Killer attorney Alex Murdaugh denied new trial by judge despite ‘jury tampering’ claims at hearing
ALEX Murdaugh has been denied a new trial after a judge found a county clerk’s actions did not impact the jury’s decision to find him guilty of double murder.
Murdaugh, 55, was in court on Monday as his team pushed for a retrial in his conviction for the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
The hearing came after Murdaugh’s attorneys accused Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of tampering with the jury during his trial in early 2023.
His attorneys claimed that Hill pressured jurors into finding Murdaugh guilty in order to benefit her book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, which revolved around the case and trial.
The jury in Murdaugh’s double-murder trial deliberated for about three hours before returning a guilty verdict last March.
Only Juror Z testified that Hill’s comments to the jury influenced her decision to convict the disgraced attorney.
Juror Z said in written testimony that Hill told the jury to “watch him closely” and “look at his actions and movements” immediately before Murdaugh took the stand.
Two other jurors said they heard Hill make comments about the trial when Murdaugh took the stand to testify.
However, they said her statements did not influence their decision to convict Murdaugh.
Nine other jurors denied hearing any comments from the court clerk.
Hill took the stand on Monday and denied tampering with the jury for financial gain or any other reason.
“I did not have a conversation with any juror about any topic related to this case,” Hill said.
Judge Jean Toal said Hill had made “fleeting and foolish comments” to jurors but that those comments did not affect the verdict.
“I simply do not believe that our South Carolina Supreme Court requires a new trial in a very lengthy trial on the strength of some fleeting and foolish comments by a publicity-seeking clerk of court,” Toal said.
Toal determined that Hill was “not completely credible as a witness” and was “lured by the siren call of celebrity,” but her actions did not influence the jurors.
Murdaugh’s lawyers said after the judge’s ruling that they plan to appeal the decision.
‘NOT THE TRIAL OF MS. HILL’
Toal had previously set strict guidelines for the upcoming hearing on whether Murdaugh should get a new trial.
She told the court that his lawyers needed to prove that Hill explicitly told the jury not to believe his testimony, as well as pressured them into the guilty verdict and caused prejudice against Murdaugh.
The judge said at a January 16 hearing that she would not ask about some of the long list of accusations against the court clerk.
“I’m very, very reluctant to turn this hearing about juror contact into a wholesale exploration about every piece of conduct by the clerk alleged to have been improper on its own, indicative of her characteristics or personality, or anything of that nature,” the judge said.
“This is not the trial of Ms. Hill,” she later added.
Murdaugh’s attorneys had alleged that Hill pressured jurors into finding the former lawyer guilty in order to boost sales of her book.
The clerk was also accused of misusing public funds as well as plagiarizing parts of her book.
While police are investigating the matter, she has not been charged with any crime.
‘NOT TO BE FOOLED’
Hill had denied all allegations by Murdaugh’s lawyers, saying, “I did not tell the jury ‘not to be fooled’ by evidence presented by Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys.
“I did not instruct the jury to ‘watch him closely.’
“I did not instruct the jury to ‘look at his actions.’ I did not instruct the jury to ‘look at his movements.’”
The sale of her book was halted after her co-author, Neil Gordon, accused her of stealing work from a BBC reporter.
Gordon said he was shocked after viewing 2,000 of Hill’s emails that were made public in December.
He claimed that the BBC reporter accidentally sent a draft of her article to Hill as a mistake.
“I have an editor named Rebecca, and I confused the addresses when I sent it,” the BBC journalist told Hill.
Hill originally told the journalist she was going to delete the article, saying, “I will do that, but what a well-written article. Really good!!!”
However, the clerk instead forwarded the article to her personal email as well as her publisher, referring to it as “something a friend of mine is writing,” according to her released emails.
Hill’s attorney said that she was “deeply remorseful” about the plagiarism.
“The pressures of developing additional content under tight time deadlines resulted in Ms. Hill taking material written by BBC reporter Holly Honderich and submitting it to her co-author Neil Gordon as if it were her own words,” they wrote in a statement.
“Ms. Hill accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate lapse in judgment and has personally reached out to Ms. Honderich to express her sincere apologies.”
THE MURDAUGH MURDERS
On June 7, 2021, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul, 22, were found shot to death at their hunting lodge in Colleton County, near Charleston.
Police found cellphone video that linked Alex to the crime and he was indicted on murder charges in July 2022.
At the time, Murdaugh was already in jail for insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report.
The false police report came from Murdaugh’s claims that he was shot after his vehicle broke down in September 2021.
The lawyer had actually arranged for someone to kill him, so his older son, Buster, would be able to cash in on his $10 million life insurance policy, cops said.
He was arrested that same month.
Murdaugh faced additional charges tied to his time as an attorney, including breach of trust with fraudulent intent, obtaining signature or property by pretenses, money laundering, computer crimes, and forgery.
The state attorney general’s office said, “Altogether, Murdaugh is charged with respect to alleged schemes to defraud victims and thereafter launder nearly $4.9 million.”
Following the indictment, he was found guilty of murdering his wife and son and was handed two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
On May 24, 2023, he was indicted on 22 new counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.
The indictment stated he “conspired with a personal injury attorney in Beaufort to defraud the estate of Murdaugh’s former housekeeper and Murdaugh’s homeowner’s insurance carriers,” among other victims.
In November 2023, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his financial misconduct.
“I agree that I wrongly took all of that money, your honor, and did all of those crimes,” Murdaugh said, according to AP.
“I am guilty.”