BFT 2019 CPC Lowcountry Yellow Pages

60 AUTOMOBILE
LOWCOUNTRY
PROFILE
For most of his life, there was nothing
Randolph Murdaugh III wanted more than
to be the 14th Circuit Solicitor, like his father
before him and his father before him.
Until the end of his tenure, that is.
By then, reality for the chief prosecutor in
South Carolina’s only five-county judicial
circuit meant spending more time behind a
desk handling administrative chores, less
time in front of a jury arguing cases.
“I had just had enough of it,” Murdaugh
said. “The times had changed, the court
system put up so many impediments until
it made it hard to do the job, and I just quit.”
So after more than 40 years as a prosecutor
– 19 of them as the elected head of the
Solicitor’s Office – Murdaugh stepped away
with two years remaining in his four-year
term. His departure marked the end of a
three-generation, 87-year run in which
someone named Randolph Murdaugh held
the office.
That is believed to be the longest
continual service by one family in one office
in United States history. In fact, until Gov.
Mark Sanford appointed Duffie Stone to fill
the unexpired term in January 2006, no one
but a Murdaugh had ever held the elective
office that was created in 1920.
Murdaugh’s retirement didn’t last long,
however. He spent two days sitting around
his house, then went to the office of the law
firm his grandfather founded in 1910.
“And I said, y’all please put me to work.”
With that, Murdaugh was back home, in
front of a jury, building a civil practice at the
firm now known as Peters, Murdaugh,
Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, P.A.
Murdaugh also keeps a hand in criminal
law. Stone kept him on as a part-time
adviser and attorney, and he still prosecutes
cases for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office –
most of them in Colleton County and his
native Hampton County, and most of them
with his son Alex Murdaugh assisting him.
In 2017, for instance, the Murdaughs
earned a conviction against a Walterboro
Randolph Murdaugh III
by Jeff Kidd
man who shot and killed a Hampton
apartment manager. The defendant was
sentenced to 51 years in prison. It was one
of the more than 200 murder convictions
for Murdaugh.
“You watch him – the mannerisms, the
way Daddy has a unique ability to know
what moves people,” said Alex Murdaugh,
who along with brother Randolph
Murdaugh IV also practices at Peters,
Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick. “My
grandfather had the same thing. … That’s
what a jury trial is about – moving people.”
The family’s prowess in front of a jury
dates to the earliest years of the firm and
the creation of the Solicitor’s Office.
Randolph Murdaugh Sr. was first elected to
the post in 1920 and served until 1940,
when he was killed in a train accident.
He was succeeded by his son, Randolph
"Buster" Murdaugh. In those days, the
Solicitor’s Office was mostly a one-man
operation, as the state did not provide
money for additional employees. Randolph
began his career as a prosecutor shortly
after graduating from the University of
South Carolina School of Law in 1964,
working as an unpaid assistant to his father.
A few years later, Buster helped convince
the General Assembly to allow for a paid
assistant.
Buster held the office until his retirement
in 1986, when Randolph succeeded him. If
the people of the 14th Circuit ever tired of a
Murdaugh as chief prosecutor, it never
showed at the ballot box. At no point did
Murdaugh III face an election opponent,
whether in the primary or general election.
“I’d like to think that’s because people
thought I did a damn good job as solicitor,”
Murdaugh deadpanned before cracking a
grin. “But I’m afraid it’s probably because no
one else wanted the job.”
His son says he is too modest. He can
point to the Order of the Palmetto
certificate in his father’s office. Awarded in
September 2017, the designation from Gov.
Henry McMaster is the state’s highest
civilian honor.
Alex said the appreciation for his father’s
public service is shown in other ways, too.
“It goes back to something my grandfather
promoted and that me and my
brothers and my sister have always been
proud of,” Alex Murdaugh said. “That’s
people expressing how fair Dad has always
been. Hard-nosed and is going to go after
the people we need to go after, but always
in a fair way.
“And I think that’s a good legacy to have.”
H Celebrating 25 Years H
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