Talking Dateline: In the Matter of Alex Murdaugh

Summary

Dateline NBC – Talking Dateline: In the Matter of Alex Murdaugh

Host: Andrea Canning
Guests: Dateline Producers Carol Gable & Hailey Barber
Date: May 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Talking Dateline dives into the explosive developments in the Alex Murdaugh case, focusing on the shocking decision to grant Murdaugh a new trial. Host Andrea Canning is joined by producers Carol Gable and Hailey Barber, who break down the case’s ongoing twists, the unprecedented courtroom drama surrounding the court clerk, and the far-reaching impact in the legal world and local community. The discussion touches on the high-profile nature of the case, the failures and complexities of the investigation, and what lies ahead as a new trial is set in motion.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Quick Case Recap & Initial Impact

• Murdaugh's status: Once a prominent attorney in Hampton County, Alec Murdaugh’s life unraveled after the double murder of his wife and son.
• Initial investigation: Began with Alec’s 911 call and quickly spiraled from standard investigation to Alec becoming the chief suspect due to digital evidence.
• First conviction: Murdaugh was sentenced to back-to-back life sentences, appealed the verdict, and the case has only grown in drama and complexity.
• Court clerk controversy: Clerk Rebecca Hill became central, with allegations of jury tampering leading to the landmark new trial decision.
  • “As the justices said, she put her finger on the scales of justice, which really just threw a grenade in all of this.” – Andrea Canning [03:26]

2. The Murdaugh Family’s Power & the Community’s Betrayal

• The family wielded enormous influence, holding deep legal roots and community trust in South Carolina for generations.
• Producer Hailey Barber described how Alec’s father, a longstanding district attorney, ingratiated himself locally, which made the crime’s betrayal even more shocking.
  • “They straddled two legal universes… It’s generational and, you know, now books, movies, podcasts about this.” – Hailey Barber [05:04]
• The community’s disbelief at Murdaugh’s involvement may have influenced early investigative missteps.

3. Early Crime Scene Handling & Investigative Shortcomings

• The family estate was inadequately secured immediately after the murders, possibly due to the family’s status.
• Friends and family gathered quickly, contaminating the scene and making aspects of the investigation difficult.
  • “They did not seal off the house immediately for the crime scene.” – Hailey Barber [06:28]
• The large, sprawling property and poor conditions (heavy rain, late night) added to the challenges.

4. The Boat Accident, Motive, and Public Perception

• The 2019 boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh that killed Mallory Beach was seen by Alec as potential motive for revenge from the community.
• The timing of the murders coincided with mounting pressure on Alec to reveal financial records, fueling theories about exposure of financial crimes as a motive—but even insiders consider the leap to double murder difficult to fathom.
  • “That thread that was unraveling led straight to motive. And, boy, that is a jump...” – Hailey Barber [09:07]
  • “To kill your own son...that’s the part that...is harder to wrap your brain around.” – Andrea Canning [10:27]

5. Emotional Dynamics of the Trial

• Alec’s courtroom demeanor was striking, appearing deeply emotional on the stand, yet many found his tears unconvincing.
  • “He sometimes would rock back and forth...I think the blow your nose thing, frankly, was something we had seen during the trial.” – Hailey Barber [13:06]
• Observers noted his close relationship with his son Paul, complicating the motive narrative.

6. Revelation of a New Trial & Legal Ramifications

• News of the new trial broke among the production team in real-time, triggering a mix of professional reaction and personal exhaustion at the thought of re-covering every step.
  • “I called Carol right away...and I said, ‘Alec got a new trial,’ and I don’t think I should repeat here what she said.” – Hailey Barber [17:43]
• The new trial is further complicated by a state election cycle, with the Attorney General seeking to retry the case before a potential change in office.
• The state is considering seeking the death penalty this time, making jury selection and trial logistics even more complex.

7. Clerk of Court Scandal (Rebecca Hill)

• Rebecca Hill’s actions—deemed as overstepping and possibly influencing jurors—shook the foundation of the first trial.
• While she was seen as organized and personable, the Supreme Court ruled that her conduct met the threshold for granting a new trial.
  • “She was called by the scion of celebrity. And the justices ultimately agreed.” – Carol Gable [22:28]
• Murdaugh is now suing her civilly for damages stemming from the fallout.

