Born in Haralson County, Georgia, on March 31, 1927, Murphy was in the United States Navy towards the end of World War II, from 1945 to 1946.
He was an assistant state solicitor general of the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit in 1956.
He was a Superior Court judge for the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit, Georgia from 1971 to 1977.
[3] On July 7, 1977, Murphy was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia vacated by James Clinkscales Hill.
[3] In 2014, the Alabama State University board of trustees voted to name its school of graduate studies after Murphy, in honor of his ruling in the civil rights case Knight v.