coming up this hour, an honor that is long overdue, president biden will award a vietnam veteran with the medal of honor for his incredible bravery almost 60 years ago. we begin with breaking news out of south carolina where just in the last hour disgraced ex-lawyer alex murdaugh was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. after he was convicted of murdering his wife maggie and youngest son paul in a high profile case that captivated the country. in the murder of your wife, maggie murdaugh, i sentence you for a term of the rest of your natural life. for the murder of paul murdaugh, whom you probably loved so much, i sentence you to prison for murdering him for the rest of your natural life. before he was sentenced, murdaugh addressed the court this morning. i m innocent. i would never under any circumstances hurt my wife maggie and i would never under any circumstances hurt my son paul paul. pretty much all he said. last night in just under three hours
we are wrapping our part of our special recap of today s closing arguments in trump s criminal trial but do not go anywhere. coverage continues with the last word, and lawrence o donnell, who spent all day today in court and has the back pain to prove it. i was working on my posture for most of the day, rachel. two full reporters notebooks today. i ve never filled up two in the day before, i think. certainly not on the courtroom day. it went on longer than any of us expected, i think longus than most thought was necessary but it was one of those no stone unturned closings by the prosecution. the defense, i thought, was as effective as they could be, given the cars that have been dealt them. they have some contradictions in their theory of the case but this is a criminal defense team trying to defend donald trump. good luck with that. it s going to look pretty messy. judge merchan said at the outset that he likes for the jury to get both summations on one day i felt like h
of today s closing arguments in trump s criminal trial, but do not go anywhere. our coverage continues with the last word and lawrence o donnell who spent all day today in court and has the back pain to prove it. good evening, my friend. i was working on my posture for most of the day. but look, rachel, two full reporters notebooks and a day. i ve never filled up to before, certainly not in a courtroom day. it went longer than any of us expected. longer than most of us thought was necessary, but it was one of those no stone unturned closings by the prosecution. the defense, i thought, was effective as they could be given the cards dealt them. they have some internal contradictions in their theory of the case, but really this is the criminal defense team trying to defend donald trump. good luck with that. it is going to look pretty messy. judge merchan said at the outset that it is a practice in his courtroom where he likes the jury to get both summations on one day. i was
him and said, oh my god, he did it. i just remember screaming. probably the scariest moment my entire life. it was physically painful. it was not justice. the murders took only minutes. all these years later, the shock has yet to fade. it was a stunning time. and american legal theater. you think you might know the story of the oj simpson case, but there s a lot you probably haven t heard and seen. did nicole brown simpson actually predicts her own death? what she said to us was that oj is going to kill me. and he s going to get away with it. what went on in the jury room? not guilty of the crime of murder. all the people wanted to do was go home. in a frank interview prosecutor marsha clark answers the most important question of all. how did you not convict this guy? june 12th, 1994. brentwood, california. two horrific murders that came to be defined by just three words. the oj case. everybody seen a dramatic scene in both victims had their throats/
i was somewhat surprised. usually, jose, after a six-week trial or an eight-week trial, you re going to have jurors wanting to pour through the evidence, look at the exhibits, have detailed discussions, go over the legal instructions that were provided by the judge, but i think the speed with which this jury returned its verdict is a testament to just how overwhelming the circumstantial evidence was. you know, when you heard the jurors say, you know, we took a straw vote, which is not unusual. often when juries return to begin their deliberations, they ll take a preliminary vote to sort of, you know, read the room, so to speak. and the two jurors that initially were inclined to vote not guilty, those must have been some really soft not guilty, you know, preliminary votes, because the fact that within about an hour, all 12 jurors were on the same page that the evidence had proved guilt beyond a reasonable