Who is Judge Clifton Newman? All about the judge in Alex Murdaugh case as he is hailed for his professionalism 

A day after Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, was found guilty in the murders of his son, Paul, and his wife, Maggie, Judge Clifton Newman sentenced him to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Shortly before announcing the sentence, Judge Clifton Newman, 71, who has served as the at-large judge of the South Carolina Circuit Court for more than two decades, addressed Murdaugh. In a clear speech, Newman told the suspect that he had no doubt Murdaugh would be plagued by the spirits of the deceased for the rest of his life.

Multiple reports considered Newman’s address in the sentencing hearing to be deeply poignant, and several people commended the judge for his decorum during the six-week-long proceedings.

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Judge Clifton Newman's decade-long law career explored as judge receives high praise for his conduct during the Alex Murdaugh trial

As per the BBC, Clifton Newman, who was born in Kingstree, South Carolina, in 1951, graduated from law school at Cleveland State University before returning to South Carolina to open up his own private defense law firm. He then went on to work as a county prosecutor before being elected as a judge in 2000 by the South Carolina General Assembly. Newman was re-elected in 2021 and is slated to retire in 2027.

After serving in the judicial system for decades, judge Clifton Newman has received admiration for his conduct during the Murduagh murder trial.

During the sentencing hearing, in a controlled speech, Judge Clifton Newman told Alex Murdaugh he had to have a portrait of Murdaugh's grandfather removed from the courthouse to ensure a fair trial that he considered to be "one of the most troubling cases" for him as a judge.

"You have a wife who has been killed, murdered. A son who has been savagely murdered. A lawyer, a person from a respected family who has controlled justice in this community for over a century, a person whose grandfather's portrait hangs at the back of the courthouse that I had to have removed in order to ensure that a fair trial was had by both the state and the defense."

Alex Murdaugh, who worked as a personal injury attorney until he was disbarred for stealing from his clients and legal partners, belongs to a prominent family in South Carolina where at least three generations of Murdaugh men practiced law and wielded significant power in the community.

As the judge continued to speak, Alex Murdaugh briefly interrupted and proclaimed his innocence, prompting the judge to say it might have been the monster in the throes of opioid addiction that killed his family.

" It might not have been you. It might have been the monster that you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. Maybe you become another person. I have seen that before. The person standing before me was not the person who committed the crime, though it is the same individual."

The judge also mentioned the continued lies told by Murdaugh during the course of the investigation, including his whereabouts on the night of the murder.

Shortly after the sentencing, Alex Murdaugh was escorted out by the South Carolina corrections officers to be transported to a detention facility in Columbia, where he will be evaluated for several weeks before being assigned a permanent prison home.