8. Supreme Court’s Legal Reasoning on Jury Influence

• It was enough that a single juror could have been influenced by the clerk’s behavior, regardless of whether they said it swayed their final verdict.
  • “If one...She attempted to influence one juror, that’s enough. Because you’re entitled under the Sixth Amendment to a fair trial...And one juror said that it did influence her.” – Legal Expert [23:12]
  • “What you have to do is you have to look at the conduct, the comments, the context… and would that affect a reasonable juror, not how it affected those individual jurors…” [23:50]

9. The Human Cost and Unsolved Mysteries

• Emotional scars linger in the community, especially from the 2019 boat crash and the deaths of Maggie and Paul.
• There remain unanswered questions about missing money (up to $6 million) and the murder weapons.
  • “Where is the money and where are the guns?” – Carol Gable [31:25]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Becky, Becky, Becky. As the justices said, she put her finger on the scales of justice, which really just threw a grenade in all of this.”
  — Andrea Canning [03:26]
• “It’s generational and, you know, now books, movies, podcasts about this.”
  — Hailey Barber [05:04]
• “They did not seal off the house immediately for the crime scene.”
  — Hailey Barber [06:28]
• “That thread that was unraveling led straight to motive. And, boy, that is a jump that you think because you’re about to unravel completely financially that your remedy is kill your wife and son. That’s a big step to make.”
  — Hailey Barber [09:07]
• “If one...She attempted to influence one juror, that’s enough. Because you’re entitled under the Sixth Amendment to a fair trial...”
  — Legal Expert [23:12]
• “Where is the money and where are the guns?”
  — Carol Gable [31:25]

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Important Segments by Timestamp

• 01:32 – 08:49: Case recap, family background, crime scene issues
• 08:49 – 12:12: Motives, financial crimes, trial narrative
• 12:12 – 14:41: Emotional aspects of the trial, courtroom observations
• 16:56 – 19:09: Breaking news of new trial, reactions, political ramifications
• 19:09 – 23:06: Clerk’s impact, Supreme Court’s reasoning
• 23:06 – 25:14: Jury influence, exhaustion at prospect of new trial
• 28:58 – 33:36: Listener Q&A: logistics, rarity of new trials, missing evidence
• 33:47 – end: Next steps: appointing a new judge, possible death penalty, difficulty of seating a jury

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Listener Q&A Highlights

• How rare is this kind of retrial?
  It’s highly unusual and largely unprecedented in South Carolina.
• What about the missing funds and guns?
  Still unresolved, with the suggestion that hiding places in the area are vast.
• Could they find an impartial jury for a retrial?
  Major concern; may not require a change of venue, but vetting will be intense.
• When could the retrial begin?
  No date yet; a new judge must be appointed and, if the death penalty is pursued, seating an appropriate jury adds further delay.

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Tone & Final Reflections

The conversation is lively and frank, at times darkly humorous, and always anchored in empathy for victims and the complexity faced by those covering the case. The producers note the exhausting pace of the news cycle and observe the profound, ongoing impact on the local community—highlighting the enduring pain from the original tragedy and the ripple effects of every development.

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For anyone who missed the episode, this discussion walks through all the major legal, emotional, and community angles in the Murdaugh saga, capturing both the gravity and the surreal twists that keep this case in the spotlight.

Transcript

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[Andrea Canning]

Hey everyone, I am Andrea Canning and we are talking Dateline and today. I'm Jo DATELINE producers Carol Gable and Hailey Barber. Thanks for joining us today.

[Carol Gable]

Andrea, thanks for having us.

[Hailey Barber]

I feel like we'll never stop talking about this story.

[Andrea Canning]

No, because we are talking about in the matter of Alec Murdoch and ladies, the revelation that has gone around the world about this new trial is just incredible. Our friend and colleague Craig Melvin is the correspondent on this episode and he did some really great interviews and reporting. Before we get to that, can you just give us a really quick recap about this case?

