Two defense motions were filed ahead of an August 14, 2026 pretrial hearing before S.C. circuit court judge Debra McCaslin, who was assigned to oversee Murdaugh’s second trial for the murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh. The first motion (.pdf) asked McCaslin to transfer the case from Colleton County to Charleston County, arguing years of international publicity, Murdaugh’s deeply rooted family connections and former clerk of court Rebecca “Becky” Hill’s jury tampering have made a fair retrial anywhere in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit impossible. Murdaugh’s attorneys contended his indictments should be dismissed because lead S.C.