Alex Murdaugh moved to protective custody unit at South Carolina prison after double-murder conviction

© Joshua Boucher/The State/TNS Alex Murdaugh, center, speaks with his legal team before he is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and son at the Colleton County Courthouse in South Carolina on March 3, 2023.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh has been transferred to a protective custody unit in a maximum security facility within the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

The department announced Murdaugh’s status in a Tweet Friday afternoon. The agency said it would not disclose exactly where Murdaugh is being held “for safety and security reasons.”

Murdaugh, 54, was found guilty in early March of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, after a six-week trial in Colleton County. Judge Clifton Newman then sentenced him to two consecutive life terms. The state gttorney General’s office did not seek the death penalty.

Murdaugh will be housed in a single cell, 8 by 10 feet, that contains a bed, toilet and sink, a corrections department spokeswoman said.

A four-member prison board made the recommendation that Murdaugh be housed in his new cell after reviewing security and mental health concerns.

Corrections has more than a dozen prisons around the state. Six are maximum security, and they are located in five counties: two in Richland, and one each in Greenville, Lee, McCormick and Dorchester counties.

Murdaugh, a now-disbarred lawyer who worked at a prominent Hampton County law firm, PMPED, once made millions a year in his law practice, owned a 1,770-acre estate and was the fourth-generation scion of a prominent South Carolina legal, social and political family.

A state grand jury has indicted Murdaugh on numerous counts of financial fraud, including money laundering, forgery and embezzlement. He has yet to be tried on any of those.

Efforts to reach Murdaugh’s attorneys were unsuccessful Friday afternoon.

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