[Hailey Barber]

It started with a call to 911 with Alec Murdaugh who is a very prominent Hampton county attorney and he's saying that his wife and son are dead and he's found their bodies. And investigators rush in, it starts a very intensive investigation led by the state law enforce division. And we learned that in fact it's Alec who is the chief suspect in this case, that all of the information from his car put him at the scene. And then of course we get to the trial and we had the verdict that was seemingly conclusive.

[Carol Gable]

Alec had been sentenced to back to back life sentences and appealed the murder conviction. Since then, a lot has happened, Andrea, and a lot of the kind of drama surrounding this case has centered on the clerk of court, Rebecca Hill. And after the trial there were some allegations that she had maybe done some things with the jury that weren't above board. Alec appeals his case to the state supreme court. They agree to hear it, and ultimately that's how we ended up here with this kind of landmark breaking decision.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah. Wow.

[Andrea Canning]

Becky, Becky, Becky. As the. The justices said, she put her finger on the scales of justice, which really just threw a grenade in all of this. So at Dateline, we don't always get to watch every episode because, you know, we are very busy. I would love to say I watch every single one. Wow. I mean, when I watched this, it was incredible. I mean, first of all, all of you did such a good job, like, putting this story together, but I mean, trying to fit all of this into a two hour show was I. My head hurt. Trying just trying to imagine all the details that probably didn't even make it.

[Carol Gable]

Yeah. It's hard to summarize these past years, Andrea, since this murder happened in 2021. But the other thing that we sometimes forget in light of the murder coverage is that Alec was also accused of and ultimately pled guilty to so many financial crimes. He was stealing from his clients, who we have met some of them, and a lot of them don't have the means that he had. And people often ask, what is it about this case that has just so captivated the world? And I think the curtain was really lifted on this small town where this family really was so trusted by such a group of people. And. And the betrayal that is still felt when you go there is really something resounding.

[Andrea Canning]

You could really sense just the power that this man had. Alec. And just the family, you know, well,

[Hailey Barber]

they straddled two legal universes. You know, on the one hand, you had Alec's dad, who'd been the district attorney for years and years and years. And then the law firm that certainly made a name for themselves in so many product liability and other personal liability cases, I mean, just have made a fortune. And there's so many courtroom stories about Alex dad. I mean, he would walk up to a jury and while he was waiting for things to go, he'd say, hey, Elaine, how's the baby? You know, he just knew everybody and they all knew him. So it's very deep. It's generational and, you know, now books, movies.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah.

[Hailey Barber]

Podcast about this.

[Andrea Canning]

It's everywhere. It is, Yeah. I was actually thinking as Alec is waiting for the police to arrive and you see the body cam and, you know, this history of this man and this family. And even though police, obviously law enforcement, you know, has to keep an open mind from the get go. Right. But at the same time, you're thinking, I. I'm thinking, I wonder if their first instincts are like, no way could he have done this? You know, he's this lawyer. His. His family, you know, have such deep roots in this community.

[Hailey Barber]

Well, they did not seal off the house immediately for the crime scene.

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

They.

[Hailey Barber]

They sealed off where the bodies were found. But, you know, friends and family were gathering already quickly because the news spread amongst their circle, and people rushed to the house, and that was not cordoned off as part of the crime scene. And I don't know if that was. You could call it a mistake or you could call it sort of acknowledgement of who this family was and that they, you know, were definitely gonna get together.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. I mean, and I was thinking to myself, all those guns in the house, wouldn't you want to immediately secure that to, you know, for testing and like to see if maybe they were shot by one of those weapons? I don't know. Just seems like it would have been a smart thing to do for law enforcement.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah.

[Carol Gable]

And it's a sprawling and confusing crime scene in a lot of ways. You know, Ellick is down at the kennels, but the house is actually a ways away. This is a big property. And the one thing I think that Colleton county really did well was they called in the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division right away. They said, we need backup. We need help. But by the time those agents arrived, you know, this was late into the night, and it's pouring rain. The crime scene had been sitting out there for a long time. You know, this lead sled investigator, Agent David Owen, he kind of reflected on the magnitude of arriving at that scene. And a lot of people, even if they weren't familiar with Alec, they had heard about the boat accident in 2019 that had happened with Paul. And even those first investigators that arrive, you can hear them on the body cam saying, did you hear what the name is? This is. This is the Murdaughs.

[Hailey Barber]

Wow.

