South Carolina’s Supreme Court has overturned two murder convictions against Alex Murdaugh. The former attorney was sentenced to life in prison in 2023 after being found guilty of killing his wife and son on their family estate. At the time, the jury reached a unanimous decision. Now, the court has found Murdaugh did not receive a fair trial by an impartial jury due to interference from Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill.
The court maintains that Hill “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense, thus triggering the presumption of prejudice, which the State was unable to rebut.” A juror in the case reported Hill telling the jury “not to be fooled” by evidence presented by Murdaugh’s attorneys ahead of his testimony. In an affidavit, the juror said, “I had questions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt but voted guilty because I felt pressured by the other jurors.” She also stated her decision was influenced by Hill’s comments.
At the time of the verdict, attorneys for Murdaugh were “surprised that deliberations didn’t take longer than they did,” noting that the quick turn around — with less than three hours of deliberations — was “a little disturbing.”
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Murdaugh murdered his wife and son on June 7, 2021, at the family’s hunting estate in an attempt to evade accountability for a string of alleged financial crimes. Murdaugh maintained his innocence, telling the court, “I’m innocent, I would never hurt my wife Maggie, and I would never hurt my son Paw-Paw.” Murdaugh later admitted to the jury that he lied to authorities about his whereabouts the night of the murders, but claimed he was “nowhere near” his wife and son “when they got shot.”
Given that Murdaugh is the scion of South Carolina’s Lowcountry legal dynasty, the high-profile case drew an excess of attention. According to court documents, the post-trial court determined “Hill was attracted by the siren call of celebrity” and “allowed her desire for the public attention of the moment to overcome her duty to her oath of office.”
Because this “shocking jury interference was accomplished outside the presence and knowledge
of the outstanding trial judge and superbly competent and professional counsel for the State and the defense,” the court said, it reverses the decision to deny Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial, which was shot down in 2024.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement that the state will retry the Murdaugh case.
The overturned convictions doesn’t automatically let Murdaugh off the hook. In 2023, he also pleaded guilty to 22 counts of fraud and money laundering. Each count carries a 20-to-30 year prison sentence. The plea agreement stipulated the punishment run concurrently with the life sentence as opposed to consecutively. Murdaugh also admitted to hiring a hitman to kill him in a botched insurance fraud attempt and was also indicted on drug trafficking charges.
Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone
