On the climax of some of the carefully watched trials in South Carolina historical past, the packed courtroom was silent aside from one lady: the court docket clerk, who learn the responsible verdicts aloud in March 2023 that put Alex Murdaugh, a distinguished lawyer, in jail for all times for the homicide of his spouse and son.
On Monday, all eyes in a courtroom have been once more on the clerk, Rebecca Hill. This time, although, she was testifying at a listening to in Columbia, S.C., to find out whether or not she improperly influenced the jurors who voted to convict Mr. Murdaugh, 55, and whether or not Mr. Murdaugh ought to get a brand new trial.
After listening to testimony from 12 jurors, Ms. Hill and a number of other different witnesses, a decide dominated on Monday night that Mr. Murdaugh was not entitled to a brand new trial. She stated that whereas Ms. Hill had made “fleeting and silly” feedback, they weren’t sufficient to have affected the jury’s verdict.
The decide, Jean Toal, a former chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court docket, nonetheless had harsh phrases for Ms. Hill, saying she was “attracted by the siren name of celeb” and had wished Mr. Murdaugh to be responsible as a result of she thought it will assist her promote a e book concerning the trial.
Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys had claimed that Ms. Hill made feedback to the jurors in the course of the trial that would have swayed their votes. A state police company has been investigating the allegations, which embrace that Ms. Hill informed jurors to not be “fooled” by Mr. Murdaugh’s protection, that she had non-public conversations with a juror, and that she informed jurors earlier than they began deliberating that “this shouldn’t take us lengthy.”
Ms. Hill has not been charged, and he or she denied lots of the most severe allegations in testimony on Monday.
One juror stated that Ms. Hill had informed jurors “to look at him carefully,” referring to Mr. Murdaugh. The juror, who was recognized solely as “Juror Z,” stated that the feedback had influenced her choice to search out Mr. Murdaugh responsible.
“To me, it felt like she made it look like he was already responsible,” the juror testified.
Nevertheless, 9 different jurors who testified on Monday stated that they didn’t have any communication with Ms. Hill concerning the case in the course of the trial and that their verdict was not influenced by her.
Two jurors testified that they’d heard a remark or two from Ms. Hill concerning the case, however that the feedback had not influenced them.
A kind of jurors, “Juror P,” stated that on the day that Mr. Murdaugh testified, Ms. Hill stated to “watch his physique language.” One other juror, “Juror X,” who testified on Friday due to a scheduling battle, reportedly stated that Ms. Hill had famous to jurors that it was uncommon for a defendant to testify in his personal protection.
When Ms. Hill took the stand Monday afternoon, she confronted robust questioning each from Mr. Murdaugh’s lawyer, Dick Harpootlian, and from Decide Toal.
Throughout an hour and quarter-hour of testimony, Ms. Hill strenuously denied having spoken to jurors about something referring to the deserves of the case.
Ms. Hill acknowledged that at one level throughout Mr. Murdaugh’s trial, within the presence of some jurors, she spoke to a bailiff about the truth that Mr. Murdaugh would possibly testify, and that she remembered telling the jurors to concentrate and that it was “a giant day.” She additionally stated she had held a private feeling about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt, although she stated she didn’t share that feeling with any jurors.
Ms. Hill was a fixture of the courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., throughout Mr. Murdaugh’s homicide trial, which stretched from January to March 2023. She later wrote a e book concerning the trial that she stated had earned her and her coauthor about $100,000. She lately acknowledged plagiarizing a number of the e book’s preface from a draft of a BBC article.
On Monday, she stated many passages within the e book which have sparked controversy have been false, together with her account of locking eyes with a juror in the course of the trial and realizing that they each believed Mr. Murdaugh was responsible. She stated the false accounts have been the results of her utilizing “poetic license.”
When Decide Toal questioned Ms. Hill on the stand Monday, the decide zeroed in on her credibility. Decide Toal requested Ms. Hill about proof that appeared to contradict her testimony.
Mr. Harpootlian accused Ms. Hill of wanting a responsible verdict as a result of she believed a conviction would assist her promote extra books. Ms. Hill denied that accusation, although Rhonda McElveen, a clerk from one other county who helped Ms. Hill in the course of the homicide trial, testified that Ms. Hill had informed her as a lot.
Ms. McElveen stated she had additionally heard Ms. Hill inform individuals within the courthouse to not be fooled by Mr. Murdaugh’s protection, although she stated she didn’t hear Ms. Hill say that to any jurors.
Underneath questioning from Creighton Waters of the South Carolina lawyer normal’s workplace, who was the lead prosecutor within the homicide trial, Ms. McElveen acknowledged that she by no means reported any of Ms. Hill’s actions to the trial decide as a result of she didn’t have severe considerations about Ms. Hill’s conduct.
Earlier on Monday, Decide Toal had encountered a hiccup within the proceedings, saying she had discovered that some jurors who have been ready to testify had used their cellphones to look at Juror Z testify about Ms. Hill influencing her vote. The telephones have been speculated to have been taken away from the jurors earlier than the listening to started.
“I’m very sad about it,” stated Decide Toal.
Decide Toal’s choice is anticipated to be appealed by Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys.
The allegations in opposition to Ms. Hill, which Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys first raised in September, are one other twist within the tragic story of the Murdaugh murders, against the law that has horrified and fascinated observers across the nation since June 2021, when Mr. Murdaugh’s spouse, Maggie, and their youthful son, Paul, have been shot to dying.
Mr. Murdaugh has all the time maintained his innocence. However a key video proven at his trial revealed that he was on the household’s canine kennels along with his spouse and son shortly earlier than they have been killed, contradicting his declare that he had not been with them at the moment. Jurors deliberated for lower than three hours earlier than returning the responsible verdicts that Ms. Hill learn.
Mr. Murdaugh had been stealing hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from purchasers and legislation companions for years earlier than the murders. Prosecutors stated within the homicide trial that he had carried out the killings in a weird, failed try to achieve sympathy and cease his legislation agency from scrutinizing his funds.
Although he’s difficult his homicide convictions, Mr. Murdaugh has admitted to having stolen huge sums of cash over time. He pleaded responsible in November to a collection of monetary crimes and was sentenced to a further 27 years in jail.
Legal professionals with the South Carolina lawyer normal’s workplace who prosecuted the case had argued in court docket papers that the claims about Ms. Hill are “unfounded and never credible.” Even when Ms. Hill did make inappropriate feedback, the state attorneys argued, the feedback weren’t sufficient to affect the jurors of their choice.
Mr. Murdaugh, who has been disbarred, is a fourth-generation lawyer whose household had huge affect within the authorized world of South Carolina’s Lowcountry area. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had every led a prosecutor’s workplace within the area — in complete, for greater than 80 years — and the household ran a legislation agency within the small city of Hampton for even longer.