[Andrea Canning]

And, yeah, and, you know, the boat accident is brought up immediately. You know, it's.

[Hailey Barber]

Well, and I think, in fact, Alec says he brought it up right there on the scene, that, you know, he thought that perhaps this was revenge or some sort of get back at the family because of the boat accident when Mallory beach was killed.

[Andrea Canning]

So I was wondering about the timing of all of this, you know, where he is supposed to appear in court to, you know, hand over his financial documents to disclose what's going on, and then his wife and son are murdered.

[Hailey Barber]

Well, I think one thing We've heard is that Alec had been delaying turning over this financial information for a long time, kicking that can down the road. And that he was told by the Mallory beach legal team that if you don't turn this over, then I will sue Paul and Maggie in Beaufort County. Now, what that is, what that really means is I will sue your family to get this money. But in a county where you don't hold this kind of power, influence. And there's also an element, I think, that he was afraid that when he started turning over financial. Somehow there's the strong suggestion that he thought this would be the string that would unravel all of these financial misdeeds that he'd been doing for years. But, you know, you then have to, as a jury, think that that thread that was unraveling led straight to motive. And, boy, that is a jump that you think because you're about to unravel completely financially that your remedy is kill your wife and son. That's a big step to make.

[Andrea Canning]

And that was something else I wanted to talk about. I mean, obviously, we unfortunately see all too often husbands killing wives. You know, I don't think that's any surprise to a Dateline viewer at this point or listener. But to kill your own son, that's the part that. I mean, both are obviously horrific, but that one is harder to wrap your brain around.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah.

[Carol Gable]

And I think we should probably importantly say that the defense really disputes this motive, that Alec would commit such a heinous crime to distract what was going on in his financial life. They would tell you, and they say Alec would tell you he was extremely close to Paul. And by all accounts, there's a video of Ellic and Paul Rent riding around the property in the evening hours before this murder takes place. And they're looking at the sunflowers and you can hear them laughing.

[Andrea Canning]

And, you know, it just doesn't make sense.

[Carol Gable]

It's very hard to fathom.

[Hailey Barber]

Well, which begs the question that when you've got them all being pretty jovial on that infamous video down in the dog kennels, it, you know, you're then having have to believe that that tenor of that conversation turned quickly because they're dead to us. Dead moments later. So then who did kill them? And that is something that the defense has said, that they've got some leads on who it possibly was. Now, they did not present those at the trial where he was found guilty. So we'll see if they come up with more.

[Andrea Canning]

And as we. As we get towards. I want to talk about the next step in all of this. But I'm so curious what you thought, what people, you know, who are watching the trial, covering the trial. Alec really is emotional or appears to be very emotional on the stand to the point where, like, actual snot, pardon my language, that's not a bad word, but it's kind of gross. But it's coming out of his nose. And I mean, I just thought to myself, oh, wow. Like, you know, normally, let's say he wasn't, you know, being looked at for these murders. I probably would buy it, you know, Cause he did look very emotional. But given that he's on trial for a double murder, what were people's thoughts about his. These tears and his nose and all of it?

[Hailey Barber]

I just think they didn't believe it. Okay. You know, but during the trial, I think Haley and I observed that, you know, he. He sometimes would rock back and forth. He would sometimes. I mean, I think he had. I think the blow your nose thing, frankly, was something we had seen during the trial.

[Andrea Canning]

I sent you. I sent you ladies the screen grab as I was watching in this weekend because I kept seeing you in the. In the gallery. And of course, that led Carol to our text conversation about those horrible benches in courthouses across America. And they are the most painful thing to sit on for hours on end.

[Hailey Barber]

If we're headed for another six weeks trial chiropractically, I'm not sure I can survive.

[Andrea Canning]

Well, why don't. I mean, I've seen this in trials before where some people will bring in, like, you know, almost like the little baseball pads they bring to baseball games or they give out a baseball game.

[Hailey Barber]

I have a stadium. I have a stadium seat. I have tool. I bring my tools and I share. Yeah, absolutely. It's. And I thought Haley and I, though, have learned the hard way through this trial is you can stay home and watch it on a live stream in your bunny slippers. But you learn so much more about what's going on if you're there. And there's no substitute for being there.

