sometimes it's necessary to effectively communicate with your client."
SCDC said Murdaugh's canteen and phone privileges have been taken away for 30 days, which the department tells us is typical for instances like this. SCDC has also taken away Murdaugh's tablet, and the department said it hasn't determined whether that will be returned.
News 19 reached out to attorney Jim Griffin.
In a statement, he said, "I am not commenting on the action taken by the Department other than to say that I have the highest respect for Director Sterling [sic] and the job he is doing."