Dateline NBC - Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions thrown out. A new search for Kristin Smart. Plus, AI and murder.

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

In South Carolina, Supreme Court judges make a pivotal ruling in the case of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced lawyer convicted of murdering his wife and son. In California, police search for the remains of Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old college student killed in 1996, in the backyard of her killer's mother. In Dateline Round Up, emotions run high at the sentencing of Dale Warner, the Michigan man convicted of killing his wife Dee and concealing her body in a fertilizer tank.  Plus, NBC News Senior Legal Correspondent Laura Jarrett discusses AI chatbots under fire in the courtroom.   Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We got a lot to get to today. It's the start of another workday for the Dateline team. She thinks we're going to get the interview. Our producers are swapping tips and story ideas. If they find a body, that would be huge. She bought a plane ticket, but she never actually boarded the plane. They would have indicted her earlier if they had more. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly.

I'm Andrea Canning. It's May 14th, and here's what's on our docket. Josh Mankowitz is here to discuss the latest in the Christmas and smart case, and why almost 30 years after her murder, police are still digging up backyards in Southern California. They found some signs that a body had been buried there. In Dateline Roundup, an update on the trial of the dentist's son accused of murdering a restaurant hostess, and emotional testimony at the sentencing of Dale Warner, the Michigan man convicted of murdering his wife Dee and concealing her body in a fertilizer tank. My mom's name, Dee Hardy, will live in our hearts in our community for an

eternity, but Dale Warner's name will be gone forever. Plus, could an AI chatbot ever be held accountable for helping plan a murder? NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett tells us about a groundbreaking lawsuit in Florida. If somebody is asking Chad GPT, how do you dispose of a body? Is that for research or is that for murder? But before all that, breaking news out of South Carolina, Alec Murdoch is no longer a convicted murderer. Alec Murdoch's six-week double murder trial was labeled the trial of the century, with true crime tourists lining up outside the Colleton County courthouse to get a seat inside.

We were there, too, as secrets about this once prominent lawyer's life spilled into view. His drug addiction, financial crimes, troubled marriage. Prosecutor said all of that drove Murdoch to murder his wife and son. In March, 23, a jury found Murdoch guilty, and he was. sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison. But if you thought that would be the last you'd hear from Alec Murdoch, you'd be wrong. He quickly filed an appeal arguing that he did not get a fair trial, and he pointed the finger at someone who was in the courtroom every day. Court clerk Becky Hill. His appeal made it all the way to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

In February, at a high-stakes hearing, his attorneys made their case for a new trial to the five Supreme Court justices. No matter how heinous, no matter how overwhelming the evidence, you're still entitled to a fair trial. On Wednesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court announced a game-changing decision. They overturned his conviction. Alec Murdoch will be getting a new trial. Craig Melvin, co-anchor of NBC's Today Show and Dateline producer Carol Gable, are here now to fill us in.

Craig and Carol, welcome to the show. And Craig especially, this is a nice treat. Oh, Andrew, you're very kind. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And we always love having Carol, of course. So let's dive right in, guys. If you follow true crime or live in South Carolina, you know this case well.

But for anyone who doesn't, just give us a recap. Alec Murdoch, lawyer of South Carolina, very prominent. For folks who may not know this, I'm from South Carolina. I lived there until I was 28 years old. I knew who Alec Murdoch was, but he was a low country lawyer who had made a lot of money. and wielded a great deal of influence in the Palmetto state. And then in June of 2021, he calls 911 to report that his wife and his younger son, Paul, had both been shot and killed outside.

They're sprawling home. And he told investigators that he found the bodies when he'd come back from visiting his mother, who at the time had Alzheimer's. But investigators didn't buy it. Prosecutors didn't buy it. Ultimately, jurors didn't buy it either. They use cell phone video vehicle data. They use witness testimony to ultimately place Alec Murdoch at the scene.

And so he ended up being convicted of killing his wife and son in March of 2023. So Murdoch filed an appeal right away and his lawyers started raising questions about what happened behind the scenes of the trial itself. Notably, the conduct of former court clerk Becky Hill. She really kind of dropped a grenade in the middle of all of this, right guys? Well, she did. She was later accused by the former Chief Justice of South Carolina of yielding to the siren call of celebrity because she was the it girl at the trial in the sense that so many people wanted to see that trial. She gave people seats, made sure they could get in. She had media from around the world who were pestering her for, you know, favors and attention.

