Alex Murdaugh Sues Ex-Clerk for $600,000 After Court Voids 2023 Murder Convictions
Updated
Updated · NBC News · May 18
Alex Murdaugh Sues Ex-Clerk for $600,000 After Court Voids 2023 Murder Convictions
17 articles · Updated · NBC News · May 18
$600,000 in damages is at the center of Alex Murdaugh’s federal civil rights suit against former clerk Rebecca Hill, filed days after South Carolina’s top court overturned his murder convictions and life sentence.
The state Supreme Court said Hill’s “improper external influences on the jury” denied Murdaugh a fair trial, and his lawyers said the suit aims to uncover the full scope of her conduct before any retrial.
Hill pleaded guilty last year to showing sealed exhibits to a photographer and lying about it, receiving probation, but she has denied influencing jurors during the 2023 trial.
A retrial now looms by year-end, with Attorney General Alan Wilson saying all options remain open, including the death penalty, while Murdaugh’s lawyers argue that threat would be vindictive.
Murdaugh remains in prison on separate 27-year and 40-year state and federal financial-crimes sentences, so the overturned murder verdicts do not free him.
With his financial crimes off the table, can Alex Murdaugh be convicted of murder a second time?
A clerk's misconduct overturned a murder verdict, so why has she avoided a jury tampering charge herself?