A South Carolina court clerk at the center of Alex Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial allegedly told a colleague that a murder conviction would be good for her book sales, defense lawyers said in court on Tuesday.
“[Prosecutor Creighton Water] told me this morning that one of the assistants that worked for Hill during the trial was told by Ms. Hill during the trial that a guilty verdict would be good for sales for the book,” Murdaugh lawyer Dick Harpootlian said of Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. “Motive: Selling books.”
The new allegation arose during a hearing to decide who will testify during an upcoming three-day evidentiary hearing to determine whether Murdaugh will be retried for the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and his son Paul.
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Murdaugh’s defense team alleges that Hill tampered with the jury during the six-week February murder trial by allegedly advising jurors not to believe his testimony and defense evidence, encouraging jurors to render a quick verdict, and engaging in private conversations with the jury foreperson. It took jurors only three hours to convict Murdaugh, who was then sentenced to two life sentences.
Defense lawyers argued in a September motion that Hill was motivated to sway the jury to “secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial.”
Harpootlian on Tuesday argued that Hill should be questioned as a “hostile witness” to ask her about her conversation with an assistant. If she denies it, the defense lawyer argued, he wants to question the assistant. The conversation, he argued, speaks to Hill’s credibility and the context of the allegations.
Former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal, who presided over the case after Judge Clifton Newman recused himself, ruled that the clerk must testify at the hearing but emphasized that this is not a “trial of Ms. Hill.” The judge added that neither attorneys in the case nor Newman will testify in the hearing, set to begin Jan. 29.
Hill has denied all allegations of jury tampering, and prosecutors argue that Murdaugh’s defense team has weak evidence to prove their argument for a new trial. Book sales for Hill’s memoir, Behind the Doors of Justice, have been halted since co-author Neil Gordon accused her of plagiarism.
Gordon said last month that he discovered the “ethical gaffe” while reviewing emails between Hill and a BBC reporter who “shared a long excerpt from an upcoming article.” In a statement to The Daily Beast, Hill’s attorneys said the clerk “is deeply remorseful regarding an allegation of plagiarism” and cited the “pressures of developing additional content under tight time deadlines” for copying material from a BBC reporter.
“Ms. Hill accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate lapse in judgment,” the statement added.
