The Moments that Human Justice does not Miscarry

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

— Proverbs 21:15

On March 2nd, 2023, a Colleton County jury found Richard Alexander Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife and son in June of 2021. I watched most of this trial, both sides argued hard; it was exhausting.

What a blessing it is to see a guilty person brought to justice and punished. It is right for people to be glad. The community sees justice exercised, they hear the instruction from the law that evildoers will indeed be punished. They also reap the civic benefits of a wicked man removed from the community.

This joy is not rejoicing over the fall of a personal enemy, nor despising a fellow human being. All of us are guilty before God and each of us is born with a sinful nature capable of similar crimes and worse. Those who know God and themselves will also mourn for the sinner and pray for the grace of repentance.

Full human justice would be a life for life. Yet the reality is, people do more damage than they can ever pay for in or even with their lives.

Alex Murdaugh gets to live and be provided for in prison. The fact that the death penalty was not sought is both an admission and a bow to God’s Law. It is an admission that the prosecution cannot prove without doubt that he was the murderer. It is a bow to God’s law as two or three witnesses are required to put someone to death.

Murdaugh still has a chance to repent, to believe the gospel and trust another to bear the punishment due to him from God. His wife and son do not. They may have been believers; there was testimony that his wife prayed. In either case, perfect justice will be meted out at the great white throne by God, or be found to have been fully meted out at the cross.