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☆ ‘Attracted by the siren call of celebrity’: What an Alex Murdaugh judge said about the clerk accused of jury tampering
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Zoe Sottile | Dianne Gallagher | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill was “attracted by the siren call of celebrity,” Toal said in her announcement of the ruling. “She wanted to write a book about the trial and expressed that as early as November 2022, long before the trial began,” the judge said. “Did clerk of court Hill’s comments have any impact on the verdict of the jury? The jury tampering case centered on statements allegedly made by Hill to jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt. The affidavit also said prior to Murdaugh testifying, Hill told the jurors “not to be fooled” by evidence offered by the defense.

Persons: Jean Toal, Alex Murdaugh’s, Rebecca Hill, ” Toal, “, ”, Toal, Hill, ” Murdaugh, ” Hill “, Alex Murdaugh, Andrew J, Whitaker, Z, Murdaugh, Justin Bamberg, Will Lewis, Toal’s, ” Murdaugh’s Organizations: CNN, South Carolina, South, Judicial, South Carolina Law Locations: Colleton County, South Carolina, Richland, Columbia , South Carolina, Colleton

☆ A hearing to see if Alex Murdaugh gets a new murder trial begins today
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Dakin Andone | Dianne Gallagher | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The South Carolina Attorney General’s office, which led the prosecution against Murdaugh, has urged the courts to deny the motion. The evidentiary hearing Monday is expected to include the testimony of 11 jurors from the original murder trial and Hill. Murdaugh’s attorneys had indicated they also wanted to call alternate and dismissed jurors, as well as prosecutors and Judge Clifton Newman, who presided over the murder trial, as witnesses. Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill listens as prosecutor Creighton Waters makes closing arguments in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse on March 1, 2023, in Walterboro, South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh's defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian, left, and Jim Griffin before a hearing on January 16 at the Richland County Judicial Center in Columbia.

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, Murdaugh, Colleton, Rebecca “ Becky ” Hill, Hill, “, ” Hill, Dick Harpootlian, Clifton Newman, Jean Toal –, Newman, –, Rebecca Hill, Creighton Waters, Alex Murdaugh's, Maggie, Paul, Alan Wilson, Ms, ”, ‘, ” Hill’s, Neil R, Gordon, Justin Bamberg, Will Lewis, Jim Griffin, Gavin McIntyre, ” Murdaugh’s, Judge Toal, ” CNN’s Devon Sayers Organizations: CNN, South Carolina Attorney, South Carolina Supreme, The State, TNS, Getty, Prosecutors, South Carolina, Judicial Center, Courier, South, South Carolina Law Locations: Colleton County, South Carolina, Colleton, Walterboro , South Carolina, The, Columbia , South Carolina, Richland, Columbia

☆ New Murder Trial for Alex Murdaugh? A Judge Will Soon Decide.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the climax of one of the most closely watched trials in South Carolina history, the packed courtroom was silent except for one woman: the court clerk, who read the guilty verdicts aloud in March 2023 that put Alex Murdaugh, a prominent lawyer, in prison for life for the murder of his wife and son. Now, a new court hearing is getting underway on Monday to determine whether the clerk, Rebecca Hill, improperly influenced the jurors who voted to convict Mr. Murdaugh, 55, and whether Mr. Murdaugh should have a new trial. A state police agency is investigating allegations from Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyers that Ms. Hill made comments during the trial that could have influenced the jurors’ votes. Among the allegations are that Ms. Hill told jurors not to be “fooled” by Mr. Murdaugh’s defense, that she had private conversations with a juror, and that she told jurors before they started deliberating that “this shouldn’t take us long.”Ms. Hill has not been charged, and she has denied many of the most serious allegations. She and the jurors are expected to testify on Monday at a hearing in Columbia, S.C., that is part of Mr. Murdaugh’s appeal of his convictions.

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, Rebecca Hill, Mr, Murdaugh, Hill, Ms Locations: South Carolina, Columbia

They said the court clerk, in charge of helping jurors and ensuring the trial ran efficiently, also had private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressured jurors to come to a quick verdict. And she pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict quickly so she could profit from it,” defense attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian wrote. Hill’s book discusses how her Christian faith helped her navigate the sudden fame and responsibility that came with the Murdaugh trial. She said she became convinced of Murdaugh’s guilt when jurors and court officials visited the family home where the shootings happened. “I was mostly concerned about Alex being found innocent when I knew in my heart he was guilty,” Hill wrote.

Persons: —, Alex Murdaugh, Rebecca Hill, Clifton Newman, Murdaugh, Hill, “, Jim Griffin, Dick Harpootlian, didn't, Neil Gordon, “ I’ve, ” Gordon, Alex, ” Hill, Murdaugh didn't Organizations: COLUMBIA, Hampton County Guardian, South Carolina Attorney General's Locations: South Carolina, Colleton, Southern, Hampton County

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for convicted murder Alex Murdaugh want a new trial, accusing the court clerk of improperly influencing the jury. They're accusing the court clerk at his double murder trial of telling jurors not to trust him when he testified in his own defense. They say she also had private conversations with the jury foreperson, and pressured jurors to come to a quick verdict. The request filed by Murdaugh's lawyers on Tuesday also accuses Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of giving jury members business cards from reporters. Murdaugh's lawyers said Hill's conduct was so egregious, it tainted the entire trial.

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, They're, Rebecca Hill, ” “, Hill, ”, Jim Griffin, Dick Harpootlian, Murdaugh, Murdaugh's, Clifton Newman, “ I’m, “, Hill's Organizations: COLUMBIA, South, South Carolina Court of, Associated Press, Division Locations: Colleton, New York City, South Carolina, Hill, Carolina

☆ Murdaugh’s Lawyers Seek New Trial, Saying Clerk Tampered With Jury
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs | More About Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Alex Murdaugh, the once-influential South Carolina lawyer, was convicted in March of murdering his wife and younger son, the verdict was widely seen as a rebuke of corruption in a legal system that Mr. Murdaugh had bent to his benefit for years. Now, Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyers say that he is a victim of a corrupt judicial process, and are seeking a new trial and an F.B.I. In an explosive court filing on Tuesday, they claim that the clerk of court had a series of inappropriate conversations with jurors and committed other misconduct during his trial. Ms. Hill did not respond to several requests for comment. The state attorney general, Alan Wilson, said he was reviewing Mr. Murdaugh’s motion and would respond “through the legal process.”

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, Murdaugh, Rebecca Hill, ” Mr, Murdaugh’s, Hill, Alan Wilson Locations: South Carolina

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