HAMPTON COUNTY, S.C. (WSAV) — Alex Murdaugh will face a new round of questioning, this time connected to the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach in 2019.

A judge ruled that the Department of Corrections has to make Murdaugh available for a deposition in the civil lawsuit filed by the Beach family. That means lawyers from both sides will get to ask the convicted murderer questions about the crash and his role in an alleged attempted cover-up to protect his son Paul, who was drunk and driving the boat that night.

Though Murdaugh is required to appear, he is not obligated to answer questions.

“They can drag you in, they can make you sit for that deposition, but they can’t make you answer,” trial attorney Rachel Kugel told NewsNation, explaining that Murdaugh is allowed to plead the fifth for any question his lawyer deems is “incriminating.”

No time has been set for that deposition. The trial is supposed to begin on Aug. 13.

Murdaugh allegedly attempted to get the passengers aboard the boat that night to hide the fact Paul was driving the boat.

Video in several documentaries shows Alex walking room to room in the hospital that night to talk to all the passengers. Several also said in depositions that Alex tried to bring into question if Paul was driving and instead, that his friend Connor Cook may have been behind the wheel.

Paul was charged after the crash with two counts of boating under the influence causing severe bodily injury and death. Those charges were dropped after he was murdered in June of 2021.

Alex was convicted of murdering Paul and Alex’s wife, Maggie, by a Colleton County jury in March of 2023.