And, you know, I think it was a very heady experience. And Craig, Becky wrote a book that also really put her in the spotlight. Behind the doors of justice. That was the title of the book. Behind the doors of justice, the Murdoch Murdoch murders. It was a tell-all about the court proceedings. and if the Murdoch trial was a circus, Andrea, you could make the argument that Becky, Becky Hill may have been the ringmaster.

I mean, anybody who spent any time there in the courtroom or outside the courthouse, I mean, yeah, she would hold court. I mean, it was very much her, it was her courtroom. Yeah. How did Becky's actions violate Murdoch's right to a fair trial? Well, you know, a lot of it centers on stray comments that Becky made that some jurors heard. Little stray things that later those jurors said, you know, made them feel like that she wanted a certain outcome. Craig, she made a comment to the jurors as they began deliberations?

Andrew, she did. And it was this particular comment, quote, this shouldn't take us long, implying that it was obvious that, you know, like Murdoch was guilty. So the defense argued that those remarks carried weight, and they interfered with the jury's ability to deliberate independently. And based on the judge's decision, it would appear as if the high court of the Palmytoe state agreed. And the justices said, you know, the prosecutors, even Murdoch's defense team skillfully presented their cases. to the jury, but their efforts were in vain, you know, because court clerk Becky Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdoch his right to a fair trial by an

impartial jury. Have we heard anything from Becky? I called Becky, and she didn't call me back. At a hearing on this issue in 2024, she denied trying to influence the jury. So the big question is, what happens next? Murdoch isn't getting out of prison anytime soon. He's serving a 40-year sentence after pleading guilty in federal court to stealing millions from clients along with a more than 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to financial crimes in state court. We should note that another reason his defense argued Marduk didn't get a fair trial is that the prosecution was allowed to refer to those financial crimes at his murder trial. In their decision today, the Supreme Court did not include the financial crimes issue as a reason for a new trial. because they said essentially Becky Hill's behavior was enough. And the interesting fact as we move forward toward a possible retrial is that the financial crimes were key for the prosecution's case as the motive for the murders.

It was a crucial piece. And I mean, everybody wants to know why. And the financial crime seemed to explain that and lay out the why. Craig, you talked to the Attorney General Alan Wilson and he said publicly that he, he said publicly that he, disagreed with the court's decision and vowed to aggressively seek to retry murder as soon as possible. No one is above the law. And he said, as always, we will continue to fight for justice. Right. And when they say we're going to do this quickly, now we're talking about court and legalese and how long, how fast is quickly. But, you know, Alan Wilson is running for governor.

And there is also an election going on for a new attorney general. How do you? you think that's going to figure into this? I think if, you know, you look back at that news conference that happened right after the trial and the Attorney General of South Carolina was very much front and center and, you know, patting his prosecutors on the back and he showed up at the trial and sat at the table. And that's fairly uncommon for the Attorney General. This was a victory that helped define. his term as AG.

So it's a source of pride. You know, like it's... Now all of a sudden you have the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision, by the way. Unanimous, yeah, five to zero. Yeah, you've got the high court saying, well, wait a minute, not so fast. So, yes, I think that they want to retry it.

I think they want to retry it for probably a variety of reasons. Speaking of Alec, any word from him or his team about this? This was not a surprise for Murdoch's team. You know, Dick and Jim have been fairly confident over the last few months since their hearing at the Supreme Court that this would be the decision. By the way, they still, Andrea, they still maintain their client's innocence. It's not just that the cards were stacked against them and Beckett. He Hill had her thumb on the scales of justice. They still maintained he did not do it.

And that was, if you recall, in their closing arguments, they basically said, our client's not a good guy. He's a bad guy. He stole $12 million from the least among us. He's been doing it for years. He developed this addiction. He's a bad dude. But he's not that bad.

He's not a killer. Yeah. I do wonder if there is a retrial. if he actually takes the stand. Yeah, maybe not. And I got the sense during my interviews over the course of the trial and before with his attorneys, I got the sense that they had their druthers.

He probably would not have testified in the first trial. And so you've got to wonder if they learned from that. Craig, you have covered this case extensively for Dateline and got some exclusive interviews in the past. Now you've got some new interviews for Dateline and The Today Show. Yes. We are going to talk exclusively to Alec Murdoch's legal team. And we're also going to talk to the Attorney General as well to sort of help understand the state's thinking.

