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☆ Chess games and a new job: How Alex Murdaugh is spending life behind bars
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-23 | by ( Pilar Melendez | Pilar Melendez Is An Editor On The Nbc News Platforms Team. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Disgraced former South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh scored a big legal win last week after the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal for a new murder trial. Murdaugh’s lawyer, however, is not worried and is focused on their appellant cases. Last week, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear Murdaugh’s state appeal for a new murder trial based on allegations that a court clerk tampered with the jury that convicted him. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal’s decision came after an evidentiary hearing into whether Hill’s comments during the trial influenced the jury. “We are really looking forward to making our case to the Supreme Court,” Griffin said.

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, Murdaugh, Jim Griffin, “ Alex, ”, ” Griffin, Maggie, Paul, Aimee Zmroczek, Curtis Eddie Smith, Zmroczek, ” Zmroczek, Chrysti Shain, “, Murdaugh’s, ” Shain, Eric Bland, doesn’t condon, ” Bland, Colleton, Becky Hill, Jean Toal’s, Toal, Hill Organizations: South, South Carolina Supreme, NBC, Murdaugh’s, NBC News, South Carolina Department of Corrections, Department of Corrections, “ Locations: South Carolina, Murdaugh’s “, Colleton County

☆ ‘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

☆ Saving Praise Houses Before Their African Lineage Is Forgotten
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Patricia Leigh Brown | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kay Colleton will never forget the time she first laid eyes on Moving Star Hall, a tiny white clapboard building with a leaning chimney, a crooked roof and a storied history. The hall is a rare surviving example of a praise house — humble one-room structures used as places of worship by enslaved people on coastal plantations throughout the Carolinas and Georgia. They have been providing spiritual sustenance for generations of African Americans ever since. “There were no keys, so we just came right in,” Pastor Kay recalled of that day in 1989. Alive and hopping, Moving Star Hall is an outlier among the handfuls of praise houses still standing in varying states of repair, most tucked away on rural roads through dark tunnels of oaks laden with Spanish moss.

Persons: Kay Colleton, ” Pastor Kay, I’ll, ‘ You’ve, ’ ” Pastor Kay, — Organizations: Star Locations: Carolinas, Georgia, barrenness, Johns, Africa

☆ This corn was down to its last two cobs. Now it could help farmers grow food in the climate crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Jeremy Harlan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

What he saved he delivered to his only Jimmy Red customer two hours down the road in Charleston. “Not only was I counting on it, but High Wire Distilling was absolutely counting on it,” explained Coxe. A local moonshiner – and the last known grower of Jimmy Red corn – had just died, and the family no longer wanted to grow corn for whiskey distilling. Campbell Coxe harvests 50 acres of Jimmy Red corn on his Darlington, South Carolina, farm in September. This year, the distiller used 1.1 million pounds of Jimmy Red corn in its bourbon whiskey production.

Persons: Campbell, Coxe, ”, Red, moonshiners, Jimmy Red, “, sobered, ‘, Jimmy Red’s, Florence, Ted Chewning, Chewning, Campbell Coxe, Peter Frank Edwards, Brian Ward, it’s, Ward, ” Ward, Carolina Gold Rice, Ann Marshall, Scott Blackwell, Marshall, It’s, We’re Organizations: CNN, Hurricane, High, Clemson University, Carolina, Jimmy Locations: Hurricane Florence, Darlington County , South Carolina, Charleston, Florence, Colleton, Darlington, South Carolina, Island , South Carolina, Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico, Charleston , South Carolina

☆ Alex Murdaugh pleads guilty to state financial charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Dianne Gallagher | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Murdaugh was facing dozens of state charges in alleged schemes to defraud victims of millions. Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said the deal would bring “finality to the matter” and ensure Murdaugh would “stay in state prison for a very long time.” The agreement, if approved, would see Murdaugh spend a total of 27 years in a South Carolina state prison, according to Waters. “Alex Murdaugh’s guilty plea will finally allow his financial victims to begin the process of healing,” Eric “EB” Bland and Ronnie Richter, attorneys for some of the victims, said in a statement. It also only covers the state financial charges and does not address any of the remaining county charges Murdaugh faces. Judge Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive life sentences in a South Carolina state prison, which Murdaugh is currently serving.

