Alex Murdaugh stands during a break in his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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If you are a fan of true crime TV documentaries and limited series, then you are likely familiar with the Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina businessman found guilty of murdering his wife and one of his sons.
The case inspired a number of streaming docuseries, including Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death In The Family, Netflix’s Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, Investigation Discovery’s Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty, as well as the independent documentaries Murdaugh Murders: The Movie, Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty, The Fall Of The House Of Murdaugh, and Alex Murdaugh: Death. Deception. Power.
The story of the rise and fall of the Murdaugh Family was almost made for television. The family had run a prominent South Carolina law firm for decades, as well as the local prosecutor’s office.
But the family’s fortunes began to turn quickly in the early 2020’s, from suffering financial setbacks to the case of son Paul Murdaugh, who was facing charges of killing a teenage passenger when he drunkenly crashed his boat late one night.
Then in June 2021, the bodies of Alex Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie and his son Paul were found shot to death on the family’s hunting complex in South Carolina.
Prosecutors later charged Alex Murdaugh with the murders, claiming he had killed his wife and younger son in order to distract attention from allegations of theft and drug use that were being lodged against him.
Murdaugh was convicted of the murders in 2023 after a six-week trial that resulted in a guilty verdict after less than three hours of deliberations.
But in a unanimous decision on Wednesday, the State Supreme Court ruled that what it described as “shocking interference” by a court clerk who interacted with the jurors during the 2023 trial was egregious enough to force them to overturn the conviction.
The basis of the conviction being overturned centers around the alleged conduct of Colleton County clerk of court, Becky Hill. She is accused of tainting the trial by making inappropriate comments to jurors before and during the trial.
During the hearing in front of the justices, one juror testified Hill had made comments that implied Murdaugh was guilty and should be convicted:
Toward the end of the trial, after the Presidents’ Day break but before Mr. Murdaugh testified, the clerk of the court, Rebecca Hill, told the jury “not to be fooled” by the evidence prsented by Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys, which I understood to mean that Mr. Murdaugh would lie when he testifies.
She also instructed the jury to “watch him closely” immediately before he testified, including to “look at his actions” and “look at his movements,” which I understood to mean he was guilty.
Hill later resigned from her job and last December was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to using her government job for personal gain after writing a book about the inner workings of the trial.
While the bulk of the comments from the State Supreme Court ruling focused on the behavior of Hill, the justices also singled out actions by trial judge Clifton Newman, who was criticized for allowing testimony about Murdaugh’s financial crimes to be introduced into the trial.
In a statement, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, whose office led the case against Murdaugh and who is now running for Governor, said the state will retry the case against Murdaugh.
In the interim, Murdaugh will remain in prison because he had also pled guilty to charges related to stealing millions of dollars from former clients.