Murdaugh appeal's best argument is this: Mark Eiglarsh
Criminal defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh gives his take on Alex Murdaugh's team appealing his murder conviction on 'The Story.'
Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh says he needs more time to fight a federal lawsuit accusing him of insurance fraud for stealing millions of dollars from the family of his late housekeeper Gloria Satterfield due to restrictive prison conditions.
"Mr. Murdaugh intends to participate fully in this litigation to the extent his carceral circumstances permit," his lawyers wrote in the April 3 filing. "His very recent assignment to a special Restrictive Housing Unit, however, creates logistical complications delaying his ability to do so."
The filing did not expand on why the prison conditions required the extension, but U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel granted the request, giving Murdaugh until May 1 to respond.
The federal insurance fraud lawsuit filed in 2022 was paused pending the outcome of Murdaugh's double murder trial.
ALEX MURDAUGH'S SECRET PRISON LOCATION REVEALED
Alex Murdaugh has been transferred to the McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina. (South Carolina Department of Corrections/Google Maps)
He was convicted and sentenced to two life terms behind bars last month for gunning down his wife, Maggie, 52, and his son, Paul, 22, at the family's hunting estate known as Moselle, in June 2021.
He was assigned to statewide protective custody due to the notoriety of his case and transferred to McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina – a maximum security prison.
CONVICTED KILLER ALEX MURDAUGH SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON
The South Carolina Department of Corrections said he was being housed in a specialized unit that has 28 inmates and has a single 8-by-10-foot cell with his own bed, toilet and sink. Officials declined to disclose the name of the facility, but a source confirmed to Fox News Digital it was McCormick.
The Murdaugh family said their housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, fell up the front porch steps at their South Carolina hunting estate in 2018. She died in the hospital. (Eric Bland)
Nautilus Insurance Company sued Murdaugh, his former friend and ex-attorney Cory Fleming, and others for fraud after they allegedly pocketed $4.3 million in insurance settlements that were intended for the Satterfield children.
The Murdaugh family's longtime housekeeper died Feb. 26, 2018, after an alleged trip-and-fall at Moselle, but the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced they had launched a fresh probe into her death in September 2021 while investigating other cases.
Nautilus has accused Murdaugh of hatching an insurance fraud scheme by suggesting Satterfield's children sue him, so he could line his own pockets.
He and his alleged co-conspirators pocketed every penny of the payouts while telling the Satterfield boys a settlement had not been reached yet.
Alex Murdaugh is led out of the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, during his trial for the double slaying of his son, Paul, and his wife, Maggie, in June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
Murdaugh and Fleming lost their law licenses over the Satterfield theft.
The disgraced scion of a once-powerful legal dynasty is facing another courtroom battle. He has been indicted for 99 counts of financial crimes stemming from the theft of nearly $9 million from his former law firm, clients and the Satterfield children.
"They want to see that he has to pay, just like everybody else does to get their full cup of justice when they commit a crime," the Satterfield family's lawyer, Eric Bland, previously told Fox News Digital of the upcoming trial.
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Murdaugh is also appealing his murder convictions. His attorney, Jim Griffin, declined to comment.
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