Kolb & Murphy Attorneys at Law, LLC

Attorneys

History

TIMOTHY WARD MURPHY

Timothy Ward Murphy entered private practice in Sumter, South Carolina in 2007 after his retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps. Mr. Murphy also serves as an assistant public defender in Sumter County, where he has successfully represented individuals accused of numerous crimes, including murder, armed robbery, sexual assault and burglary.

Mr. Murphy is a 1986 graduate of Duquesne University School of Law (JD) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A native of Pittsburgh, he also has BA, cum laude (1980) and MA (1984) degrees in Political Science from Duquesne University. He is admitted to the Supreme Court of the State of South Carolina, the US District Court, District of South Carolina, the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (inactive), the US Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the US Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals and the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

After graduation from law school, Mr. Murphy was employed as the Law Clerk for the Circuit Court for Allegany County in Cumberland Maryland. After entering the US Air Force in 1987, he served as a base medical-legal advisor, a criminal defense counsel, a circuit trial counsel (military prosecutor), an associate professor, a staff judge advocate (senior supervising attorney) the Chief Appellate Defense Counsel for the Air Force, and the Chief of Civilian Employment Law for the Air Staff. Mr. Murphy was stationed at Royal Air Force Greenham Common in the United Kingdom, Travis AFB in California, the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, Dover AFB in Delaware and the Pentagon.

He moved to Sumter in 2004 when he was assigned to Shaw AFB as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for Headquarters 9th Air Force and United States Central Command Air Forces. He served three deployments to Southwest Asia between 2004 to 2006 as the Staff Judge Advocate of the Combined Air Operations Center supporting air combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During his military career, Mr. Murphy prosecuted or defended hundreds of courts-martial at trial and on appeal, including cases under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for murder, rape, robbery, child sexual abuse, assault, drug distribution and drug use. Mr. Murphy was the military trial prosecutor in United States v. Scheffer, a case in which the US Supreme Court determined on appeal whether excluding polygraph evidence helpful to a defendant was constitutional. As a trial defense counsel, Mr. Murphy was cited by his superiors as the top-ranked Air Force defense attorney in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Murphy has lectured on trial advocacy, homeland security law and employment law at various military educational institutions, authored articles on military justice and international relations, edited and co-authored a legal textbook, and authored eight published Civil Law Opinions of the Air Force Judge Advocate General. He was named the United States Air Force Academy Outstanding Educator in Law for the 1996-1997 academic year.

Mr. Murphy is married to the former Jody Henderson of Falconer, New York. They have two sons, Sean and Brendan, who are students at the University of South Carolina.  They are members of Our Lady of the Skies Catholic Community on Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.