ALEX Murdaugh has been denied a new trial after a judge found a county clerk’s actions did not impact the verdict of his double murder trial.
Murdaugh was in court on Monday as his team pushed for a retrial of his conviction for the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
Alex Murdaugh was denied a retrial during a hearing on MondayAP
Murdaugh is still serving out a 27-year sentence after pleading guilty to a string of financial crimes last NovemberAP
APJudge Jean Toal found that Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill’s actions did not influence the jury’s decision to convict Murdaugh last March[/caption]
The hearing comes after Murdaugh’s attorneys accused Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of tampering with the jury during his trial in early 2023.
His attorneys claim Hill pressured jurors into finding Murdaugh guilty to publish her book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, which revolved around the case and trial.
The jury in Murdaugh’s double-murder trial deliberated for about three hours before returning with a guilty verdict last March.
Only Juror Z testified that Hill’s comments to the jury influenced her decision to convict the disgraced attorney.
Juror Z also said in written testimony that Hill told the jury to “watch him closely” and “look at his actions and movements” immediately before Murdaugh took the stand.
Two other jurors said they heard Hill make comments about the trial when Murdaugh took the stand to testify.
However, they said her alleged statements did not influence their decision to convict Murdaugh.
Nine other jurors denied hearing any comments from the court clerk.
Hill denied in her testimony that she tampered with the jury for financial gain or any other reason.
“I did not have a conversation with any juror about any topic related to this case,” Hill said.
Judge Jean Toal said Hill had made “fleeting and foolish comments” to jurors but that those comments did not affect the jury verdict.
Toal said Murdaugh had to show the clerk made an improper comment and that it influenced the jury, which they failed to prove.
Justice Toal determined that Hill was “not completely credible as a witness” and was “lured by the siren call of celebrity,” but her actions did not influence the jurors.
‘NOT THE TRIAL OF MS. HILL’
On January 16, Murdaugh and his lawyers appeared in court hoping to push for a new murder trial for the former attorney’s wife and son.
While he originally appeared confident, Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal gave strict guidelines.
Toal told the court that his lawyers needed to prove that Hill explicitly told the jury not to believe his testimony, as well as pressured them into the guilty verdict and caused prejudice against Murdaugh.
The judge went on to say that she would not ask about some of the long list of accusations against the court clerk.
“I’m very, very reluctant to turn this hearing about juror contact into a wholesale exploration about every piece of conduct by the clerk alleged to have been improper on its own, indicative of her characteristics or personality, or anything of that nature,” the judge said.
“This is not the trial of Ms. Hill,” she later added.
Jim Griffin, Murdaugh’s defense lawyer, argued that prejudice should be assumed in this case.
He believed that it was the state’s job to prove that there was “unauthorized third-party communication,” referring to Hill’s alleged interaction with jurors, was “harmless.”
But Toal did not budge, and sided with the state. She went on to demand specific evidence about how jurors perceived Hill’s alleged comments.
She noted that the court’s affidavit had only one juror who swore that there was outside contact between them and Hill.
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