The judge stated that a court clerk made “foolish and fleeting” statements during Mr. Murdaugh’s trial, but they had no bearing on the jury’s conviction that he murdered his wife and kid.
Alex Murdaugh, the former South Carolina lawyer convicted of murdering his wife and children, was denied a second trial on Monday after arguing that a court clerk inappropriately influenced the jurors in his case.
The court stated that the clerk, Rebecca Hill, made “fleeting and foolish” comments, but Mr. Murdaugh, 55, did not demonstrate that they were sufficient to influence the jury’s judgment in March 2023. As a result, the judge concluded that Mr. Murdaugh did not fulfill the requirements to have his conviction and life sentence overturned.
Nonetheless, after hearing testimony from Ms. Hill, all 12 jurors in the murder trial, and other witnesses, the judge, Jean Toal, reprimanded the court clerk. She said that Ms. Hill was “attracted by the siren call of celebrity” and wished for Mr. Murdaugh’s conviction in order to sell a book about the trial.
Ms. Hill’s testimony in Columbia, South Carolina, on Monday was also deemed “not completely credible” by Judge Toal, a former chief judge of the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Mr. Murdaugh lawyers promised to appeal, saying the session provided significant testimony for their future efforts to secure a new trial. They expressed optimism that the state’s appeals courts would interpret the legislation differently and not compel them to demonstrate that Ms. Hill’s statements were prejudiced.
Mr. Murdaugh lawyers believe that Ms. Hill made statements to the jurors throughout the trial that might have influenced their decisions. A state police agency is looking into the claims, which include Ms. Hill telling jurors not to be “fooled” by Mr. Murdaugh argument, having private talks with a juror, and telling jurors before they began deliberating that “this shouldn’t take us long.”
Ms. Hill has not been prosecuted, and she disputed several of the most severe charges during her testimony, which was given after each jury took the stand.
Ms. Hill, according to one jury, advised jurors “to watch him closely,” referring to Mr. Murdaugh. The juror, known only as “Juror Z,” stated that the statements affected her decision to find Mr. Murdaugh guilty.
“To me, it felt like she made it seem like he was already guilty,” the juror testified.
However, nine other jurors who testified on Monday stated that they had no communication with Ms. Hill regarding the issue during the trial and that she had no effect on their judgment.
Two jurors said that while they had heard a few comments about the case from Ms. Hill, they had not been swayed by them.
One of the jurors, “Juror P,” stated that on the day Mr. Murdaugh testified, Ms. Hill instructed him to “watch his body language.” Another juror, “Juror X,” who testified on Friday due to a scheduling difficulty, allegedly stated that Ms. Hill informed jurors that it was unusual for a defendant to testify in his own defense.
When Ms. Hill entered the witness room on Monday afternoon, she was grilled by both Mr. Murdaugh counsel, Dick Harpootlian, and Judge Toal.
During her hour and 15 minutes of testimony, Ms. Hill vehemently denied speaking with jurors about the case’s merits.
Ms. Hill said that during Mr. Murdaugh’s trial, in front of several jurors, she spoke to a bailiff about Mr. Murdaugh’s potential testimony and that she remembered encouraging the jurors to pay attention and that it was “a big day.” She also stated that she had a personal intuition regarding Mr. Murdaugh’s culpability, which she did not discuss with other jurors.
Ms. Hill’s lawyers issued a statement on Monday saying they appreciated the judge’s decision. “We agree with Justice Toal’s finding that the Colleton County jurors selected for this very complicated and lengthy trial were consummate professionals and operated within the instructions of the court,” stated Justin Bamberg and Will Lewis, the attorneys for the defendants.
Ms. Hill was a regular at the courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, throughout Mr. Murdaugh’s murder trial, which lasted from January to March 2023. She eventually authored a book on the trial, which she claims earned her and her collaborator almost $100,000. She recently admitted to plagiarizing parts of the book’s preface from a draft of a BBC report.
On Monday, she stated that several of the book’s controversial parts were fictitious, including her claim of locking eyes with a jury during the trial and understanding they both felt Mr. Murdaugh was guilty. She said the inaccurate reports were the consequence of her adopting a “poetic license.”
When Judge Toal questioned Ms. Hill on the stand on Monday, he focused on her credibility. Judge Toal questioned Ms. Hill about material that appeared to contradict her account.
Mr. Harpootlian accused Ms. Hill of desiring a guilty decision because she felt a conviction would increase her book sales. Ms. Hill rejected the claim, despite Rhonda McElveen, a clerk from another county who assisted Ms. Hill throughout the murder trial, testifying that Ms. Hill had informed her so.
Ms. McElveen claimed she heard Ms. Hill advise people in the courthouse not to be misled by Mr. Murdaugh’s case, but she did not hear her say it to any jurors.
Under questioning from Creighton Waters of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, who was the lead prosecutor in the murder trial, Ms. McElveen admitted that she never reported any of Ms. Hill’s actions to the trial judge because she had no serious concerns about Ms. Hill’s conduct.
Earlier on Monday, Judge Toal reported a snag in the proceedings, stating that some jurors waiting to speak had used their iPhones to see Juror Z talk about Ms. Hill affecting her decision. The jurors’ phones were meant to be taken away before the hearing began.
“I am very unhappy about it,” the judge stated.
The allegations against Ms. Hill, which Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyers first raised in September, are the latest twist in the tragic story of the Murdaugh murders, a crime that has horrified and fascinated observers across the country since June 2021, when Mr. Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and their younger son, Paul, were shot to death.
Mr. Murdaugh has consistently maintained his innocence. However, a critical video produced during his trial indicated that he was at the family’s dog kennels with his wife and kid just before their deaths, contradicting his assertion that he was not present at the time. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching the guilty verdicts, which Ms. Hill read out.
Mr. Murdaugh had been taking millions of dollars from customers and legal partners for years prior to the killings. Prosecutors said in the murder trial that he carried out the deaths in an odd, unsuccessful attempt to generate sympathy and prevent his legal company from investigating his money.
Though he is contesting his murder convictions, Mr. Murdaugh has acknowledged to stealing large sums of money over time. In November, he pled guilty to a number of financial offenses and was sentenced to 27 more years in jail.
Lawyers from the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office who prosecuted the case stated in court filings that the allegations against Ms. Hill were “unfounded and not credible.” Even if Ms. Hill did make offensive remarks, the state lawyers contended, they were insufficient to sway the jurors’ conclusion.
Mr. Murdaugh, who has been disbarred, is a fourth-generation lawyer whose family had significant power in South Carolina’s Lowcountry legal community. His father, grandpa, and great-grandfather had all commanded prosecutor’s offices in the region for more than 80 years, and the family had also run a legal practice in the small town of Hampton.
