The South Carolina supreme court on Wednesday overturned the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, due to “shocking jury interference” and ordered a new trial in the 2021 killing of his wife and son.
“Our justice system provides – indeed demands – that every person is entitled to a fair trial, which includes an impartial jury untainted by external forces bent on influencing the jury toward a biased verdict,” the justices wrote in a unanimous opinion.
“Although we are aware of the time, money and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial,” they said, because of what they described as “improper external influences on the jury” by a court clerk during the trial.
The justices wrote that the Colleton county clerk of court, who was assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense, thus triggering the presumption of prejudice, which the state was unable to rebut”.
And because of what they described as “shocking jury interference” by the court clerk during the trial, the court’s justices wrote that “we are accordingly constrained to reverse the post-trial court’s denial of Murdaugh’s motion and remand for a new trial consistent with this opinion”.
Murdaugh, 57, was convicted by a jury in 2023 for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and his 22-year-old son, Paul, in 2021, in a trial that drew national attention. Murdaugh, who has denied killing his wife and son, received two life sentences.
The decision on Wednesday does not mean that Murdaugh will be getting out of prison. He previously pleaded guilty to financial crimes, including stealing millions from clients and his law firm, and is serving a 40-year federal sentence. Murdaugh also pleaded guilty in South Carolina state court to financial crimes and was ordered to spend 27 years in prison.
Wednesday’s decision comes after Murdaugh’s lawyers filed an appeal post-conviction, arguing that the court clerk, Becky Hill, improperly influenced jurors during the trial and that the judge had allowed improper evidence. But prosecutors argued the convictions should stand.
Hill later resigned from the Colleton county court, and in December she pleaded guilty to criminal charges for showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court. She also pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting through her public office a book she wrote on the trial. She was sentenced to three years of probation.
In Wednesday’s decision, the South Carolina supreme court justices said: “Both the state and Murdaugh’s defense skillfully presented their cases to the jury as the trial court deftly presided over this complicated and high-profile matter. However, their efforts were in vain because Colleton county clerk of court Rebecca Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Jessica Roth, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law, said in a statement that when “information comes to light, as it did here, that the jury was improperly exposed to other sources of information about the case that may have influenced its verdict, that can be grounds for a reversal, as it was here”.
“The South Carolina supreme court sent the case back for a new trial, free of such improper influence,” Roth said, adding: “The double jeopardy clause is not violated by a second trial in these circumstances, where the new trial is necessitated because of errors in the first trial that are the grounds for a defendant’s successful appeal.”