Jim Lee Murphy is a free man.

For the first time in almost five years, Jim Murphy woke up Thursday morning in a room that was not a Burley jail cell. He was able to look out a window. Breath the air. Be free.

On Feb. 18, a Cassia County jury determined Jim Lee Murphy was not guilty of first-degree murder, ending a legal ordeal that began in March 2021, when he was arrested in connection with the death of his wife in 2014.

Now he is finally free – glad to be out of jail, glad to be able to live, and deeply worried that he still doesn’t have answers as to who killed his wife.

Jim Lee Murphy spent five years in jail for a crime he did not commit. For much of that time, he was so frustrated by the lawyers assigned to represent him by Cassia County under Idaho’s old public defense system, he decided to represent himself in court.

That changed in October 2024 when the Office of the State Public Defender took over public defense in Idaho and began helping Jim Murphy.

Once he got a chance to have his case heard in court, with the full support of the SPD, it took a jury of his peers about seven hours to set him free.

Whitney Murphy was found dead in the couple’s Cassia County home in October 2014. She had been killed by shotgun blast. A neighbor had also been shot though a basement window in a nearby home.

Jim Murphy told investigators was not home at the time of the shooting. He told investigators he did not kill his wife.

Cassia County Sheriff’s deputies eventually arrested Murphy in 2021 on a first-degree murder charge.

Cassia County assigned lawyers for Jim Murphy under the old, county-based public defense system in the State of Idaho.

For over two years, lawyers assigned to Murphy prior to the creation of the State Public Defender repeatedly pressed him to take a plea agreement in the case. Murphy was so frustrated with his legal representation he took over his own defense in 2023, opting to defend himself “pro-se” in a first-degree murder case.

Jim Murphy did not have a law degree or any legal training. But he was going to fight.

That changed on Oct. 1, 2024, when the State Public Defender took over all public defense in Idaho. The SPD reached out to Jim. Did he want help? The answer was yes.

SPD Litigation Director Doug Nelson, a seasoned defense attorney with over 30 years of experience, took over the case.

Doug was able to use the full support of the new State Public Defender office, including an investigator, to finally dig through all the evidence in the case, to listen to Jim and check out all the leads and information about what happened.

In about a year, Doug and his team were able to establish prosecutors had no evidence that linked Jim to the crime. They also established – and identified – a more likely suspect in the case. This “alternate perpetrator” defense was reviewed and approved by District Judge Barry Wood in November following a hearing earlier in the fall.

Judge Wood determined Jim Lee Murphy would be allowed to use the “alternate perpetrator” defense, saying in his order, “the alternate perpetrator evidence proffered by the defense is not mere inference or innuendo suggesting that someone else could have committed the crime in question. It is specific evidence that … (a different person) …  is responsible for the murder of Whitney.”

The evidence was so strong the prosecutor in the case said in November that if a new forensic test found no blood found on Jim Murphy’s socks, he would dismiss the case.

Earlier tests revealed no blood on any of Jim Murphy’s clothes at the time of the murder. While getting ready for trial, it was discovered the socks Jim Murphy was wearing had not been tested.

When the tests revealed there was no blood on the socks, the prosecutor instead sent an email to the judge saying he was going forward with the trial anyway after consulting with his “law enforcement partners.”

The jury trial began Feb. 3. Testimony in the case was completed by Feb. 17. Jurors began their deliberation that afternoon. By lunch time the next day, the jury acquitted Jim Murphy. Hours later, he walked out of the courthouse a free man.

This case is an example of the State Public Defender at work. Our agency is dedicated to providing legal representation meeting the highest professional standards to protect the rights of people who can’t afford counsel. That applies from misdemeanor cases to the most serious felonies.

The SPD staffs our 18 institutional offices across Idaho with trial attorneys. We contract with trial attorneys to provide robust public defense in the 26 Idaho counties without an institutional office – and for conflict attorneys in all of Idaho’s 44 counties.

The SPD has spent the last 17 months working hard to transform the old system – 44 different ways of doing a very demanding job – and consolidating that effort under a single, unifying, fair, and client-based system that values the humanity and dignity of all.

It’s been a challenge, and a success. With the support of Governor Brad Little and the Idaho Legislature, the SPD stabilized public defense in Idaho and is continually working to make the system better.

Helping a client like Jim Murphy get justice is the result of the great system put in place by the Idaho Legislature and Governor Little.