Alex Murdaugh murder convictions overturned by South Carolina Supreme Court

The South Carolina Supreme Court docket has overturned the homicide convictions of Alex Murdaugh, who was discovered responsible of killing his spouse and youthful son, discovering that the court docket clerk’s “improper exterior affect” on the jury denied him a good trial.

Murdaugh’s spouse, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and youthful son, Paul Murdaugh, 22, have been discovered useless from a number of gunshot wounds close to the canine kennels on the household’s looking property in 2021.

Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of murdering them following a six-week trial, with jurors deliberating for practically three hours earlier than reaching a responsible verdict.

The five-member court docket dominated in an unanimous resolution that Murdaugh will need to have a brand new trial, citing the actions of former Colleton County Clerk of Court docket Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill, the court docket clerk who served in the course of the double homicide trial.

Hill “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility and his protection, thus triggering the presumption of prejudice, which the State was unable to rebut,” the court docket’s opinion said. “As famous on the outset, Hill’s stunning jury interference was completed exterior the presence and data of the excellent trial choose and fantastically competent {and professional} counsel for the State and the protection.”

In a footnote, the justices stated they “commend the post-trial court docket, which inherited Murdaugh’s movement for a brand new trial and was positioned within the unenviable place of evaluating unprecedented jury interference by a clerk of court docket inside the context of a murky space of regulation.”

Following the choice, South Carolina Legal professional Normal Alan Wilson stated his workplace will “aggressively” search to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders “as quickly as potential.”

“Let me be clear — this resolution doesn’t imply Murdaugh shall be launched,” Wilson stated in an announcement. “He’ll stay in jail for his monetary crimes. Nobody is above the regulation and, as all the time, we are going to proceed to combat for justice.”

Murdaugh was additionally convicted on a number of monetary crimes following the homicide trial and is serving a 27-year sentence on state prices and a 40-year sentence on federal prices associated to these crimes.

Within the homicide trial, prosecutors made the case that Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a legacy of outstanding attorneys within the Lowcountry area, killed his spouse and son to realize sympathy and distract from his monetary wrongdoings, whereas the protection argued that police ignored the chance that anybody else might have killed them.

Murdaugh has continued to take care of his innocence concerning the deaths of his spouse and son. His protection alleged that jury tampering and evidentiary errors — together with the inclusion of his monetary crimes — denied him a good trial.  

Murdaugh’s attorneys contend that Hill tampered with the jury by “advising it to not imagine Murdaugh’s testimony and different protection proof, pressuring it to achieve a fast responsible verdict, misrepresenting info to the trial court docket in an try to have the court docket take away a juror she believed to favor the protection.”

Throughout oral arguments earlier than the state Supreme Court docket justices on the matter in February, the protection alleged that Hill tampered with the jury to make sure a responsible verdict as a result of, they claimed, it could assist her promote extra copies of a e book she would go on to jot down concerning the high-profile case. 

Murdaugh’s protection claimed that Hill influenced the decision by way of remarks heard by some jurors in the course of the trial, together with in a single occasion to look at Murdaugh’s physique language throughout his testimony, in keeping with court docket filings. 

“The clerk of court docket allowed public consideration of the second to beat her obligation,” Murdaugh’s lawyer, Dick Harpootlian, stated in the course of the February listening to.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters countered in the course of the listening to that Hill made a “few fleeting feedback” over the course of a six-week trial that included practically 90 witnesses and virtually 600 reveals, arguing that they weren’t sufficient to affect the decision. 

Chief Justice John Kittredge known as Hill a “rogue clerk of court docket” in the course of the listening to and stated he wished to make word that the “overwhelming majority” of clerks within the state are “devoted, conscientious public servants” who “don’t act like this.”

Hill resigned because the Colleton County clerk of court docket in March 2024, amid the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division’s investigation into allegations she could have abused her authorities place for monetary acquire.

She pleaded responsible in December 2025 to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in workplace for exhibiting pictures that have been sealed court docket proof to a reporter in the course of the trial after which later mendacity about doing so on the stand throughout a listening to associated to Murdaugh’s bid for a brand new trial.

The fees didn’t allege any jury tampering, and she or he denied any tampering with the jury throughout her testimony.

The state supreme court docket’s opinion didn’t handle the entire evidentiary points raised by Murdaugh, ordering a brand new trial on the idea of Hill’s conduct alone, although the justices did handle the “thorny subject” of the admissibility of his monetary crimes, which supported the state’s idea of motive. The justices discovered that the trial court docket acted inside its discretion in admitting some proof of the offenses, although they did word that the proof might have been introduced in a “fraction” of the 12.5 hours the state spent on it in the course of the trial.

If the trial court docket decides to confess proof of Murdaugh’s monetary crimes on retrial, prosecutors “should full its introduction of that proof effectively with out the prolonged presentation of inflammatory particulars with little to no probative worth that was permitted within the first trial,” the opinion said.