CLEVELAND — It was a murder trial that captivated the country, but did you know the judge in the Alex Murdaugh case has ties to Northeast Ohio?
Judge Clifton Newman, the 1976 CSU Law School graduate who presided over the recent high-profile trial in South Carolina, will return to Cleveland State University later this month as a guest speaker.
The event with Judge Newman, which is free to the general public, will be held at the Cleveland State University College of Law’s Moot Court Room at noon on Tuesday, March 28.
You can watch video from March 3 as Judge Newman presides over sentencing in the Murdaugh case below:
“We are pleased to welcome our alumnus Judge Newman back to our law school, and proud that CSU Law was the beginning of his very distinguished career,” said CSU LAW Dean, Lee Fisher.
Judge Newman, who was born in South Carolina, is also among those being inducted into the CSU Law School Hall of Fame this November.
“Judge Newman began practicing law in Cleveland before returning to South Carolina in 1982 to start a private law practice,” according to details from Cleveland State University. “He served as a defense attorney, a civil practitioner and a prosecutor before 2000, when the state General Assembly elected him to serve as a Circuit Court Judge.”
It was also at CSU where he met his wife, Patricia, and served as President of the Student Government Association.
“He served 23 years as a Circuit Court Judge, and in 2021 the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court appointed Judge Newman to handle the criminal matters involving Murdaugh, who is part of a South Carolina legal dynasty that stretches back 100 years,” according to CSU.