COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WSAV) – Alex Murdaugh’s legal team says he deserves a new trial.

They took the first step in the process Thursday, filing paperwork in court.

But what happens next – and what is the appeal based on?

“We hoped to get a jury that could ignore the noise and focus on the murder and we ended up trying a case they could have seen on Netflix,” said Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s attorney on March 5.

The defense made its feelings clear after Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison. They were ready to try it all over again.

Now, the official notice of appeal has been filed with the South Carolina Supreme Court.

Murdaugh’s attorneys will now get every transcript from the six weeks of testimony to review so they can construct the best possible strategy and reasons for appeal for their client.

“Defense has to request a transcript of record which obviously in a six-week trial will take some time to produce,” explains USC professor and lawyer Joe McCulloch. “Then they are allowed some period of time for reflection as they begin to construct the many points that are significant errors committed by the prosecution, by the court in rulings. So we are looking at a year, year and a half in all likelihood this thing is considered by the Supreme Court.”

“That is a typical strategy I call it a smokescreen. in this case an eclipse,” said John Meadors of the SC Attorney General’s Office.

Meadors was one of the prosecutors in this case for the South Carolina Attorney General’s office. He says the jury made the right decision, and the justices will agree with them.

“Alex, through his defense council, put everyone on trial,” says Meadors. “Blamed everyone else. First blamed someone from the boat wreck, and tried to blame a worker there. Tried to blame SLED and David Owens. Everybody else. Blamed us during the trial.”

“It is a notice of intent to appeal. It’s a requirement,” explains McCulloch. “You want to cover all the bases but you only want to cover the bases that have a significant likelihood of success.”

McCulloch has been part of appeals as both prosecutor and defense.

He says both prosecutors and Murdaugh’s lawyers will interview jurors and pour over every moment of testimony to make sure they make the best argument possible. That argument will start with the judge allowing all the financial crimes evidence and testimony into this murder trial.

“You can’t use it to demonize the defendant you can use it to show motive,” says McCulloch. “A common scheme and certain enunciated reasons in the rule You can’t just put it in there to show this is a really bad person and bad people do bad things.”

But another topic expected to be included is the jury’s brief deliberation. Twenty-eight days of testimony, but deliberations lasted less than three hours in all.

“That could be an issue. A six-week trial with the assertion of some of these jurors who have spoken publicly that a decision was made in essentially 45 minutes,” said McCulloch.

Before an appeal is heard, Murdaugh is expected to be back in a South Carolina courtroom soon to face his 99 financial crime charges. He also has an Aug. 14 date for the civil case filed by Mallory Beach’s family against him and Parker’s stores.