On the same day their client appeared in federal court to plead guilty to nearly two dozen financial crimes, attorneys for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh dropped their latest motion on Thursday in connection with seismic jury tampering allegations made earlier this month before the South Carolina court of appeals.
Murdaugh’s attorneys – state senator Dick Harpootlian, veteran Columbia, S.C. lawyer Jim Griffin and attorney Phillip Barber – dropped a bombshell on September 5, 2023 when they alleged jury tampering on the part of Colleton County clerk of court, Becky Hill.
Those allegations are currently being investigated by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – which Harpootlian has hinted is less interested in uncovering the facts surrounding the claims and more interested in propping up Murdaugh’s guilty verdicts.
SLED was the lead investigatory agency on the double homicide case – which was tried in Walterboro, S.C. between January 27 – March 3, 2023. At that trial, Murdaugh was found guilty of savagely killing his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh at Moselle – at the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property straddling the Salkehatchie River on the border of Colleton and Hampton counties.
Now Hill has been accused of putting her thumb on the scales of justice – in favor of the state. Murdaugh’s attorneys are asking the appellate court – the second highest court in the Palmetto State – to suspend Murdaugh’s appeal of his convictions so the trial judge in this case, Clifton Newman, can consider the merits of the jury tampering allegations.
Or, so another judge can consider the allegations should Newman be identified as a witness to the current investigation or an impartial arbiter of fact based on his previous extrajudicial comments about Murdaugh.
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The new filing (.pdf) – which reiterates that Hill allegedly “engaged in deliberate jury tampering for money and publicity” – comes less than 48 hours after streaming provider Netflix debuted the latest installment of its expansive documentary, ‘Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.’
Hill is one of the stars of the latest Netflix offering.
“The very serious allegations against Ms. Hill are not mere speculation but have sworn evidentiary support,” the new filing noted.
Referencing last week’s response from the office of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – which focused on alleged procedural deficiencies in the original Murdaugh filing – this document accused the state of responding “in bad faith to these serious allegations.”
“(The state) wants Mr. Murdaugh to spend weeks jumping through preposterous procedural hoops invented only for him,” the filing alleged.
Specifically, the pleading accused Wilson’s office of deliberately delaying the matter based on “its desire to conduct unsupervised factual discovery.”
That’s a reference to the ongoing SLED probe – which Harpootlian argued should “stand down” earlier this month. Instead of SLED, Harpootlian requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the office of U.S. attorney Adair Ford Boroughs to handle the case.
So far, though, the feds are staying out of the jury tampering drama …
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AFFIDAVIT DRAMA …
As for the alleged procedural defect in the original filing, Murdaugh’s lawyers were aggressive in refuting that their client needed to submit an affidavit accompanying their motion for a new trial. Harpootlian, Griffin and Barber accused state prosecutors of relying “exclusively on an out-of-context, cherry-picked quote” from a 52-year-old court ruling (State v. DeAngelis) to justify their position that Murdaugh must submit such a sworn statement.
“Mr. Murdaugh does not need to provide an affidavit to make a prima facie case that he did not know the Clerk of Court was surreptitiously talking to jurors about his case while he was sitting at the defendant’s table in the courtroom, or in a holding cell in the courthouse, or in a cell in the Colleton County jail,” they wrote. “The circumstances make the prima facie case — he did not know because there was no possible way he could know.”
Nonetheless, they included the affidavit …
(Click to View)
As for the debate over a new trial, Murdaugh’s lawyers made it abundantly clear they believe Wilson’s office was stalling with its response to their motion.
“If the Attorney General wishes to argue a new trial should not be granted because Mr. Murdaugh knew of the jury tampering during trial or because he could have learned about it during trial through due diligence, he must make that fact-based argument in the trial court in the first instance,” the filing noted. “But it is highly unlikely the Attorney General would make such an absurd argument in front of television cameras in a courtroom. He suggests it now on paper only for purposes of delay.”
It is now up to the appeals court to decide whether to stay Murdaugh’s appeal so that the trial court can review the jury tampering allegations. Frankly, that shouldn’t be a stretch as both sides agree in principle the matter should be referred back to the circuit court.
The only question is whether Newman will – or should – be the judge to hear the discussion.
Stay tuned for much more on that …
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THE FILING …
(Via: S.C. Court of Appeals)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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7 comments
More smoke and mirrors from HarmBo.
Wonder who will take the defamation case for Ms. Hill when this farce is finally completely exposed?
Wonder who is really paying HarnBo since “Elick” is impecunious according to Harpo? (For you Red Bank folks that means “Elick” ain’t got no money”).
Wonder why Todd Rutherford did everything but kiss “Elick” on the mouth the other day in court?
Wonder when “Elick” will be charged with filing a false police report for the “skull fracture” he received on that road side “shooting” that Harpo made much press about and Jimbo actually made a public bet with Matney over?
Wonder why Jimbo hasn’t been charged or censored over the “jail house tapes”?
Wonder when HarmBo will face the much deserved public excoriation over their conduct in this case? It’s one thing to make the best case for your defendant that you can, it’s all together different to lie, dissemble and attempt to sublimate justice as these two have done.
But most of all, I wonder where the money went?
Simple… Poot wants the DOJ and the FBI to take over and treat Elick the same way they are treating his good friend Biden’s son… he wants that sweet deal and treatment Hunter is getting for Elick…I really think Poot and Biden are brothers from different mothers… they both start yelling when they speak for no reason at all.. also they both shuffle and look disoriented.. birds of a feather…
whatever, still guilty. now f…off
The M.O. (Method of Operation) of Griff and Harpo is that everyone but them are inept, corrupt or both against their client. They tried that tactic during the murder trial and they’re trying it now. Not happenin’, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. They lost because they presented an embarrassingly pathetic case against a “beyond reasonable doubt” prosecution and they can’t stand it. THAT is what this is all about. They should have known better to go with the flow of AleX Murderer’s warped and sick ego.
In another life, I may or may not have knowledge about “jailhouse” legal filings from inmates against the law enforcement entities that had originally arrested said inmates and landed them in prison. Scribbled in pencil, these handwritten legal suits would accuse anyone and everyone of almost anything to help get the inmate an appeal. The problem with Murdaugh is that he actually IS (or was) an attorney. So he has nothing better to do than to sit and think 24/7 about how he can get his murder conviction overturned. He’s pleaded guilty on the financial charges, so no doubt thinks with the murder conviction set aside, he can transfer to a plush federal prison where he can play golf all day. And if the state chooses to forgo V2 of a murder trial, then he just serves out the fed charges and he’s out again, easy peasy. And if he does have to redo the murder trial, the comedy team of lawyers he has will actually, somehow, exonerate him. Having witnessed the ongoing ineptitude of his comedic legal team, all I can say is “good luck with that.”
Well, against popular opinions on here, I must admit while watching the trial, it was unnerving to see her drinking from a Parkers cup…seems the camera man panned in on it a few times. That’s all I’ve got to say.
Becky Hill and her coauthor self-published the book with their own money. Their story was not picked by McGraw-Hill, Simon and Schuster, or any of the major publishing companies, so they didn’t get huge advace fees.
The Today Show probably paid for her flight, hotel, meals, and other expenses for the interview.