3/25/2024
The clerk of court accused of jury tampering in Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial has resigned, she announced Monday, almost two months after a judge ruled the allegations against the Colleton County, South Carolina, official were not enough to grant Murdaugh a new trial.
“Today is not in response whatsoever to anything going on with any investigation or anything of that nature,” Rebecca “Becky” Hill’s attorney, Justin Bamberg, said during a news conference outside the courthouse.
Hill as recently as January was the subject of two open investigations, a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesperson confirmed then to CNN: one “regarding her alleged interactions with the jury” in Murdaugh’s murder trial and the other “regarding allegations she used her elected position for personal gain.”
In ruling against the request for a new trial by Murdaugh – convicted last year for the murders of his wife and 22-year-old son and sentenced to life in prison – the judge said Hill was “attracted by the siren call of celebrity,” having decided she wanted to write a book about the trial even before it began. Hill strongly denied the allegations, which were explored in a hearing in late January at which a retired South Carolina Supreme Court chief justice questioned each of the 12 jurors.
Several indicated they’d heard Hill make comments, but only one said it influenced her verdict. And the judge did not feel comments Hill made in the presence of the jury affected its guilty verdict.
The case brought international attention – books, documentaries and podcasts have been made about it – to Murdaugh, a former personal injury attorney whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as prosecutors for part of southern South Carolina from 1920 to 2006.
By extension, it also brought notoriety to the South Carolina Lowcountry, its residents and those who played a role in the high-profile trial, Hill among them: She co-authored a book published several months after the trial ended and participated in a Netflix docuseries about the case.
In seeking a new trial, Murdaugh and his attorneys claimed Hill inappropriately discussed the case with jurors and pressured them to conclude deliberations quickly in hopes of securing a “book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial.”