Share and Follow
ONLY seven months after Alex Murdaugh was found guilty and sentenced for murdering his wife and son, his family’s tragic story is being retold in a dramatized Lifetime movie experts are already criticizing.
Murdaugh Murders: The Movie is airing on Lifetime on October 14 and 15 as the network’s 500th original movie.
The two-part film stars Independence Day’s Bill Pullman as Alex Murdaugh, Canadian actress Lauren Robek as Margaret (Maggie) Murdaugh, and Curtis Tweedie as Paul Murdaugh.
The film may receive a warm welcome from true crime fans across the country, many of whom might have followed along with the murder trial just earlier this year.
However, several legal and media experts have already come out to criticize the film, particularly for its timing and dramatization of the events that unfolded that fateful summer day in South Carolina.
‘GLAMORIZING’ MURDER
Lifetime has said the film is set to cover the events leading up to the murders in 2021, including a boating accident caused by Paul two years earlier that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach.
It is expected to highlight Alex’s financial crimes, which he attempted to cover up with the death of his wife and son.
Maggie and Paul were found dead on June 7, 2021, after Alex made a 911 call to report they had been fatally shot.
While Alex told police he arrived home to find them lifeless on the ground, he was ultimately indicted on a double murder charge for the slayings on July 14, 2022.
The details surrounding the investigation were heavily discussed throughout the media frenzy that covered Alex’s five-week trial earlier this year and are expected to be touched on throughout the four-hour film as well.
True crime films and television shows, such as Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, have been scrutinized in recent years for sensationalizing the serial killers, the crime itself, and dramatizing the victim’s stories.
David Schmid, a professor of English at the University of Buffalo who specializes in cultural studies, tells The U.S. Sun that it is not a new trend in Hollywood.
“It’s been going on for a long time,” Schmid said, pointing to an interest from the true crime community for dramatized versions of these stories.
He called this interest a window “into our society’s values,” particularly in the way Hollywood and the media tend to “glamorize figures like serial killers and like murderers in ways that we would deny.”
“The evidence of glamorization is everywhere and I think this forthcoming Lifetime movie is just the latest example of that,” Schmid added.
Abbe Smith, a Scott K. Ginsburg professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, agreed while some, mostly independent, true crime films “contribute to the public’s understanding of the complexity of the crime,” many others are lacking.
“Other movies sensationalize crime and violence for profit and to pander to certain audiences,” Smith said.
“These films do nothing for the public good.”
Representatives for Pullman, Robek, and Tweedie did not immediately respond to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
RELEASED TOO SOON?
October 14 marks just a little more than seven months since Alex was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
This is highly unusual compared to other true crime films, which were released decades after the crimes occurred.
“We don’t have a clear ending to the story,” Case Western University Cassandra law professor Burke Robertson told The U.S. Sun.
“I think it would be more meaningful if it happened years later. Because years later, you can really start to understand the narrative a little bit better and start to present it in a way when you have a fuller sense of the picture.
“We don’t have that now. There are still a lot of legal issues that are in question. We don’t know how the legal case is going to end. There are still appeals to be heard. It’s really sad.”
Like other infamous murder cases, Schmid noted that many people will likely remember the murders of Maggie and Paul for years to come.
Read Related Also: Hamas terror chiefs killed by Israeli airstrikes — as Gaza pounded from land, sea & air
Though at the same time, he said there are still unanswered questions.
“I think the people at Lifetime are not being driven by ethical considerations,” he said.
“Instead, they want to get this product out as soon as they can, while it’s still relevant, and still newsworthy.”
Despite criticizing the timing of the release, Robertson noted that much of what goes into a film like the Murdaugh Murders, is a business decision.
She told The US Sun that the network likely believes there is an audience interested in viewing the Murdaugh case as a dramatized film.
Given the momentum from the recent trial, the professor said she understood why Lifetime would want to move quickly on its release.
Lifetime did not immediately respond to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
POTENTIAL RISKS
While some have suggested that the network could face defamation risks in pursuing this film, entertainment attorney Camron Dowlatshahi said Lifetime shouldn’t face too much legal liability.
Dowlatshahi, a partner at Mills Sadat Dowlat LLP, told The U.S. Sun that broad disclaimers should be enough to protect the network.
“The producers are going to have disclaimers at the start of the movie, assuming they’re smart, saying this is a fictionalized representation based on an ongoing story and the characters have been fictionalized,” he said.
He added that by having a broad disclaimer that “clearly indicates a project is fiction,” they should avoid any liability risks.
At the same time, Casner & Edwards attorney George Price, said the upcoming film can pose risks of future crimes similar to the ones committed by Alex.
Specifically, the lawyer pointed to “copycat crimes,” saying there is a risk of future criminals viewing highly publicized crimes and then seeking to commit them themselves.
“There are also the potential psychological effects of airing shows that can be watched by anyone and everyone – including those that may already be suffering from some mental illness or disease,” he told The U.S. Sun.
“But again, in the US, we have First Amendment rights so I don’t expect these types of stories will be stopping anytime soon.”
ONGOING CASE
Since Alex was sentenced in March, several lawsuits against him and involving his family have remained ongoing.
In July, the family of Mallory Beach reached a $15 million settlement with the convenience store where Paul had purchased alcohol from the night of the fatal boat crash in 2019.
Alex had been set to be deposed for the trial in the wrongful death case of the late teenager in August, however, the settlement resulted in the trial being canceled, according to CNN.
Lawyers for the convenience store reportedly argued that the store would have been unable to receive a fair trial due to their claim that the Murdaugh name was too toxic.
Stemming from his own conviction, Alex’s legal team filed a motion for a new murder trial in September, claiming they had evidence of jury tampering.
However, just days later the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office argued that the motion should be dismissed saying an internal investigation into the claims “has already revealed significant factual disputes as to claims in appellant’s motion.”
At the same time, Alex also faces 101 state and federal charges, at least 20 of which are related to accusations of stealing from his client’s legal settlements.
The disgraced attorney is expected to stand trial in November for the first of these charges, which is connected to stolen settlement funds of his family’s late housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
In September, Alex also pleaded guilty to 22 federal counts of financial fraud, including wire and bank fraud, as well as money laundering.
Currently, the disbarred lawyer is serving out his sentence at the McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina.
