Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh are asking for a new trial based on evidence they claim shows Colleton County court clerk Rebecca Hill “tampered with the jury.”
Attorneys for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh have issued a bombshell request for a new trial based on evidence they claim shows a court clerk “tampered with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony” in order to cash in on the post-verdict media blitz.
Colleton County Clerk Rebecca Hill violated the disgraced former attorney’s “constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury” when she advised jurors during the six-week double murder trial “not to be ‘misled’” by evidence presented in the his defense, the filing released Tuesday to the South Carolina Court of Appeals alleges. Hill also warned jurors not to be “not to be ‘fooled’” by Murdaugh’s own emotional testimony, the statement from Murdaugh’s lawyers, state senator Richard Harpootlian and defense star Jim Griffin, reads. Murdaugh, 55, was found guilty in March of gunning down his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, in the kennels of the family’s sprawling Moselle estate in June 2021. During the high-profile proceedings, the state alleged Murdaugh killed his wife and son in order to cover up a slew of financial crimes.When Murdaugh took the stand several weeks into the trial, Hill told the jurors to “look at his actions [and movements],” one juror claimed in an affidavit attached to the Tuesday filing. “I understood [this] to mean that Mr. Murdaugh would lie when he testified,” the individual – who is identified simply as juror 630 – explained in the document. Hill and the jury foreperson, juror 826, also frequently had “private conversations” that lasted “5 to 10 minutes,” juror 630 recalled.By the end of the high-pressure ordeal, the juror wrote, “I had questions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt but voted guilty because I felt pressured by the other jurors.” Hill also went so far as to fabricate a story about a Facebook post to “remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty,” the filing reads. Juror 785 was removed from the panel in February after her ex-husband allegedly posted on Facebook that she had discussed the case while intoxicated, the document explains.announced she needed to collect “a dozen eggs”“That never happened, and I told Ms. Hill it never happened. I did not go ‘drinking’ with my ex-husband in fact, I had not seen him in approximately ten years,” juror 785 explains in the affidavit attached to the filing.Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down in the kennels of the family’s estate.During their tense exchange, juror 785 added, Hill “directly asked me whether I was inclined to vote guilty or not guilty.” “I told her I had not made up my mind and that I wanted to hear all the evidence before deciding,” the juror recalled. Hill sabotaged and pressured the jury “to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial,” the filing argues.Hill even passed out business cards to members of the media “several times” during the trial, Harpootlian’s paralegal, Holli Miller, alleges in one affidavit. The filing even includes excerpts from “Behind the Doors of Justice,” the book Hill scraped together about the trial and published in July 2023. In one damning section, Hill gushes about accompanying three jurors to New York City for their exclusive appearance on NBC’s TODAY Show within days of the guilty verdict. Jim Griffin and Murdaugh’s other attorney, Richard Harpootlian, are set to address the filing at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.“This trip was extra special for me because it was my first time ever flying in an airplane!” Hill wrote of the experience. “We flew from Charleston to New York City, and could order whatever we wanted! I chose pretzels and a Coke to relieve some of my anxiety.” The contents of the book, in addition to Hill’s alleged behavior with the jury members, proves that she “betrayed her oath of office for money and fame,” Murdaugh’s attorneys stated. The motion seeks a stay of Murdaugh’s ongoing appeal so that Judge Clifton Newman can consider its contents and rule on whether or not to order a new trial. “The defense has not indicated how and when they will address possible recusal of Newman,” prosecutor Sara Azari, who co-hosts “The Presumption” with Griffin, tweeted on Monday. Newman – whose own son died suddenly just before the trial started – made several comments about Murdaugh after the verdict that could compromise his objectivity if the case goes to trial a second time. “I don’t believe that [Murdaugh] hated his wife, and certainly I did not believe that he did not love his son,” Newman, 71, said a few weeks after he sentenced Murdaugh to life in prison. “But he committed the unforgivable, unimaginable crime, and there’s no way that he’ll be able to sleep peacefully,’ the legal veteran surmised.at a press conference outside the Court of Appeals in Columbia on Tuesday afternoon.
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