[Andrea Canning]

When we come back, we'll have an extra CL from Craig's interview with Murdoch's attorneys.

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Andrea Canning]

I want to know you two lived and breathed this case so much. And Craig, take us to that moment where you find out that Alec is getting a new trial. Where were you? Do you just immediately call each other? How does this all. How does this all come about?

[Carol Gable]

Another one of our colleagues started calling me again and again and I was on one of our associate producers on this case who are our legs of the operation and I thought that's strange. They continue calling me.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, give them a shout out. Who is it?

[Carol Gable]

Oh, it's hobby.

[Hailey Barber]

Oh, Javi.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, we love, we love.

[Carol Gable]

Our hobby is calling me. And I was on another work call and I see that he's calling my personal phone again.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah.

[Carol Gable]

In my head I thought he's got a new trial, Murdoch.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah.

[Carol Gable]

And I called Carol right away and I said, and Carol answered like she, you know, Carol and I are very close. In real life. Yes, in besties life. And she said, hey. And I said, Carol, she said What I said, Ella got a new trial and I don't think I should repeat here what she said.

[Andrea Canning]

Can you give us the mild version?

[Carol Gable]

Oh. Oh, no.

[Hailey Barber]

Okay.

[Carol Gable]

Oh, boy.

[Hailey Barber]

Well, and we just know what's coming.

[Andrea Canning]

You know what's coming. And that's the big part of this. Right. Is that it was such a long trial, so many witnesses to do all the pretrial hearings. I mean, to do all of this all over again.

[Hailey Barber]

Oh, no. But there's a whole other. There's another layer of drama here because we're in the middle of an election in south.

[Andrea Canning]

The Attorney General, he's running for governor.

[Hailey Barber]

He's running for governor. And we have a wholly new person that's not really on the radar of what we know about the Murdoch case, who's. Well, several people running for the AG's job. And that's why in our interview last week with the Attorney General, Alan Wilson, he says he would, you know, is doing all he can to make this case be retried before he leaves office in January.

[Andrea Canning]

And maybe Carol, as death penalty this

[Hailey Barber]

time, as they're saying death penalty, he said, is on the table.

[Carol Gable]

That was good news on Friday. Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

What was so wild for me was watching the episode when you go back in time because now you know what you know. And Becky obviously, you know, made some major mistakes here. The court clerk, you go back and you hear Allen giving this press conference.

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

I call her Becky Booth. That's her nickname. But Madam Clerk, wherever you are tonight, I hear you.

[Carol Gable]

I want to be careful here because the defense lawyers were talking about this last week and there was a very, there was a very rare camaraderie that the media had at this trial because it was six full weeks and we sat in the same seats together. And I will say that at the time, Becky, it's not unusual for us. And you know this well, Andrea, that a clerk of court is a very integral part of the relationship.

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely, absolutely.

[Carol Gable]

Are providing us hearing times. They are helping us understand what's going on in the courtroom. We get exhibits from them and there have been so many allegations and Becky has ultimately pleaded guilty. But I think before we point any fingers, we were all just kind of getting through this trial in the best way that we knew how, which was to do our jobs and work with the clerk in a professional way.

[Hailey Barber]

Well, and to be fair, she was a first term clerk of court and this was by any measure a hu. Would be a lifetime huge trial. And Haley and I met with her months before the trial because logistically, you know, journalists need a place to sit. We need to know what. What do you want us to do about parking? We want to know, how are you? Just the logistics of covering a trial. And I think while we were living it, you know, she did a very good job of wrangling a lot of things.

[Andrea Canning]

She seemed really personable, too. She seemed like the right person to be handling a trial like that. It seemed organized.

[Carol Gable]

And, yeah, I was reading because actually, we found out this morning, Andrea, that Alec Murdoch is now suing Becky herself. And that's in civil court. In civil court today, he's kind of, you know, demanding that some of his attorney's fees be paid due to the suffering that he's, you know, been under because of everything that has happened. But in the complaint, it states how Becky's election was in 2020 and this crime happened in 2021. And we went to trial very quickly, and I just thought, wow, imagine this being, you know, one of the first trials that you ever do as. As a clerk. And. Yeah, I've been at Dateline a long time. Carol's been at Dateline a little bit longer. I would say, even for us, the media attention on this case has been unprecedented.

