After deliberating for less than three hours, a jury in South Carolina convicted Alex Murdaugh of murdering his youngest son and wife.

The trial saw testimony from seven witnesses and hundreds of exhibits and had a physical visit to the murder scene so the jury could see where the grizzly murders took place.

Deliberation of fewer than three hours for a double murder, after five weeks of trial time, is a remarkably short time to deliberate and vote to convict for murder. It meant that the Murdaugh jury saw what I saw – a contemptuous liar who had no other defense than to admit he was a liar and to claim that he wasn’t lying when he claimed, without any supporting evidence, that he didn’t murder his family.

BREAKING: Jury finds Alex Murdaugh guilty of double murder. https://t.co/LZCGGhjDFL pic.twitter.com/J6tFqLJOzz

— ABC News (@ABC) March 3, 2023

I watched dribs and drabs of the trial. I wasn’t captivated by it the trial as many were because I didn’t believe a thing Murdaugh said in his defense. I had made up my mind after the first 20 minutes of lies. On the stand, he didn’t show the emotion that I would expect from a grieving father and husband – I saw a man acting for the jury. He thought he would get away with it. He didn’t.

I listened to many criminal defense lawyers who saw a weak prosecution and some compelling testimony from Murdaugh. I saw some mistakes made by the prosecution I did not see how even a 12-year-old could lose this case. It was that compellingly obvious that one person was the killer and it was Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh had no alibi. He lied about being on the scene, he lied about everything that made any difference and the jury clearly saw through his web of lies.

I’ve tried cases and looked into jurors’ eyes and could tell when I was winning an argument and when it was hopeless. My guess is Murdaugh was hoping for one holdout to hang the jury. It didn’t happen.

Murdaugh unexpectedly took the stand – only to see him admit to being a repeated cheat, and thief and to admit he lied to the cops after he got caught lying to the cops about being on the scene only moments before the murders.

Murdaugh is 54. He faces 30 years in prison and based on the brutality and the senselessness of the crime, he likely will get all of it and spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Good riddance.