Prosecutors have accused Alex Murdaugh's defence team of misrepresenting polygraph test results in a new court filing, as the disgraced South Carolina lawyer seeks a retrial over his convictions for murdering his wife and son. The claim emerged after a heated courtroom exchange in which the defence argued that a co-defendant, Eddie Smith, had failed a polygraph examination relating to the killings, while asserting that Murdaugh himself had passed one.

Judge Debra McCaslin subsequently ruled that polygraph results cannot be used in Murdaugh's retrial proceedings and barred any mention of them before a jury. Prosecutors' filing alleges that the defence team misled the court about the nature or outcome of these polygraph tests during their arguments, adding a fresh layer of controversy to the ongoing legal battle over Murdaugh's original conviction.