[Andrea Canning]

So, yeah, it really has. I mean. And what did the justices say? The. The South Carolina justice is something about stardom.

[Carol Gable]

With Becky, it was Justice Jean Toll who said that she was called by the scion of celebrity. And the justices ultimately agreed.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense team, Alec's defense team has really hit the ground running with this. And we have an extra clip from Craig's interview with the defense team that we can take a listen to.

[Hailey Barber]

All 12 jurors are called in to testify.

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

They're asked if they were, in fact, coerced.

[Carol Gable]

They're asked if they felt pressured, influenced to vote guilty.

[Advertiser Voice 2]

What did they say?

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

Most of them said no.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Only takes one, though.

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

I mean, the Supreme Court case directly on point. If one. She attempted to influence one juror, that's enough. Because you're entitled under the Sixth Amendment to a fair trial. Not a pretty fair trial, a fair trial. Twelve jurors who are not being influenced by extraneous influences. And one juror said that it did influence her. But what's important is our Supreme Court followed the law that says you don't get to ask jurors, you know, what went into the mix to make up your mind. That's an unanswerable question after the fact.

[Hailey Barber]

That.

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

And so one of the things that the opinion does is says you don't go there. What you have to do is you have to look at the conduct, the comments, the context in which they were made. And would that affect a reasonable juror, not how it affected those individual jurors, a hypothetical reasonable juror.

[Hailey Barber]

That is a really interesting quote, because ultimately the Supreme Court decided, even though you had 11 people say, I was not influenced, how can you unhear that? For the ones that all of them did not hear Becky say any of those things, but for the ones that did, even though they said it didn't influence me, I think the feeling is, should you be forced to unhear that? No. How would you know?

[Andrea Canning]

Well, yeah, I mean, what I said to you guys that day when the decision came out, I said, Becky is having a very bad day. You know, this is her worst nightmare, that this happened.

[Hailey Barber]

Well. And I think this trial was so long and so arduous and so painful for so many people that even if you're glad that the Supreme Court has remedied a problem they see with what Becky did, the prospect of doing it again, even if you think that's the fair thing, is still exhausting.

[Andrea Canning]

It's exhausting. Yes.

[Carol Gable]

We should say that we have attempted to contact Becky as well as her lawyers in this case, and we have not received anything back.

[Andrea Canning]

Well, you. You two have a lot of work ahead of you. I will say that area is beautiful. It is. I saw that the. It was. I saw the Beaufort. The picture of the Beaufort hospital after the boat crash, and I went there for a changing of command, a change of command at the base there. And it's just the most stunning area.

[Hailey Barber]

So I think that's why Pat Conroy wrote the Prince of Tides and said it while it was there.

[Andrea Canning]

That was there.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, I love that book and I love that movie. Nick Nolte.

[Carol Gable]

I think it's so fortuitous, too, Andrea, actually, that you brought that up. And I was talking to a few people over the weekend that are. We're close with the family and close to the situation, and we should just bring up that, you know, Mallory Beach's death in 2019, the other victims in this case, you know, there's just Maggie's family and the Murdoch family, and there's just so much pain. So much pain goes back to that night in 2019 in that original lawsuit and, you know, Mallory's death. So you just brought up Harris island, and they were out there on the boat and how beautiful it is, and she was really a beautiful person. And, you know, it kind of all goes back to that.

[Andrea Canning]

She was just. Yeah. I mean, she was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, Mallory. And you just look at her and you're like, this is a girl who had her whole life ahead of her.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

On that note, we are going to take a break and come back with questions from our viewers, our listeners, social media questions. Are you guys up for that?

[Hailey Barber]

We sure are.

[Andrea Canning]

Wonderful.

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[Andrea Canning]

Welcome back. And now we have some very curious viewers and listeners who have some observations and comments that they would like to ask you guys about. So we will start with Bambi Workman. She is from Facebook and she says I'm watching Dateline NBC. What a crazy turnaround. I was thinking that too. How you guys got that on the air so fast for Friday with all that new information and new interviews and with Craig's schedule on the Today show,

[Carol Gable]

we should really give all kudos where kudos are due, which is to Craig because he, to your point, wakes up at 3:30 in the morning and by the way manages to keep all of this stuff in his head. And he's from South Carolina, so he knows these people. It's very personal to him. But it was a very tight turnaround.