So that's on the Today Show this morning and Dateline Friday night. It's the best combination, right? Yep. And Dateline will be Friday, 9-8 Central and NBC or on Peacock the next day. Craig and Carol, thank you so much for bringing us your perspective on all this because you two have been covering this for such a long time. We're grateful that you came on today. Thank you. I'm grateful that Carol lets me work for her. We all are, Craig.

I'm so going to remember that. Coming up, investigators in Southern California dug up a backyard last week, hoping to find the body of Kristen Smart. The college student murdered almost 30 years ago. Josh Mankowitz has the latest. Kristen Smart was just 19 years old in 1996, a freshman at California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, California. The last time anyone saw Kristen was on Memorial Day weekend

as she was leaving an off-campus party with a fellow student named Paul Flores. While campus police suggested Kristen may have run off for a weekend trip, Her friends and family knew something was wrong. We knew she wouldn't just take off. We knew she wouldn't do that. Kristen was very vocal about what she was doing or where she was going. But years passed, then decades without answers.

Kristen's parents kept their daughter's disappearance in the spotlight, while investigators continued pursuing the case, increasingly focused on Paul Flores as their prime suspect. Eventually, in 2021, prosecutors charged Paul with Kristen's murder. He was convicted in 2020. and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. But the case hasn't been closed because Kristen's body has never been found.

Then last week, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson made an announcement. A search was underway at the home belonging to Paul's mother, Susan. We arrived just before seven to serve the search warrant, and we're prepared to go as long as it takes until we either find Kristen, find evidence, and are satisfied that everything has been searched.

My colleague and friend, Josh Mankowitz, who has been covering this case for years and spent time talking to Kristen's parents and investigators for his Dateline episode, Justice for Kristen Smart, is here to tell us more. Hey, Josh. Hello. Thank you for joining us. I know you know a lot about this case. And this latest search made front page news across the country. It was all over social media. This case just continues to capture.

a lot of attention. Well, it does, and that's because it isn't really over. Although there was a criminal trial, Paul Flores was absolutely convicted in that. Her body has never been found. And the smart family, they have continued to press law enforcement for a search that would eventually turn up where their daughter is because they want to bring her home. Yeah. Gosh, understandably, what a horrible time for this family, all these decades.

Josh, remind us about the case a little bit. You talked about Paul Flores. What did police know in the early days of this? She had been in a party off campus. This was right at the end of the school year. It was around Memorial Day weekend. And Paul Flores was there. And at the end of the party, she was either passed out or close to passed out on the lawn outside this house.

Now, a bunch of people leave. He offers to walk her to her dorm, which is a very short distance away. and his story is she went to her dorm, I went to mine, that was it. But she has never seen again. Then he turns up after that with a black eye. And he's told a couple of different stories about how he got that black eye. The strong belief by law enforcement is that he either raped Kristen that night or attempted to, got a black eye in the process, and that somehow she died that night, either deliberately or as he was attempting to subdue.

her. There is just no way to know. Wow. So cadaver dogs detected human decomposition in Paul's dorm room back in the early days, but it wasn't enough to charge him with anything. However, if we fast forward to 2021, 25 years after Kristen disappeared, he is arrested. Paul is finally arrested. What changed? Why so much time passing? You know, it's not like there was some DNA hit. You know, and that's not some telltale piece of fingerprinting. But, It was a sheriff's department that really worked on this hard. It was a podcast by a guy named Christopher Lambert, who was not a journalist, was not a friend of the smart family when this began and had never investigated, I think, any criminal case before, but who sort of saw this case, saw the billboard about, have you seen Kristen Smart on the highway, and wanted to get involved. And I'm retracing missing Cal Poly student Kristen Smart's last number. steps. And that podcast ended up funneling a lot of tips to the sheriff's department, which also, in a wonderful development, was kind of conducive to receiving information from a non-traditional source like a podcast, because a lot of times law enforcement's not interested in that. Yeah. Now, when Paul Flores was arrested, his dad was also arrested and accused of

helping him conceal the body. They excavated below the dad's deck at his house. not the same house they were at this past weekend. And they found some signs that a body had been buried there. Paul was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. His dad, Rubin, was acquitted. How did Kristen's family react to the verdicts? On the one hand, I think they were elated that the person who was the only suspect, who had always been the only suspect, was finally tried and convicted.

