Lawyers for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh on Monday filed an affidavit that raises additional questions about whether Colleton County Circuit Court Clerk Becky Hill invented a false tale about a Facebook post during the trial that supposedly prompted a pro-Murdough juror to start the jury.
Hill’s attorney, Will Lewis, declined to comment.
Earlier this month, In a suit before the SC Court of Appeals, Murdoch’s attorneys, Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian, alleged that Hill falsely said that the fired juror’s ex-husband, identified only as Juror 785, had posted a statement on Facebook in effect saying the juror’s mind had already been made up about Murdoch’s guilt. But the ex-husband denied publishing the statement, according to what was stated in the lawyers’ file.
This week, Griffin and Harpootlian made another suggestion, saying they had found the man who actually made the post Hill was talking about. He swore in an affidavit that he was not Juror 785’s ex-husband and that his publication was not related to Mardo’s trial.
“The initial post on February 15, 2023 and the follow-up post on February 16, 2023, are not related to anyone associated with the state’s case against Murdoch. The man, identified as Timothy Stone, of Odom, Georgia, said the February 15 post was in response to my wife’s aunt “who stuck her nose in my business.”
The disputed Facebook post is one of a series of allegations made by Griffin and Harpootlian regarding alleged inappropriate conduct by Hill that defense attorneys contend deprived Murdaugh of his constitutional right to a fair trial.
Last March, a jury deliberated less than three hours in a six-week trial before convicting Murdaugh of the June 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at their 1,770-acre home in rural Colleton County.
Defense attorneys are demanding a new trial and a public hearing, when the allegations they made about Hill can be fully examined.
In response to the defense’s initial allegations about Hill, Attorney General Alan Wilson requested that agents from the South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement investigate. Obviously, SLED’s findings will be part of any hearing ordered by the Court of Appeal.
The initial filing also said that during the trial, Hill indicated to jurors that Murdoch was guilty of killing his wife and son, and that they should not be fooled by his statements that he did not do it.
The defense also said Hill’s motive for trying to influence the jury was to promote a book she was writing about the trial that would serve as an insider’s account. “Miss. Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame,” the document said.
There are more than eight books on the Murdo case in preparation. Several have already been published, including Hill’s novel, which has been revised several times since its publication in late July.
