Alex Murdaugh sues South Carolina clerk accused of jury tampering

CHARLESTON, S.C. (CN) — Alex Murdaugh filed a lawsuit Monday against the former court clerk accused of tampering with the jury that convicted him in the murders of his wife and son in 2023.

Murdaugh claims in the complaint that former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill “secretly and deliberately inserted herself into the jury’s deliberative process” in order to secure his conviction and boost sales of a book she later wrote about the high-profile trial.

Hill’s actions caused the South Carolina Supreme Court last week to overturn Murdaugh’s convictions and life sentence. The justices accused Hill of “placing her fingers on the scale of justice” by urging jurors not to be fooled or thrown off by Murdaugh during his testimony at the trial.

Murdaugh says he spent $600,000 from his 401(k) retirement funds to pay for his defense at the six-week trial. He seeks to recover the money from Hill, along with unspecified punitive damages, as his defense team prepares for a retrial.

“Ms. Hill’s improper communications to the jury were deliberate acts, repeated across multiple occasions, directed at jurors she was sworn to protect from outside influence, by an officer of the court ‘elected by the very people who make up the Colleton County jury pool,” Murdaugh writes.

Hill’s attorney, Will Lewis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Murdaugh, a prominent ex-attorney, was convicted in 2023 of murdering his wife Maggie and youngest son Paul the night of June 7, 2021, at the family’s hunting estate in Colleton County.

On the witness stand, Murdaugh denied shooting them, but confessed to a bevy of other misdeeds, including the theft of millions of dollars from former clients of his family’s law firm.

He later pleaded guilty to the financial crimes in state and federal court and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 27 years and 40 years in prison, respectively.

After the murder trial, three jurors claimed Hill made improper comments about Murdaugh, including urging the jurors to “watch his body language” or “watch him closely” during his testimony.

One juror said the clerk’s comments influenced her guilty verdict.

Murdaugh’s attorney Jim Griffin said at a press conference Monday afternoon that none of the money recovered in the suit would go to Murdaugh personally since he still owes millions to the victims of his financial crimes.

“The purpose of this suit is to hold Becky Hill accountable for what she did,” Griffin, of Griffin Humphries, said. “She has not been held accountable at all for her conduct.”

Griffin said the suit would also be a vehicle for further investigating Hill’s actions.

“She has yet to be thoroughly investigated by the state and she has not been held accountable by the state,” he said.

Hill pleaded guilty in December to four charges — obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about — as well as two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting through her public office her book about the trial.

But the state declined to charge her with jury tampering.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, a candidate for governor in the Republican primary race, said last week he may seek the death penalty at Murdaugh’s second trial, which has not been scheduled.

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