But that did not end this journey for them. They still wanted Kristen's body and they haven't given up. All right. That brings us back to the search this past week at the home of Paul's mother, Susan Flores. At the time of the murder, she and Paul's dad, Rubin, were no longer together. And we should say, Josh, this isn't the first time her property has come under scrutiny. Investigators were there back in 1996 and didn't find anything. but in 2023, scientists working out of her neighbor's yard

said they found evidence of human decomposition along her back fence. So Josh, what brought investigators back to Susan's home this time? It does feel as if, and the sheriff sort of alluded to this in his comments the other day, that someone has told them something. I would say that there was information that was derived by what we have to deem as a a witness, not in the context of, I saw this happen. They contributed to it by information that they provided and helped. That's sort of what got them over the search warrant bar to start digging in her backyard. And they're not just digging in her backyard. They're taking soil samples and testing the

vapor coming off that soil to look for signs of human decomposition. At the press conference last week, the sheriff revealed what his investigators had found in the first few days of their search. We can't call it Kristen, but, you know, we think there's evidence to support human remains there at one time. Once again, there is the scent or the finding of human decomposition, which was in Paul Flores' dorm room, which was under Paul Flores' father's deck, and which is underground at Paul Flores' mom's house. Coincidence? Homicide investigators will tell you that's not a coincidence. incidents. Josh, we should point out that Susan has never been charged in connection with this case, and she also declined to make any comment about the search. Saturday, the sheriff's department

announced the search was over and that unfortunately they had not found Kristen's body. But you know what? It's just absolute torture for the smart family. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more, but they are absolutely committed to seeing this through. It sounds like the sheriff, isn't done either. He said his detectives will evaluate the evidence they've uncovered in the search, and his team remains committed to finding Kristen and bringing her home. Josh, thank you for joining us and bringing us your unique insight into this case and the latest developments. Thank you. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. We've got updates from the case of Lynette Hooker, the woman who went missing in the Bahamas. And Dale Warner, the man convicted of murdering his wife and hiding

her body in a fertilizer tank learns his fate. Plus, the AI chatbots accused of helping killers plan their crimes, but can the chatbots be charged with a crime? NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett breaks it down for us. Welcome back. Joining me for this week's roundup is Dateline producer Rachel White. Rachel, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me back. Okay, so Rachel, first, we are headed to Lenoa County Circuit Court in Michigan for the final chapter in a case we've been covering from the very beginning. We're talking about the murder of grandmother and entrepreneur, Dee Ann Warner, at the hands of her husband, 58-year-old Dale Warner.

Rachel, give us a quick recap. Yeah, so Dee went missing from the home she shared with her husband Dale in 2021. The couple owned several businesses together and had been married for 15 years, but by all accounts, the marriage was on the rocks. Rachel, investigators conducted extensive searches across the thousands of acres of farmland. It was a tough situation given just how large that area is. But, of course, they did not find Dee. In November 2023, Dale was arrested and charged with her murder. Then in August of 2024, investigators made a breakthrough.

That's right. So they discovered Dee's body wrapped in a tarp in a fertilizer tank on Dale's property that had been welded shut. An autopsy showed she'd been beaten and strangled. Horrible. What did prosecutors say was the reason for the murder? They argued that it was greed and that Dee had been talking about divorce and selling the trucking business and that if she did that, Dale would lose a lot of money. So he killed her. In March, a jury found Dale Warner guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Late last week, Dale appeared in court for his sentencing. Who was there, Rachel? So several of Dee's family members spoke, and they did not hold back. Dee's daughter, Raquel Bach, made it a point to refer to Dee using her maiden name, which was Hardy.

My mom's name, Dee Hardy, will live in our hearts in our community for an eternity, but Dale Warner's name will be gone forever. And Dee's sister-in-law, Shelly, told Dale the family was going to keep Dee's love of life and laughter alive in their hearts. And then she did something really dramatic. Dee knew we would fight to the end and we won. And now I'm going to remove my bracelet that I warned since Dee was missing because we got justice. Wow, that is powerful. Dee's brother Greg Hardy also gave a statement and at one point the judge had to caution him to tone it down. The barbaric act of covering up your crime by welding my sister in a cold steel tomb is beyond human.

