RANDOLPH MURDAUGH III
By Jeff Kidd
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 once 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
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.”