Ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh sues clerk for alleged jury tampering that led to overturned murder conviction
Disbarred South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh during his sentencing at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, in 2023. He was found guilty of double murder. (Photo by Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post and Courier via the Associated Press)
Disgraced and disbarred South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the clerk of court whose alleged jury manipulation in his 2023 trial resulted in the overturning of his double-murder conviction by the South Carolina Supreme Court last week.
Rebecca Hill, a former clerk of court for Colleton County, South Carolina, is being accused of denying Murdaugh of his “constitutional right to a fair trial before an impartial jury,” according to the suit filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
According to coverage by Bloomberg Law, Hill allegedly manipulated the Murdaugh jury to “write a book about the most high-profile trial in South Carolina history.” Exclusive details about the trial appear in her book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, which recounts how Murdaugh, once a prominent South Carolina attorney, was charged with the 2021 murders of his wife and son.
Last week, the state supreme court unanimously moved to vacate Murdaugh’s 2023 murder conviction and ordered a new trial after finding that Hill “placed her fingers on the scales of justice” to profit financially. Several jurors gave testimony to Hill’s “efforts to obtain her desired guilty verdict through jury tampering during trial.”
Other incidents of alleged jury manipulation include Hill speaking privately with a juror during a jury visit to the murder site, handing out reporters’ business cards to jury members during the trial, and urging jurors to watch the defendant’s body language.
See also:
Ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh’s murder conviction overturned; prosecutors vow retrial
Meddling clerk ‘betrayed her oath of office’ in Alex Murdaugh murder case, new-trial motion alleges
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