Instadocs, a new docuseries from the streaming platform, launched Saturday with Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted, a film built around the South Carolina Supreme Court’s unanimous decision earlier this month to overturn the former lawyer’s 2023 double-murder convictions.
The court granted Murdaugh a new trial after ruling that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill had engaged in jury tampering, improperly influencing jurors to bolster sales of a book she was writing about the case. The court found Hill had “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by urging jurors to watch his body language on the stand, a ruling the justices described as “shocking jury interference” conducted without the presiding judge’s knowledge.
The series features interviews with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Trial Watchers creators, and jurors including Myra Crosby, whose removal from the jury panel was central to the misconduct claims.
Executive producer Josh Tyrangiel — a veteran of Vice News Tonight — describes the project as sitting at “the intersection of urgency and finesse.” Production on the Murdaugh episode kicked off on May 18; the film was on Netflix twelve days later. Tyrangiel is frank about what makes that timeline possible: no corners cut, just no sleep. The team employed original shooting, commissioned music, full fact-checking, color grading and audio mixing — all within a fortnight. The only sacrifice, he says, was rest.
The show’s creators are careful to distance Instadocs from legacy television newsmagazines like 60 Minutes or Dateline. There are no correspondents, no anchors and no reliance on archival footage — a deliberate choice to force original reporting and fresh interviews rather than recycling existing material. Tyrangiel calls the production model a “Navy SEAL doc gig,” requiring a team hired explicitly for the capacity to work at speed without flinching.
In the days following the Supreme Court ruling, Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against Hill seeking accountability for the constitutional violations they allege she committed. His legal team has also indicated it has received new information ahead of the forthcoming retrial, with Murdaugh still serving a 27-year sentence for financial crimes stemming from $12 million he stole from clients and his law firm.
The rollout schedule for future Instadocs episodes remains deliberately unannounced. Tyrangiel’s position: when the story demands it, the unit deploys.
