I'm fascinated with this Alex Murdaugh trial. It's one of the nice things about being retired--I can pay attention to things other than school. It's caused me to sit at my sewing machine and get several projects done - because I can then justify long periods of listening to trial testimony at the same time.
It's a horrible story. The financial crimes alone are breathtaking in their scope. And then the possibility that this man also finished off his wife and son advances the story from horrible to unthinkable. And yet it very possibly could be true.
In my senior English teaching days, we studied Macbeth each year, and I always introduced it by reading:
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. - James 1:15
That's exactly what happened to Macbeth. His crime started in his mind - "I could be king." That was the conception of lust - the lust for power. Then came the sin of murder to gain that end. After that, he had to murder person after person to cover his own tracks. And in the end, he died as the result of his actions.
The current situation carries parallels (even though I'm not saying that Murdaugh will personally die if convicted). In Murdaugh's mind, something happened to set him on the path of stealing - which soon became action. That resulted in more stealing, and more and more. And his actions, if proved, certainly did result in death - the tragic death of his wife and son.
And it all started with some root cause, not completely ferreted out yet, for which he needed money. The murder has not been proven, but compelling evidence exists that he had motive - that of covering his tracks and gaining him sympathy and time from those who were on his trail. After all, several witnesses have said that after the murders, because of sympathy for the defendant, for quite some time they didn't want to bring up the financial irregularities.
If Alex Murdaugh did commit the murders of his wife and son, I hope and pray that he does not get off of the charges due to the skills of sophisticated lawyers. If he didn't do it, I hope he is found innocent. Most of all I hope justice is served to the perpetrator of the gruesome murders of these two people.
And the older I get, the more I see the truths of the Bible proven in daily life.