You are a spineless piece of human debris. Mr. Ardianne asked you to confine your comments to addressing the court? I'm sorry. Did Dale speak in front of the court at all? No. So Dale's defense attorney said that he asked her to say he loved his wife and that he maintains his innocence and that he did not kill her. Okay, so what did the judge decide for Dale's punishment?

The judge sent him to 31 to 70 years, noting the fact that Dale covered up the body for so long and that that was truly heinous. All right, leaving Michigan and heading to Kentucky, Pikeville, Kentucky, it's an update on the case of Amber Spradlin, the woman who was found stabbed to death in 2023 at a dentist's house. Rachel, remind us about the case. Yeah, so Amber Spradlin was a 38-year-old restaurant hostess, and the house where she died belonged to a dentist named Dr. Michael McKinney.

There were no arrests until 2024. when the dentist's son Michael, who everyone calls M.K., was charged with her murder and multiple counts of tampering with evidence. He's pleaded not guilty. M.K.'s dad, the dentist, Dr. Michael McKinney, and a family friend, Josh Mullins, were also charged with tampering with evidence, and they've pleaded not guilty as well. The three men, Rachel, were set to go to trial this week, but there was a pretrial hearing on Monday that changed everything, right? Yeah. So prosecutors argued that the trial should be delayed. They said that they have crime lab evidence that they need more time to test. What has been taking so long to get the evidence tested? So there's a couple of reasons.

Basically, the biggest issue is there's a backlog at the state crime lab. And a large amount of the evidence in this case is forensic evidence that needs to be tested. So on Monday, a forensic scientist with the lab testified at the hearing and said that the preferred limit for testing is 10 items. And in this case, 145 items were submitted. That's a lot. What did the judge decide? So the trial's been delayed, and it's a pretty significant delay.

It's now supposed to start January 11, 2027. Okay. Lots of updates there. For our last story, Rachel, we have got a quick update on a case I was covering recently in Marsh Harbor, Bahamas. And we're talking about the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, a Michigan woman who was sailing around the world with her husband, Brian, on their sailboat. Back in April, Brian told authority. that Lynette fell off their dingy after a night out and was swept away.

The Royal Bahamas Police launched a rescue operation, but of course they did not find Lynette. Lynette's daughter Carly told me she was skeptical of Brian's story. Pardon me, feel like he's going to get away with this and walk away a free man, and I really hope that doesn't happen. Yeah, so the Bahamian police had questions too. They interviewed Brian for five days before releasing him. He, of course, has denied any wrongdoing. and said he was devastated at the loss of his wife.

Brian left the Bahamas shortly after he was released to come back to the states. What is the latest in the case now? So the Coast Guard in Fort Pierce in Florida told NBC that they are now in possession of the hooker's boat called the soulmate. Has the Coast Guard said anything, Rachel, about what they're hoping to find with the boat or why they took the boat? No, so a Coast Guard official has said that the agency can't comment, so we really don't have any additional information yet. Yeah, we know this is definitely an ongoing investigation. Thanks for the update on this story as well. Rachel, we'll definitely be watching this one too.

Thanks, Andrea. For our final story, we wanted to tell you about a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit that was just filed in a Florida federal courthouse. As AI is becoming increasingly part of our lives, and we turn to it for information and advice, this lawsuit asks whether an AI chatbot can be held responsible for murder. In April 2025, 45-year-old father of two, T. Roo Chaba was gunned down during a mass shooting on the campus of Florida State University. His alleged killer, a student by the name of Phoenix Eichner, was taken into custody and is expected to stand trial later this year.

On Sunday, T.Roo's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming not just Eichner as a defendant, but also OpenAI. The company that owns ChatGPT, alleging that one of its chatbots gave instructions to Eichner about how to carry out the shooting. Here is the family's lawyer on the Today Show this week. In this case, chat GPT became a co-conspirator and a collaborator with a shooter. This is not the first time we've heard allegations that an AI chatbot may have played a role in a murder. So we're asking NBC NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett to come on the podcast to help us understand more about AI in the courtroom. Welcome back to the show, Laura. Hey, always great to be with you. Yeah. So, Laura, You and another NBC reporter actually broke the news of this wrongful death lawsuit.