[Hailey Barber]

Haley's so right about Craig. Even with his regular day job, he was still a very important reporter on our story Friday night. He was making calls, he was checking facts. You know, he just didn't stop. So, yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Cause we, we had him, all of you, on Dateline, True Crime Weekly, and Craig was working the phones, as were you guys. And he really knows the story inside and out, just like you do. Rebecca Todd on Facebook, she said, how many other trials has this happened to, I wonder?

[Hailey Barber]

Oh, wow, that's a good question.

[Carol Gable]

There was not a lot of case law present in South Carolina. There's another case cited in the order that was about a bailiff who had made some comments to a jury. But dating back years and years, and even some of the lawyers that we've spoken to, and our expert lawyer at NBC, Laura Jarrett, said, this is truly unprecedented to see this kind of conviction overturned.

[Andrea Canning]

It feels that way.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Anecdotally, anyway. It feels that way.

[Carol Gable]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Donna Perry on Facebook. Craig Melvin is going to solve this. Well, some people don't think it needs solving. I guess some people maybe do. Ally thinks it needs solving.

[Hailey Barber]

But if Craig can find those missing guns, that'd be a big step forward. And then we have a missing what, Haley? $6 million still not accounted for. That part of what? Money stolen from clients.

[Carol Gable]

So this question is onto something with Craig because there are two things that he has never forgotten. Where is the money and where are the guns?

[Andrea Canning]

Well, you know, some people are really good at hiding money. Right. With offshore accounts. I'm not saying that's the case here, but there are ways to hide money if you're savvy enough. And if you believe the prosecution, you know, did Alec have enough time to, you know, hide those weapons? Right.

[Hailey Barber]

When you look at the area around Moselle, you are right near the Sacahatchee river. That. So you have that. You've got miles and miles and miles of marshes and woods. There are just no shortage of places to put guns.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. Jennifer Blair Martin says after the first trial and the millions of shows about it, how will they find any jurors for number two? I guess jurors who don't have preconceived.

[Hailey Barber]

We ask that repeatedly to everyone. That's key in this case. Last week, I mean, my first instinct was you'd have to go to Zanzibar to find a jury of people that didn't know about it. But, you know, I think we asked Alan Wilson that very question. He said, look, we have got a structure, as every state does, for how to question jurors and ferret out the ones that can understand a case and can set aside, you know, their previous convictions. And the other issue with a new trial and change of venue, which is the other issue people ask about, is to get a change of venue, you not only have to get approval, but you've also got to find a county that whose demographics line up to be very similar from college and county. And so you can't just say we're going to move it to the upstate because you've got to have a county that matches demographically. So I don't it would not surprise me if change of venue doesn't really come up.

[Andrea Canning]

Linda LeBlanc on Facebook asks, did they say an approximate trial date? I've just heard so far that they want to do this quickly. But, but have we heard anything beyond that? No.

[Carol Gable]

So what we know next, at least what the defense has told us, is that they will have to appoint a judge because the trial judge, Judge Newman from the first trial, recused himself and there will have to be a new judge and then there will likely be a hearing that there's just gonna be a lot of factors, not to mention if the death penalty comes into play, that puts this case in a whole different category. And then you have to seat a death penalty jury, which is even more difficult than seating a jury that that doesn't know about this case potentially. So.

[Hailey Barber]

Yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

So Haley and Carol, thank you so much for joining us today. And you guys are just so up on this case, both of you and Craig, you're the experts. So thank you for doing this.

[Carol Gable]

Thank you, Andrea, for having us.

[Hailey Barber]

Thanks for having us.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. That is Talking DATELINE for this week. Thank you all for listening. And remember, if you have any questions about our stories, you can DM us your audio or video on our socials ainenbc or leave us a voicemail at 212-413-5252 for a chance to be featured right here. And you can watch the video version of Talking Dateline on Peacock or YouTube or subscribe to the NBC News app. We'll see you Fridays on DATELINE on NBC.

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[Andrea Canning]

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