(Newsworthy.news) – After convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh petitioned to have a second trial and allegations that a court clerk had interfered with the jury during the initial hearings, a judge has refused the request.
The former lawyer from South Carolina was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife and adult child two years before. Following the emergence of allegations that Rebecca Hill, clerk of the Colleton County court, had pressured the jury to limit their deliberation and determine a verdict efficiently during the first trial, Murdaugh’s attorneys demanded a new hearing.
According to Judge Jean Toal, all 12 members of the jury who listened to the evidentiary hearings informed her on January 29 that Hill’s comments did not influence their final guilty verdict for Murdaugh. The judge also shared her hesitation to believe that the clerk had even truthfully said that she talked to the jurors, suggesting that Hill was instead moved by the high-profile case.
Toal reportedly reviewed the six-week trial’s full transcript before deciding that the verdict could not be reversed or revisited, citing the lack of compelling reason to do so and that a new trial was requested on the basis of certain “foolish comments” made by Hill, whom the judge described as “a publicity-seeking clerk of court.”
On Monday January 29, each of the 12 jurors from the trial testified in front of Toal, saying their verdict was not influenced by any interference from the clerk. Hill, who also testified, denied ever having spoken with the members of the jury about Murdaugh or his case.
Murdaugh was found guilty in March 2023 for the double-homicide of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, who was 22 years old at the time of his death. The former attorney was also convicted of additional charges, including two counts of possessing a weapon while committing a violent crime.
The disgraced lawyer was later dealt an additional 27-year imprisonment—after receiving two life sentences for the murders—in punishment for committing more than a dozen financial crimes in his state.
Copyright 2024, Newsworthy.news