And it got a lot of attention, especially in the legal world. I think part of what people are so sort of blown away by in this is the level of engagement that a chat bot, okay? So there is no human being behind the spot is purely AI driven. And yet the level of engagement is kind of mind-blowing. Phoenix Eichner is 20 years old. and he sort of goes down the rabbit hole on ChatGPT, asking about weapons, asking about other school shootings. And on the day of the shooting, just hours before, prosecutors say he killed two people and injured several others, he's asking about loading the weapon, uploaded images of the weapon. So ChatGP knows what he's dealing with.

He's asking about how to load it. He's asking about the busiest time at the student union at FSU. He's asking about how many people have to die for the media to pay attention to it. Okay. And so it's all of those things together is what the attorneys for the family is saying is the wrong here. And so their point is at some point, a human being should have been flagged, okay? Not saying that they should have called the police. That's not the allegation in the lawsuit.

the allegation in the lawsuit is that a human being should have had an alarm bell go off because if he was talking to another person on the side of that screen, anat-a-bought, a human being would have said, do you need help? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What about OpenAI? What are they saying about this wrongful death lawsuit? So when we reached out to OpenAI about this, they said this is a terrible tragedy, but we are not responsible for this.

And that our product has been cooperating with authorities and that all, it did was provide factual responses just the way that Google would. Laura, this reminds me of another case we covered recently involving a different Florida University. Two students were stabbed to death, and investigators say their alleged killer asked chat GPT to research body disposal and other questions related to these murders. Let's take a listen to the sheriff. He searches for, can a knife penetrate a skull? Can a neighbor hear a gunshot? Can you? Can you? Can you? you bury a body in a trash bag and throw it in a dumpster? NBC News reached out to OpenAI. They told us they're doing whatever they can to support law enforcement. But what can be done with regulations, guardrails,

you know, in place maybe to prevent future violent crimes where chat GPT or other sources of AI are being brought into this? I think it's a really interesting sort of brave new world question, right? If somebody is asking Chad GPT, how do you dispose of a body? Now, is that for research or is that for murder? And at what point do you alert law enforcement, right? And is it like minority port where it's like, okay, we're going to predict that they're going to do something really bad. So we're going to tell law enforcement, like, go swarm the house right now. Like, is that like probable cause to get a search warrant? Like, I think there's so many interesting Fourth Amendment questions raised by this, too. Laura, back to the Florida mass shooting. Last month, Florida Attorney General

announced he was investigating OpenAI's role in that. Let's take a listen. If that bot were a person, they would be charged with a principle in first-degree murder. We cannot have AI bots that are advising people on how to kill others. That is wrong, and that is dangerous. Laura, what's interesting about all of this is that we're not talking about a person. We're talking about a computer. Can you hold a computer or the company that makes the computer, are responsible for crimes? That's going to be up for a jury to decide. I think at some point, that's going to get tested in the not too distant future.

The question is always in any murder case, as you know, is was it foreseeable, right? What was the intent? They're going to be able to say, of course, Chad GBT didn't intend murder, but maybe there's some sort of lower, you know, recklessness or sort of negligent homicide charge that could be brought. I think we're going to see that within a year. Laura, thank you so much for bringing us your amazing legal mind into this debate and this very interesting topic. We appreciate you coming on the show. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you. And if you want to hear more from Laura, check out her new limited podcast, which drops every Saturday this month. It's called Here's the Scoop, Supreme Court Edition. She's talking to legal experts and lawyers about the big cases in front of the Supreme Court right now and what it all means. And it's very fascinating. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline premium.

And coming up this Friday on Dateline, we just talked about the latest twist in the Alec Murdoch case today. But of course, there's a lot more to this story. After the South Carolina Supreme Court's big decision, Craig Melvin takes us back inside the investigation and brings us new interviews with those who have had a front row seat to this case from the very beginning. I mean, now we're all with your emergency. This is my wife and Tom. Watch the latest this Friday at 9-8 Central on NBC, or stream it starting Saturday on Peacock. Thanks for listening.

Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Carson Cummins, Caroline Casey, and Keani Reed. Our associate producers are Ellery Gladstone Groh and Ariya Young. Our senior producer is Liz Brown Kuriloff. Veronica Mazzaka is our digital producer. Rick Kwan is our. our sound designer. Original music by Jesse McGinty, Paul Ryan is executive producer, and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline. And that's everything from us. See you, Lou.