Persons: CNN —, Alex Murdaugh, Creighton Waters, Waters, Murdaugh, Clifton Newman, “, ” “, ” Murdaugh, ”, ” Newman, Newman, “ Alex Murdaugh’s, Eric “ EB, Bland, Ronnie Richter, Judge Newman, Alan Wilson, ” Wilson, Maggie, Paul, Becky Hill Organizations: CNN, Carolina Constitution, South Carolina, Murdaugh Locations: South Carolina, Beaufort County, Murdaugh, Waters, Carolina, Colleton

☆ Alex Murdaugh reaches plea deal days before trial in financial crimes case
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Juliette Arcodia | Erik Ortiz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh struck a plea deal Friday, days before the start of his trial in South Carolina's sprawling case against him in dozens of financial crimes. For more on the case, watch "The Murdaugh Murders: Inside the Investigation" on "Dateline" at 9 ET/8 CT Friday. Murdaugh has proclaimed his innocence in the fatal shootings of his wife and son since a grand jury indicted him in the murders last year. Prosecutors alleged he killed them to gain pity before he would be exposed for a slew of financial crimes. In return, his federal sentence must run at the same time as any sentence imposed in his state case.

Persons: Alex Murdaugh, Clifton Newman, Gloria Satterfield, Creighton Waters, general's, Murdaugh, Margaret, Paul, Murdaugh's Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Colleton, South, Beaufort County, South Carolina's

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

☆ Small Towns Chase America’s $3 Trillion Climate Gold Rush
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Phred Dvorak | Amrith Ramkumar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WALTERBORO, S.C.—Colleton County in South Carolina is a quiet rural district best known for its hunting, fishing and, recently, a sensational murder trial. Now it is also a player in America’s new gold rush: a scramble for $1 trillion in federal tax incentives and loans for green energy that is fueling a flood of corporate investments and reshaping local economies.

On Thursday a South Carolina jury declared Murdaugh, 54, guilty on two counts of gunning down his wife Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22 on their family estate on June 7, 2021. Murdaugh, the scion of an influential legal family in an area west of Charleston, faces 30 years to life in prison for each of the two counts of murder under South Carolina law. After listening to testimony over five weeks, the jury took only three hours to deliberate before reaching their verdict. The case has drawn intense media coverage given the family's immense political power in and around Colleton County, where the trial took place. Throughout the trial, prosecutors portrayed Murdaugh as a serial liar and argued that only he had the means and the opportunity to commit the murders.

March 2 (Reuters) - Lawyers for disbarred South Carolina attorney Richard "Alex" Murdaugh will deliver closing arguments on Thursday, their last chance to convince the jury that their client was not involved in the grisly murders of his wife and youngest son. For decades until 2006, family members served as the leading prosecutor in the area, and Murdaugh was a prominent personal injury attorney in the state. Murdaugh changed his account after the jury listened to audio evidence placing him at the scene of the crime minutes before it occurred. Murdaugh said he initially lied to investigators because of paranoia tied to his drug habit and mistrust of the police. Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

March 1 (Reuters) - Closing arguments are set to start on Wednesday in the trial of Richard "Alex" Murdaugh, the now-disbarred South Carolina lawyer charged with gunning down his wife and son in a complex and grisly case that has garnered international attention. Newman said he expected the jury would be back in court for closing arguments around 11 a.m. Murdaugh, who has said he had nothing to do with the murders, faces 30 years to life in prison if he is found guilty. In addition to the murders, Murdaugh has been charged with dozens of financial crimes, including an alleged scheme to have himself killed so that his older son, Buster, could collect a $10 million insurance payout. During the trial, Murdaugh admitted to stealing from clients and his law firm.

[1/2] Alex Murdaugh gives testimony in his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina, U.S., February 23, 2023. Grace Beahm Alford/Pool via USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERSFeb 27 (Reuters) - Four final defense witnesses are set to take the stand on Monday in the double murder trial of disbarred South Carolina lawyer Richard "Alex" Murdaugh before his attorneys rest their case, with jury deliberations on track to begin later in the week. Murdaugh's lawyers said they planned to question four additional witnesses before resting their case in the early afternoon on Monday. That would be followed by closing arguments and the judge instructing the jury, which could happen on Tuesday or Wednesday, Murdaugh defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said in court on Friday. The case has drawn intense media coverage given the political influence of the Murdaugh family in South Carolina.

☆ The Murdaugh Slayings: The Latest on Disbarred South Carolina Attorney Alex Murdaugh’s Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Valerie Bauerlein | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The disbarred South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh is facing trial for the alleged murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. The trial is expected to last from Jan. 23 through late February at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., a town of about 5,500. The courthouse is about 20 miles from Moselle, the hunting property where Maggie and Paul were found dead on June 7, 2021. Mr. Murdaugh has been jailed for more than a year and faces a total of 99 felony counts, primarily related to allegedly swindling his clients out of $8.8 million. The 54-year-old Mr. Murdaugh pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and to most of the financial charges against him.

