Alex Murdaugh has sued the South Carolina clerk who interfered with the jury that found him guilty of killing his wife and son – just days after his conviction was overturned.
Murdaugh, 57 – a disbarred lawyer who remains behind bars for bilking his clients out of millions — is going after ex-Colleton County clerk Becky Hill for $600,000 after he claims she tried to sway jurors to convict him of killing his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul in 2021, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday.
“Neither Mr. Murdaugh nor his counsel knew at the time of the trial that Ms. Hill…had secretly and deliberately inserted herself into the jury’s deliberative process for personal financial gain,” the 17-page complaint read.
Hill was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty in December to obstruction of justice, perjury, and two counts of misconduct in office for showing sealed crime scene photos to a reporter and lying about it.
She also admitted to promoting her book about the trial through her public office.
Murdaugh’s conviction was overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court last week, which found Hill “placed her fingers on the scales of justice.”
Murdaugh’s lawyers had previously appealed the guilty double murder conviction – which was delivered during a dramatic six-week-long trial that gripped the nation in 2023 – over the disgraced clerk’s jury tampering.
“Ms. Hill made repeated, improper extrajudicial communications to jurors in which she urged them not to be ‘fooled,’ ‘confused,’ ‘thrown off,’ or ‘convinced’ by Murdaugh and his defense,” his lawyers wrote in the new suit.
According to the docs, Hill said things to jurors like, “‘Y’all are going to hear things that will throw you all off. Don’t let this distract you or mislead you.’”
She also told jurors “not to be fooled” by evidence presented by the defense team, and instructed them to “watch him closely” and “look at his movements” when Murdaugh took the stand.
The suit also claims Hill and the jury foreperson “on multiple occasions went into another room to have private conversations lasting five or ten minutes,” including in the jury room’s single-occupancy bathroom.
“In doing so, Ms. Hill ‘became a character witness on behalf of the State, encouraging the jurors to question Murdaugh’s credibility,’ and ‘essentially implored the jurors to find him guilty, the ultimate issue in the case,’” the docs read, citing the supreme court justices’ sensational 5-0 ruling last week.
Murdaugh’s lawyers blasted Hill’s motive as a “self-serving desire for personal profit.
“She wanted to write a book about the most high-profile trial in South Carolina history so she could buy a lake house,” they wrote in the suit.
The South Carolina Supreme Court justices had called Hill’s actions “breathtaking,” “disgraceful” and “unprecedented in South Carolina” – and determined that Murdaugh hadn’t been granted a fair trial as a result.
Regarding the retrial, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has said that his office has “credible evidence that supports the conclusions that we came to the first time, and we intend to pursue those again.”
Despite the overturned conviction, Murdaugh will remain behind bars serving concurrent 40-year federal and 27-year state sentences for financial crimes.
Hill’s criminal defense attorney didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday. It wasn’t immediately known who would be representing her in the civil case.
