In a stunning unanimous decision, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh.
Murdaugh is the high-profile South Carolina attorney accused of shooting and killing his wife Maggie and son Paul in June 2021 on their family property in the state’s lowcountry. His six-week trial in early 2023 captivated the nation. And after listening to six weeks of testimony – including Murdaugh taking the stand in his own defense – it took the jury just three hours to find him guilty on all counts. Days later, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
But Murdaugh has continued to maintain his innocence from behind bars and the South Carolina Supreme Court is now going to give him another chance to make his case thanks to the questionable behavior of former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Vinnie Politan, host Vinnie Politan Investigates, and former South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon to discuss the breaking news and what a new trial will entail.
The Appeal
Months after Murdaugh’s conviction – and a guilty plea in a separate case on federal charges that he stole millions of dollars from clients – his legal team filed a bombshell appeal saying he deserved a new murder trial because of alleged jury tampering.
The defense accused Hill, who was an elected official, of going to extraordinary measures to influence the jury. They came to this conclusion after speaking to four jurors who produced similar stories and included sworn statements from two of them in the legal filing.
According to the appeal, Hill – who wrote a partially plagiarized book about her experience working on the case – had private chats with the jury foreperson, told the jury “not to be fooled” by the defense, instructed jurors to watch Murdaugh closely and “look at his movements” while he was on that stand, and refused to let jurors who smoked take a cigarette break until a verdict was reached. One juror said in a sworn statement that they understood Hill’s comments to mean Murdaugh was guilty.
The filing claimed Hill “asked jurors about their opinions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence” and “instructed them not to believe evidence presented in Mr. Murdaugh’s defense, including his own testimony.” Furthermore, “she lied to the judge to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty,” the lawyers wrote. “And she pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict quickly so she could profit from it.”
Last December, Hill pleaded guilty to four charges — obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it, plus two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting a book she wrote on the trial through her public office. She was sentenced to probation and community service.
The Supreme Court Decision
Following a lengthy appeal process that included a January 2024 lower court rejection, South Carolina’s highest court granted Murdaugh’s request for a new trial on Wednesday after five justices determined Hill “placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
“Our justice system provides—indeed demands—that every person is entitled to a fair trial, which includes an impartial jury untainted by external forces bent on influencing the jury toward a biased verdict,” the justices wrote in their unanimous, 27-page opinion. “Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial.”
The state Supreme Court added that “Hill’s shocking jury interference was accomplished outside the presence and knowledge of the outstanding trial judge” and attorneys representing both sides of the case.
Despite the ruling, Murdaugh will remain in prison, where he has also been serving a 27-year sentence on state charges and a 40-year sentence on federal charges related to various financial crimes he committed before and after the murders.
The Reaction
Following the news, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office “will aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible.”
Murdaugh’s defense team, meanwhile, welcomed the decision. “The Supreme Court’s decision today affirms that the rule of law remains strong in South Carolina. The Court found that Becky Hill’s conduct during the trial attacked Alex Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense. The Court rightly described her conduct as ‘breathtaking,’ ‘disgraceful,’ and ‘unprecedented in South Carolina,’” Murdaugh’s attorney, Dick Harpootlian, said in a statement. “We respect the decision that made clear that the retrial must look very different from the first.”
Megyn believes Murdaugh is guilty of killing his wife and son, but she has been among those arguing the convictions need to come via a fair trial. “Every defendant in this country is entitled to a fair trial and to due process unfettered by influence from any third party,” she explained. “And that is the reason why we, and other respected legal scholars, have said for a while now that though, in my case, I believe he did this, he is entitled to a new trial. I said that… not because I like Alex Murdaugh, but because the court clerk interfered with this jury in a way that could not possibly allow this verdict to stand.”
What Comes Next
With the high court’s decision, it is now up to the state Attorney General’s office to re-try the case. The position is up for grabs in the November midterms, and Condon said both the incumbent Republican and his Democrat challenger have vowed to re-prosecute.
Politan said he does not question Murdaugh’s guilt, but he expects the expected re-trial to look different. “At the end of the day, when a criminal defendant wins an appeal, they win the right to be convicted again… so I think that is where we are headed in this one,” he explained. “Although, it does seem there will be another slight change in some of the evidence. I think prosecutors will have to pull back a little bit in the way that they present some of the financial crime evidence in the case… But… there’s such great evidence in this case… I think the only outstanding question will be: Will he testify again?”
Condon does not believe Murdaugh will take the stand again in his own defense, but he also doesn’t foresee this being an open and shut case for the prosecution. “To my experience, a retrial typically benefits the state because you know what the defense is doing. I think in this case, though, it’s completely different,” he noted. “I think the defense has a real advantage because of the way that trial went down.”
“There was all sorts of technical information that came in… that really provided all sorts of circumstantial evidence that supported the state’s theory. And I think [the defense has] the opportunity here now to reconstruct how they did things and do things quite differently,” Condon added. “I think the defense is going to have a real advantage here, and I think the state will not have as easy a time. There’s a Himalayan mountain of evidence against [Murdaugh], but I do think that they’re going to be put to the test a bit more than they were in the first trial.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Condon and Politan by tuning in to episode 1,316 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.