☆ Media frenzy from Alex Murdaugh double homicide trial is disrupting weddings at event hall across the street from the courthouse, bride says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Alex Murdaugh murder trial is underway at a South Carolina courthouse across the street from a wedding venue. One bride told The Daily Beast she's stressed about her wedding being so close to the trial. "I did know about the courthouse being across the street but we have never had a trial like this before," DeLong told The Daily Beast. It was more convenient due to the weather and location in town," she told The Daily Beast. "I had been super excited and now I am pretty stressed out," DeLong said, according to The Daily Beast.

On the night that Alex Murdaugh's wife and son would be fatally shot on the grounds of their rural estate in Colleton County, South Carolina, the 22-year-old sent out a video on Snapchat to several friends. Newman is expected to hear arguments on the motions once the jury of 12 plus six alternates is seated. Newman has already ordered representatives from Snapchat, as well as Google, to be subpoenaed to testify at the trial to attest to evidence on electronic devices. Besides potential digital evidence, forensics may also play a key part during the trial. There is DNA from the victims on Murdaugh's shirt, but his defense said that was the result of coming into contact with their bodies, which were lying near dog kennels on the property.

But the perceived spectacle means that not only will Murdaugh be on display — so will the county seat of Walterboro, population 5,460. “We didn’t want this, but it’s happening, and it’s here,” Scott Grooms, Walterboro’s director of tourism and downtown development, said last week. A portrait of Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., Alex Murdaugh's late grandfather, was removed from the Colleton County Courthouse ahead of Alex Murdaugh's trial. From left, Paul, Margaret and Alex Murdaugh. While he didn’t know Alex Murdaugh personally, he said few with longstanding ties in the area had not been touched by the Murdaughs’ orbit in one way or another.

☆ Alex Murdaugh, disgraced South Carolina lawyer accused of killing wife and son, faces new legal trouble
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Prosecutors said Murdaugh, 54, made nearly $14 million as a lawyer over nine years, but also stole nearly $7 million from his law firm at the same time. The latest indictments bring the total number of charges against the disgraced attorney to more than 100. In his best year, Murdaugh reported making $5.3 million in 2013 after making $2.4 million the year before. Murdaugh said he made just $219,000 in 2017 and only $1.6 million over the next two years, according to the indictment. Murdaugh and his family were the biggest players in the legal scene in tiny Hampton County.

☆ South Carolina lawyer accused of killing family indicted for tax evasion
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Tyler Clifford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Alex Murdaugh, 54, the scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, is accused of willful attempt to evade state taxes on millions of dollars in income between 2011 and 2019. The new charges are in addition to dozens of state charges, including embezzlement and murder, brought by a Colleton County grand jury. Murdaugh is accused of fraudulently making nearly $7 million, which was left off on annual tax filings with the state, according to the indictment. He is suspected of skipping out on more than $486,800 in payments owed to South Carolina. He faces two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon in connection with the murders.

Then, in 2019, Paul Murdaugh was involved in a boat crash that resulted in injuries and claimed the life of a 19-year-old passenger, Mallory Beach. Waters said that the plaintiffs were expecting to get a "personal recovery" from Murdaugh, whose financial situation was growing increasingly bleaker. via FacebookState grand jury subpoenas had been issued in the boat crash case in 2021, and at the time of the killings of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh on June 7, Paul Murdaugh was facing trial. The bodies of the wife and son were discovered by Alex Murdaugh at the family's hunting estate in rural Islandton, about 65 miles west of Charleston. But with the death of his wife and son, Murdaugh benefited because his law firm halted its questioning and a hearing in the boat case was canceled, according to Waters.

☆ Alex Murdaugh's banker convicted for role in alleged scheme to steal money from clients' legal settlements
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte was allowed to remain free on bail as he awaits sentencing at a later date. Former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte exits federal court in Charleston, S.C. on Sept. 6. Laffitte loaned Murdaugh and himself money from those settlements, diverting that money from personal injury or death cases. An employee at Laffitte’s bank testified she confronted Murdaugh about missing fees from one of his cases hours before the killings. More than a third of the witnesses in Laffitte’s trial were his relatives, with most of them testifying for prosecutors.

Hours later, his firm — Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrickhe — releases its own statement alleging Murdaugh had misappropriated company funds. Jan. 21, 2022A grand jury indicts Murdaugh on 23 new charges, including breach of trust with fraudulent intent and computer crimes. Jan. 24, 2022A legal claim is filed against the estates of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh by the mother of Mallory Beach, 19, who was killed in a boat crash in 2019. May 4, 2022Prosecutors announce that Murdaugh is facing four new charges related to financial crimes also involving Fleming and others. July 14, 2022A grand jury announces an indictment against Murdaugh on double murder charges in the deaths of Margaret and Paul.

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