The story of the Murdaughs, a powerful clan of lawyers from the Lowcountry, a swampy piece of land in South Carolina, included million-dollar scams, opioid addiction, two murders, and several life sentences. Since this Wednesday, it also includes an unusual order from the state Supreme Court to retry the jury trial that ended with a guilty verdict for Alex Murdaugh for killing his wife and one of his two sons.
The unanimous decision of its five justices has brought back into the spotlight a case that three years ago captivated the American public with a saga worthy of the best true crime — so worthy that it provided material for two television series.
The plot was resolved with a televised trial broadcast live. The reason for overturning the conviction was, according to the court, a “scandalous jury interference maneuver” by a court clerk named Becky Hill. She was in charge of guiding the 12 members (and six alternates) through the deliberation process, and apparently, so much media attention went to her head that, according to the South Carolina Supreme Court, she “tipped the scales of justice.”
In those days of 2023, Alex Murdaugh, then a tall redhead aged 54, became an intriguing presence for those who followed the trial for the murder of his wife Maggie, 52, and one of his two sons, Paul, 22. Paul was also awaiting trial for a manslaughter that occurred 16 months before his death, when one of his friends died due to his recklessness at the helm of the family boat during a drunken night.
According to the jury, Murdaugh killed his own to hide the extent of his financial crimes, for which he was also sentenced to 40 years in prison. He always maintained his innocence on the murder charges but pleaded guilty to those other accusations, which are what will now keep him in prison while awaiting the retrial.
His lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin welcomed the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision this Wednesday. “We look forward to a new trial conducted in accordance with the Constitution,” they said in a statement.
Financial crimes
During the first trial, Murdaugh admitted that he had lied, due to the paranoia of his opioid addiction, when he said he was not in the part of the family estate where the bodies were supposedly found after 10:00 p.m., riddled with a hunting shotgun, his wife’s, and an assault rifle, his son’s. He also admitted to a double life: beneath the successful appearance of a lawyer with everything under control, there was an addict who stole from partners and clients of a firm specializing in litigation and compensation to pay for a dependency that, he claimed, cost him about $50,000 a week. It is estimated that he embezzled $8.8 million.
The jury members took only three hours to find him guilty and thus buy the prosecution’s arguments, which argued that he had decided to kill his wife and son to gain the sympathy of the small rural community where his family had been a reference for decades.
According to the jury members, Hill, court clerk of Colleton County, made comments during the trial about Murdaugh intending to influence them, such as that they should pay attention to his body language and not his words, with which he sought to “deceive them.”
Hill resigned from her job after the trial. In December, she was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to embezzlement of public funds and using her public office for personal benefit by promoting a book about the trial.
It is titled Behind the Closed Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, and on its back cover, it reads: “For years, Becky knew about the rumors of corruption and crime surrounding the Murdaugh family. These accusations came and went, with none prospering.” This Wednesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that her familiarity with the case ended in the annulment of the trial that made her famous.
