Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys are demanding a new trial and a federal investigation, accusing a South Carolina court clerk of tampering with the jury that convicted him of murdering his wife and son.
In a 65-page motion filed Tuesday, defense attorneys alleged Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca Hill advised jurors “not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense.”
It took a jury just three hours to find Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie, and his son Paul at their family’s hunting estate in July 2021. He was given two life sentences and also faces 100 separate, pending charges for a slew of other crimes ranging from financial fraud to drug trafficking.
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“Ms. Hill had frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson, a Court-appointed substitution for the foreperson the jury elected for itself at the request of Ms. Hill. During the trial, Ms. Hill asked jurors for their opinions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence. Ms. Hill invented a story about a Facebook post to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty,” the motion states. “Ms. Hill pressured the jurors to reach a quick verdict, telling them from the outset of their deliberations that it ‘shouldn’t take them long.’ Ms. Hill did these things to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. Ms. Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame.”
Hill, who learned of Murdaugh’s motion from The Daily Beast, denied the allegations of wrongdoing. She later added that she will soon be releasing a public statement about the allegations.
“It’s totally not true,” she said. “This is crazy.”
While an appeal is not unusual, the defense team also asked U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs for a federal investigation into the alleged violation of Murdaugh’s civil rights during the six-week trial. Defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin said in a statement to The Daily Beast that they are also requesting that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) “stand down on initiating any investigation of these allegations since they are heavily invested in maintaining Alex’s conviction.”
“The serious allegations in the petition filed today speak for themselves, but we believe they explain a number of peculiarities in the six-week trial,” the defense lawyers added. “Alex Murdaugh maintained and still maintains his innocence in the murder of Maggie and Paul, and he believes the truth will ultimately prevail.”
The defense motion alleges that during the latter half of the trial, Hill entered the jury room, spoke to the jurors often, and allegedly made statements about the ongoing case. Multiple jurors spoke with Murdaugh’s lawyers and provided details of the conversations and Hill’s alleged actions in the jury room.
“Y’all are going to hear things that will throw you all off. Don’t let this distract you or mislead you,” Hill allegedly told jurors.
Hill also allegedly had several private conversations with the jury foreperson in a private room or a single-occupancy bathroom.
A lawyer for several jurors, Joseph McCulloch, said in a statement the Tuesday motion only suggests “that the court must take a hard look at the jury deliberations” at the trial and that his clients deserve privacy as the process moves forward.
Before Murdaugh even testified in his own defense, the motion alleges, Hill told the jury not to “be fooled” and instructed them to “watch him closely” and “look at these actions.” At least one of the jurors told Murdaugh’s defense team that they understood Hill’s comments to mean that Murdaugh was guilty. While on the stand, Murdaugh admitted he initially lied to police about his whereabouts the night his wife and son were fatally shot, but insisted he did not commit murder to shift focus away from his mounting financial crimes.
The motion also details other allegations of misconduct, including that Hill informed Judge Clifton Newman about a Facebook post from the ex-husband of a juror who claimed she believed Murdaugh was innocent. Murdaugh’s team alleges that Hill invented the post to successfully remove the juror from the trial.
Murdaugh’s defense attorneys also mention Hill’s new book about her time working on the trial, stating that she even hints at her own misconduct while describing the jury’s trip to the crime scene before closing arguments. In the book, according to the motion, Hill states that “we all could hear and see Alex’s story was impossible.”
As the jury deliberated, the motion states, Hill continued to make comments to the jury and even barred several of them from smoking outside. She also allegedly commented on the attention surrounding their decision.
“Ms. Hill told jurors that after the trial they would be famous and predicted that the media would request interviews with them. Ms. Hill even handed out reporters’ business cards to jurors during the trial,” the motion states, adding that Hill went with jurors to New York City when several jurors appeared on the Today show.
The motion states that Murdaugh should be granted an evidentiary hearing and a new trial because of the influence that Hill, an elected state official, may have had on the jury.
“Mr. Murdaugh may be the most unpopular man in South Carolina right now,” defense attorneys said in the letter to Boroughs. “He has become the symbol of the Lowcountry judicial corruption. Disgust at his frauds unfortunately has created in some minds a ‘but not Alex Murdaugh’ exception to the due process rights enjoyed by all Americans, regardless [of] guilt or innocence. Those minds may delight in the irony that he may very well be a victim of the corruption he symbolizes.”
