Most Foul: Disbarred South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh made one last claim of innocence moments before he was sentenced yesterday to two life terms in prison for the murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul. “I respect this court, but I’m innocent. I would never under any circumstances hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never under any circumstances hurt my son, Paw Paw.”

  The theory of the prosecution was that Murdaugh killed his wife and son with the twisted motive of distracting from the investigation of his financial crimes in which he stole millions from his clients and law firm. Murdaugh admitted that he had lied to clients, the cops, and investigators. Jurors thought he lied to them too, one of them saying later that he was a good liar, but not good enough.

  This trial had a community intimacy. Murdaugh had tried cases in front of the same judge who presided over his murder trial. A picture of his grandfather was removed from the back of the court in the interests of a fair trial. 

  To Murdaugh’s denial Judge Clifton Newman replied, “It might not have been you. It might have been the monster you’ve become when you take fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty opioid pills. Maybe you become another person.” 

 Newman said, “I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the nighttime when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you, I’m sure.”

  Murdaugh answered, “All day and every night.”

The War Room: Ukrainian troops trying to hold the city of  Bakhmut now are nearly encircled, facing Russians on three sides, the military said today. They have beaten multiple attacks in what has been described as a yard-by-yard battle for the roads that are the lifelines of supply for the defenders.

  The fight for Bakhmut has lasted seven months.

Woke Wars: The Dallas News fired their education reporter for addressing Mayor Eric Johnson in a tweet as “Bruh.”

   The mayor is Black and former reporter Meghan Mangrum is White. She wrote in response to Johnson’s complaint that local media had “no interest” in reporting good news:

  “Bruh, national news is always going to chase the trend. Cultivate relationships with quality local news partnerships.” 

 Mangrum’s executive editor asked her if she would have used that term “bruh” if the if the mayor had been White. “I told her I would have used the word “bruh,” in any context,” Mangrum told The Washington Post. “I told her I was shocked that anyone would perceive it as being racially charged.”

  She said, “I’m a millennial. That’s a term I use all the time.” Now she’s an unemployed millennial.

So Sue ‘Em: US News & World Report is fighting back against the law schools that have stopped cooperating with the magazine’s rating system. The publication is accusing the schools of trying to avoid accountability on admissions and outcomes for students in advance of a possible Supreme Court decision that would end affirmative action.  

  Last fall, Harvard, Yale,  and some other elite law schools said they would no longer take part in the rankings, claiming that the influential list was an engine of inequality.

  Hitting back, US News executive chairman and chief executive Eric Gertler wrote in the Wall Street Journal that, “Some law deans are already exploring ways to sidestep any restrictive ruling by reducing their emphasis on test scores and grades — criteria used in our rankings.” 

  The objections by the universities involve a bunch of measurements used in the rankings including student debt, emphasis on grades and test scores, merit aid, need-based aid, and more. They say the ratings skew the picture and pushing students to enroll for the wrong reasons while encouraging the schools to game the rating system. 

The Obit Page: Tom Sizemore, the actor who brought toughness and intensity to military roles in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Blackhawk Down” yet led a life shadowed by drugs and the law has died at 61. He had been in a coma after a stroke and brain aneurism and his death was expected. 

  He was a successful actor with a troubled life. Over the years he used heroin, crystal meth and cocaine. He got sober many times. In 2003, he was convicted of physically abusing his former girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss, who in the 1990s was known as the Hollywood Madam running a prostitution ring for the rich.

  Sizemore played a lot of cops, soldiers, and tough guys, but his most noted role was as Sgt. Mike Horvath in the 1998 “Saving Private Ryan” in which Army Rangers were sent into Normandy to pull out a soldier whose three brothers had already been killed in combat. In an eloquent speech near the end of the film Sizemore’s character says to Miller, “Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this. That’s what I was thinking, sir. Like you said, Captain, we do that, we all earn the right to go home.”

The Spin Rack:  The NY Times reports that North Carolina has had a 37 percent jump in abortions performed in the state since surrounding states have made the procedure illegal. — Thousands of people remain stranded in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains as nearly historic amounts of snow continue to block the roads and driveways. — The Republican party in Texas is considering a censure of Rep. Tony Gonzales who voted in favor of new  gun safety laws after the Uvalde school shooting that took place in his district.

Below the Fold: The tabloids report that Kellyanne Conway, the longtime advisor to Donald Trump, and her politically liberal husband George Conway, a longtime tormentor of the former president, have decided to divorce after 22 years of marriage.

  Now, if only the whole country could get a divorce from Kellyanne.

-30-