COLUMBIA, S.C. — Both sides in the Alex Murdaugh legal saga have made new arguments on why he does--or does not--deserve a new trial after he was convicted of killing his wife and adult son.
Murdaugh's defense team and state prosecutors both filed prehearing briefs with the South Carolina Supreme Court ahead of a hearing later this month. The hearing will determine if Murdaugh's original verdict and conviction should be set aside over allegations of misconduct against the clerk of court during Murdaugh's murder trial last year.
His attorneys claim Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill tampered with the jury, making multiple prejudicial remarks. His attorneys said they heard from three jurors who said Hill told some of them not to trust Murdaugh when he testified in his defense. They said the court clerk, in charge of helping jurors and ensuring the trial ran efficiently, also had private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressured jurors to come to a quick verdict.
In the fillings, the sides disagree on what could cause a trial to be thrown out. Murdaugh's legal team said that if they prove that Hill made prejudicial statements about their client to jurors, their client automatically deserves a new trial. The state, however, said that the defense would have to prove both that Hill discussed the case and that the jurors said that those discussions influenced their decision.
The state said the one juror who was part of\ jury deliberations and said Hill spoke to her also said in an affidavit that it didn't influence her decision. Instead, she said she felt pressure from other jurors, not Hill. But his defense counters that either way, Hill's statements were not harmless, which would be the only way they could be neglected in consideration for a new trial.
The defense also argues that Hill's credibility is now in question, with the recent admission by one of her lawyers that she plagiarized material in her book about the trial. Sales of that book have now been stopped.
Murdaugh's hearing to argue for a new trial begins on January 29 in Columbia and is expected to last three days. The presiding judge will be Jean Toal, the former South Carolina Supreme Court chief justice.
Murdaugh was convicted in March of 2023 of shooting to death his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and his adult son, Paul Murdaugh, at the family's sprawling estate in Colleton County in June of 2021.
A jury took just three hours to render a guilty verdict against him. A day later, Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two life sentences behind bars. He's currently serving that time in an undisclosed prison in the state.
Murdaugh has also been convicted and sentenced in federal and state court for scores of financial crimes. He admitted to stealing millions from his clients and the law firm his family founded. In November, he was sentenced to 27 years on financial charges.