Convicted South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh's defense team is accusing the Colleton County clerk of court of jury tampering during his murder trial, according to new court documents.
On March 2, Murdaugh, 54, was found guilty on two charges of first-degree murder for the 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22. The following day, Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The 11-person jury deliberated for under three hours following the six-week trial.
"Murdaugh defenses says: during trial the Colleton County Clerk of Court, Rebecca Hill, instructed jurors not to be 'misled' by evidence presented in Mr. Murdaugh's defense," NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. "She told jurors not to be 'fooled by' Mr. Murdaugh's testimony in his own defense."
In the new filing, which was sent to Newsweek, the defense team wrote: "Hill invented a story about a Facebook post to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty. Ms. Hill pressured jurors to reach a quick verdict, telling them from the outset of their deliberations that it 'shouldn't take them long.'"
Murdaugh defenses says: during trial the Colleton County Clerk of Court, Rebecca Hill, instructed jurors not to be “misled” by evidence presented in Mr. Murdaugh’s defense. She told jurors not to be “fooled by” Mr. Murdaugh’s testimony in his own defense.
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) September 5, 2023
Attorney Dick Harpootlian, who represented Murdaugh during his murder trial, scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon in Columbia, South Carolina, he told Newsweek on Monday. Harpootlian also confirmed his intent to file for a new trial but declined to elaborate on what the newly discovered evidence is.
According to the new filing, the defense also accuses Hill of telling a juror "that everything Mr. Murdaugh has said has been lies."
In a statement about their filing on Tuesday, Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, another Murdaugh attorney, told Newsweek, "Today, we filed a petition based on newly discovered evidence with the SC Court of Appeals to stay Alex Murdaugh's appeal while a hearing is held on a motion for a new trial."
They continued: "Concurrently, we have sent a request to the South Carolina U.S. Attorney to open a federal investigation into the violation of Alex Murdaugh's civil rights. The serious allegations in the petition filed today speak for themselves but we believe they explain a number of peculiarities in the six-week trial.
"We request that [the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division] stand down on initiating any investigation of these allegations since they are heavily invested in maintaining Alex's conviction. We suggest that they wait for the Court of Appeals to rule and receive direction from the trial court, if the Court of Appeals remands the case for an evidentiary hearing. We also would request that those in the media and the public respect the privacy of those included in this filing," the attorneys said.
They added that they wanted to thank the members of their team "who have worked tirelessly to ferret out the truth. Alex Murdaugh maintained and still maintains his innocence of the murder of Maggie and Paul and he believes the truth will ultimately prevail."
During his trial, Murdaugh testified in his own defense and confirmed that he lied to investigators about where he was when his wife and son were killed. The once prominent attorney also testified that it was his voice on a recording that prosecutors used to put him at the scene of the killings. Murdaugh had previously said he was not at home the night the two were killed.
He also said he lied because of "paranoid thinking" that he blamed on his addiction to painkillers, but he denied killing anyone. "I didn't shoot my wife or my son, anytime, ever," Murdaugh said.
When discussing his son, whom he said he "couldn't be any closer" to, Murdaugh became visibly upset and broke down crying. He described calling 911 after finding his wife and son dead.
"I don't know why I tried to turn him over," Murdaugh told the jury. "I mean, my boy's laying face down. He's done the way he's done. His head was the way his head was. I could see his brain laying on the sidewalk. I didn't know what to do."
Update 9/5/23, 12:20 p.m. ET: This story was updated with a quote from Tuesday's court filing after it was obtained by Newsweek.
Update 9/5/23, 12:35 p.m. ET: This story was updated with a statement from Alex Murdaugh's defense team.
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Anna Commander is a Newsweek Editor and writer based in Florida. Her focus is reporting on crime, weather and breaking ... Read more
