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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

The unusual hearing Monday comes in response to allegations by Murdaugh's attorneys that a clerk of court tampered with the jury that convicted him of murder last year. Jury tampering is the basis for Murdaugh's appeal, but Judge Jean Toal’s rulings after a pretrial hearing this month have set a difficult standard for his lawyers to prove. Toal ruled the defense must prove that potential misconduct including alleged comments by Hill warning jurors not to trust Murdaugh when he testifies directly led jurors to change their minds to guilty. The hearing will be televised, but their faces cannot be shown and they will only be identified by their juror numbers. They said this enabled prosecutors to smear Murdaugh with evidence not directly linked to the killings.

Persons: — Alex Murdaugh, who'll, Becky Hill, Murdaugh, lording, Jean Toal’s, Toal, Hill, Murdaugh’s, Clifton Newman, He's, Paul, Maggie, Murdaugh hasn't Organizations: COLUMBIA, BBC Locations: South Carolina, Colleton County, Colleton, Richland

☆ 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

Toal took over the request for a new trial after the judge overseeing the case, Clifton Newman, recused himself late last year. Hill has sworn that she did not ask jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt and never suggested that he committed the murders. State police are investigating the jury tampering and misuse of office allegations against Hill but have not charged her with any crimes. He said Hill told an assistant during the trial that a guilty verdict would be good for her book sales. Toal also expressed openness to other ways of ensuring the jurors' privacy, such as obscuring their faces during testimony.

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, Becky Hill, Jean Toal, Toal, Hill, Clifton Newman, “, Jan, Newman, Murdaugh, Maggie, Paul, Jim Griffin, Griffin, ” Toal, Creighton Waters, Waters, Dick Harpootlian, Joe McCulloch, ”, ___ Pollard Organizations: South Carolina Supreme, Defense, Court, Associated Press, America Statehouse News Initiative, America Locations: Colleton

Kaye Hearn, a justice on South Carolina’s Supreme Court, wrote the majority opinion this month that struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban. Two women, Court of Appeals Judges Stephanie McDonald and Aphrodite Konduros, were initially in the running for Hearn’s seat but withdrew Tuesday. (The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court for criminal cases, also has an all-male bench; the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, has both female and male justices.) In 1988, Toal was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Hearn, who was elected to the state’s Court of Appeals in 1995, joined her on the bench in 2010.

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