The South Carolina Court of Appeals Tuesday granted Alex Murdaugh’s petition to lobby a lower court for a new murder trial over stunning accusations of jury tampering.
Murdaugh, 55, was sentenced in March to two life terms for fatally shooting his 52-year-old wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and his son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, in June 2021.
In a bombshell motion filed last month, Murdaugh’s lawyers Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian asked the state’s highest court to halt the appeal they filed after the verdict and send the case back to the trial judge so they could formally file a motion to overturn the verdict.
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Disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh arrives in court in Beaufort, South Carolina, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. Murdaugh appeared publicly as a convicted murderer for the first time at the state court hearing regarding the slew of financial crimes allegedly committed by the disbarred South Carolina attorney. (AP Photo/James Pollard)
“After careful consideration, we grant Appellant’s motion,” the one-page decision states. In an explosive filing last month, the attorneys argued that South Carolina court clerk Becky Hill is an opportunist who tampered with jurors to land a book deal and TV interviews. She has denied the allegations.
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“We intend to proceed expeditiously and will seek a full-blown evidentiary hearing addressing the serious allegations pertaining to improper jury communications by the Clerk of Court,” the attorneys wrote in a statement responding to the ruling.
Judge Clifton Newman, who oversaw the murder trial, is expected to hold a hearing in the coming weeks.
Alex Murdaugh is led out of the Colleton County courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 during the trial for the double slaying of his son, Paul, and wife, Maggie, in June 2021. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
Murdaugh’s lawyers allege that Hill advised jurors not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony, pressured the panel to reach a “quick guilty verdict” and lied to the trial judge in a campaign to remove a panelist who was sympathetic to the defense.
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“Ms. Hill did these things to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial,” the lawyers wrote in the petition for a new trial last month. “Ms. Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame.”
The allegations are based on interviews with three jurors who came forward after the Aug. 1 release of Hill’s memoir, “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders.”
The defense team argued that Hill’s cozy relationship with the jurors, particularly the foreperson, was highly improper.
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Fox Nation aired the series “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh” last month, which includes an interview with Hill.
A spokesperson for the South Carolina State Attorney General, who prosecuted the murder case, said, “We will respond through the legal process at the appropriate time.”
The Colleton County clerk has retained attorneys Will Lewis and Justin Bamberg to represent her against the jury tampering claims. They didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
