Why did Alex Murdaugh escape the death penalty? Perhaps it's because he's white and rich.

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

47% :Newman referenced this fact when he said Friday, "As I sit here in this courtroom and look around at the many portraits of judges and other court officials, and reflect on the fact that over the past century, your family, including you, have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom, and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct."
46% : His silence drove home the continuing legacy of racial and class privilege that haunts capital punishment in his state and elsewhere.
44% :From beginning to end, his case put opponents of capital punishment in a bind.
43% : And should death penalty opponents applaud his decision, even if it reinforces class and race privilege?When Wilson announced in December that he would not seek the death penalty in Murdaugh's case, he offered little by way of explanation: "After carefully reviewing this case and all the surrounding facts, we have decided to seek life without parole for Alex Murdaugh."
42% : The judge went on the explain that he was not questioning "the decision of the state not to pursue the death penalty."
42% : Mercy for justice: Why Missouri should stop nation's first execution of transgender womanArsenal of execution methods: Return of firing squads shows death penalty and its 'machinery' are grinding to a haltHowever, after the sentence was handed down, Wilson was more forthcoming.
41% : The Post and Courier of Charleston reported that three members of the Murdaugh family who served as top prosecutors in the county where Alex Murdaugh was tried had "sought the death penalty against more than 30 defendants during their 86-year reign."
41% : It is a stark reminder that the kind of scrupulousness the prosecution claims it used in deciding not to seek the death penalty for Murdaugh is all too rare in capital prosecutions.
40% : According to The New York Times, "prosecuting the case would have been significantly more costly if his team had pursued the death penalty, and he noted that a death sentence would have been unlikely to lead to an execution any time soon, if ever.
24% : So why didn't South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is not known as an opponent of capital punishment, seek the death penalty in Murdaugh's case?

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