Lawyers for lawyer-turned-convict Alex Murdaugh filed an appeal Tuesday, saying incorrect testimony and alleged jury tampering by court clerk Becky Hill “injured the trial.”
Murdo (56 years old) is serving a Life imprisonment for fatal shooting His wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, in June 2021 at their family's hunting ranch in Colleton County, South Carolina. Prosecutors said their murders were an attempt to distract attention from Murdoch's increasing financial crimes, which began to come to light around that time.
Last April, the disgraced legal scion was sentenced to an additional 480 months in prison, in addition to two life sentences, for conspiracy to commit wire and wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 14 counts Related to online fraud. Money laundering.
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Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, on his hunting ranch in June 2021. (Andrew J. Whittaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File)
Prosecutors allege Murdaugh used his power and family influence in the Lowcountry to take on clients' cases, make them “big money” and then keep a decent portion of the profits for himself.
But in their 132-page appeal, filed Tuesday, Murdaugh's lawyers said their client's financial crimes should not have been included in the previous murder trial, saying they were irrelevant and could have painted him in a bad light that negatively affected jurors. .
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Court Clerk Becky Hill is accused of jury tampering in Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial. (Fox Nation)
The appeal also alleges that former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill, who resigned over jury tampering allegations in the Murdaugh case, convinced jurors to convict him.
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Of the 12 jurors who found Murdoch guilty of murder in March 2023, 11 said Hill did not influence their decisions. One said he heard the employee make comments about watching Murdaugh's body language, but said her words did not influence his judgment.
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Alex Murdaugh sits during a hearing on a motion for retrial, January 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center in Columbia, South Carolina. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)
Judge Jean Toal ruled in January that the charges against Hill were not enough to grant the defendant a new trial in the murder case. Murdoch's lawyers argued against this ruling in their appeal.
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Hill, who is accused of 76 ethics violations, was expected to face the state Ethics Commission on December 19. But that hearing is on hold in light of the pending criminal investigation by the District Attorney's Office. Al-Dawla newspaper reported.
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The appeal also alleges that prosecutors presented multiple weapons as evidence that had no evidence linking them to the murders, and that gunshot residue on a raincoat offered as evidence in court was not linked to their client by any evidence.
Fox News Digital's Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
