(NEW YORK) — Alex Murdaugh is back in court on Monday for the first time since the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his double murder conviction over “shocking jury interference.”

Newly assigned Judge Debra McCaslin is set to hold a status conference to determine a schedule for a new trial as well as resolve some evidentiary issues.  

The status conference comes more than three years after a South Carolina jury found Murdaugh guilty of murdering his son and wife in a gruesome crime that captured global headlines.

The South Carolina Supreme Court threw out that conviction last month after concluding that a court clerk tainted the jury’s verdict by making comments to the jurors that “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense.”

“Both the State and Murdaugh’s defense skillfully presented their cases to the jury as the trial court deftly presided over this complicated and high-profile matter. However, their efforts were in vain because Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury,” the ruling said.

Murdaugh has remained in prison since the ruling, as he is also serving out concurrent sentences for state and federal financial crimes, to which he pleaded guilty. While Murdaugh has acknowledged he lied and stole from his former clients, he has consistently maintained his innocence related to the 2021 double murder.

“Alex has said from day one that he did not kill his wife and son. We look forward to a new trial conducted consistent with the Constitution and the guidance this Court has provided,” Murdaugh’s lawyers said after the May ruling. His lawyers recently filed a civil lawsuit against Hill for allegedly violating his right to a fair trial.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson — who recently won the Republican primary for governor — has vowed to “aggressively” retry the murder case “as soon as possible.” Monday’s conference is likely to provide the first indications of how quickly the case might be retried.

Ahead of the conference, Murdaugh’s lawyers filed a series of motions to change the venue of the trial and access evidence in the case. They have argued that Murdaugh cannot have a fair trial in the countries where his family name has been “synonymous with the local legal system for nearly a century.”

“The basis for this motion is that this is among the most heavily publicized criminal prosecutions in the history of this State. For years Defendant, his family, and the law firm with which his family was associated for generations have been the subject of saturating, sensational, and continuous media coverage,” the motion said.

Murdaugh’s lawyers also filed motions to request access to DNA evidence in the case for independent lab testing, as well as enable Murdaugh to access a computer to review evidence from prison.

Prosecutors have not yet filed their response to those motions. 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(JACKSON, Miss) — Police in Mississippi are searching for a suspect after two woman and a toddler were shot and killed on Saturday.

The women, aged 26 and 20, were found dead alongside a 2-year-old, Jackson Police Department Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters early on Sunday.

Police had responded to a call for an aggravated assault on the 300 block of Queen Alexandria Lane at about 10:10 p.m. on Saturday, Brackney said, adding, “And what they found was something horrifying.”

All three victims had “multiple” gunshot wounds, she said.

Police early on Sunday said they were searching for a Red Mitsubishi Mirage that “was taken.” Brackney did not say whether police had identified a suspect, but said that the person who had taken the vehicle was thought to be “armed and dangerous and is related to this triple homicide that we have here.”

In an update later on Sunday, police said they had found the vehicle in North Jackson, but it was “unoccupied at the time it was located.”

Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement that the city would begin deploying additional resources to combat gun violence.

“Our city is hurting. In recent days, we have seen a troubling rise in gun-related violence, shootings, and senseless loss of life,” he said. “No family should have to face the pain of losing a loved one to violence. Violence against the innocent is intolerable, and as your Mayor, I will not accept this as the norm for our community.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A woman was killed on Sunday in Tennessee as she attempted to rescue her son, who had been swept away in high waters, a local sheriff’s office said, as a flash flood threat was in effect for parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, where four other deaths were recorded.

The Grainger County Sheriff’s Department in Tennessee said Mary Evelyn Nicole Manning-Kellione, 39, was killed on Sunday after she went to rescue her son after rising water carried him into a culvert.

“The son was able to surface at the other end and came to safety when he realized his mother was in the water,” the office said in a statement. “Rescue personnel located the individual lodged inside the culvert.”

The National Weather Service (NWS) Prediction Center had upgraded the flood threat on Sunday for parts of Kentucky and Tennessee to a level 3 out of 4 “moderate risk.”

Kentucky residents had been bracing for another round of relentless rain, a day after flash flooding killed at least four people and the governor declared a state of emergency.

The heaviest rain had been expected in southeast Kentucky and parts of Tennessee, including Owensboro and Somerset, Kentucky, and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Rainfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour are possible, according to the NWS, and daily totals could reach up to five inches in some parts.

Several flash-flood warnings were issued on Sunday morning as ongoing heavy rain and flooding were reported in southern Indiana and northeast Tennessee.  A flash flood emergency has been issued for Metcalf, Cumberland and Clinton counties for ongoing life-threatening flooding, according to the NWS. Between 2.6 and 8 inches of rain have reportedly fallen over these areas.

There have been reports of multiple water rescues with some evacuations and homes flooded in Clinton County. Clinton County and the City of Albany, Kentucky, have issued states of emergency due to ongoing flooding.

Northwest North Carolina, which was hit by flash floods over the weekend, is also at an “elevated risk” of flash flooding on Sunday, according to the NWS.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear provided an update early Sunday afternoon in a video posted to X, saying in part that nine counties in all had declared states of emergency, some of which “got hit with record or almost record amounts of rain in very short periods of time,” he said. Search and rescue efforts remain underway, he said.

Beshear advised residents to stay off of the roads if they can. “Bridges have been wiped out, entire roads have been wiped away and there is still standing and moving water,” he said. He added that he’d activated the state’s price-gouging laws to prevent merchants from increasing prices on essential goods, and had also signed an emergency order “so pharmacies in areas that are hit can go ahead and fill people’s prescriptions that have been washed away or are no longer safe to take.”

The severe weather comes after a weekend of deadly flash flooding that occurred in Kentucky.

More than 10 inches of rain fell on Saturday in parts of the state, prompting flash flooding and deaths.

Beshear announced late Saturday that four people were killed in floods that hit central Kentucky and spread into northeast Tennessee and northwest North Carolina.

“Kentucky, I have some tough news to share,” the governor wrote in a social media post on Saturday, announcing the deaths.

Three fatalities occurred in Madison County, Kentucky, and one flood-related death happened in Jackson County, Beshear said.

According to the Madison County Coroner, of the three fatalities in the county, two of the deaths, one adult male and one adult female, occurred at a residence in Richmond.

The third death was an adult male who was swept away in his vehicle on Tates Creek Road in Madison County, the coroner said.

Beshear declared a statewide state of emergency on Saturday.

“This is a serious flooding event, where teams have already had to conduct multiple water rescues from vehicles and homes across the commonwealth,” Beshear said.

As crews from Kentucky to North Carolina clean up from the storms, a prolonged spell of extreme heat is forecast to settle in across the Midwest and Northeast this week.

Heat alerts have been issued across the Plains to the Ohio Valley and south to the Tennessee and Mississippi Valleys.

An excessive heat warning has been posted for Kansas City, Missouri, through Thursday night.

Temperatures in Kansas City are expected to climb into the 90s on Sunday.

On Monday, widespread highs in the 90s are forecast across the country’s midsection, but high humidity will make it feel hotter.

Excessive heat watches are expected to go into effect for Minneapolis and Chicago on Monday, with the temperature feeling like the triple digits during the afternoon hours.

In Minneapolis, the temperature could feel like 110 on Monday afternoon.

-ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.