Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers say FBI agent’s mention of Joran van der Sloot led to failed polygraph test

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for Alex Murdaugh said an FBI agent conducting a polygraph test that the agency said the convicted killer flunked asked odd questions and confided he had just examined the notorious Dutch killer of an Alabama teen, throwing the results off.

The name-check of Joran van der Sloot in court papers Thursday is just the latest strange twist in the case of Murdaugh, the disbarred lawyer who is serving a life sentence for murder in the deaths of his wife and son. Murdaugh adamantly denies killing them, while admitting he stole millions from clients and his law firm because of a crippling drug addiction.

The disagreement over the polygraph is taking place in dueling court filings before Murdaugh is scheduled to be sentenced Monday for the thefts in federal court.

Prosecutors said in court papers filed Tuesday that their plea deal to have Murdaugh serve any federal sentence at the same time as his state sentence should be revoked because the polygraph showed Murdaugh wasn’t truthful about where more than $6 million he stole ended up and whether another attorney not yet identified helped him steal from clients and his law firm.

In their response, Murdaugh’s lawyers included court documents from state prosecutors in his murder case who fought against having the defense use polygraph results that said a Murdaugh friend failed his own test when asked if he was involved in killing Murdaugh’s wife and son.

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