In a South Carolina courtroom on April 1, a federal judge convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh to an additional 40 years in prison after new information came out of his illegally stealing millions of dollars from former clients during his time as a lawyer. 

Currently, Murdaugh is serving a life sentence without parole for murdering his wife and son the previous year. During that time, he had been swindling money off of at least a dozen clients, stealing a total of at least $1.3 million.

Additionally, Murdaugh pleaded guilty in state court to related financial federal crimes, adding 27 years to his prison sentence.

Originally, federal agents suggested a term of 17 and a half to 22 years in prison, but the district judge of Murdaugh’s case decided to give Murdaugh a longer term because of his lack of human morals.  Some of his client victims included children whose parents died in a car accident and two other life-altering injured civilians. Also, another reason for the harsher sentence was that federal investigation agents believed that Murdaugh was not honest in his prosecution when asked about some of his financial crimes, including a case that involved his family’s former housekeeper’s unexpected death.

As a result, Murdaugh faces a fine of $9 million.