Could Alex Murdaugh get a new murder trial? Lawyers weigh in
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - There’s now another twist in the complicated Alex Murdaugh saga as the South Carolina Supreme Court will take up the convicted killer’s jury tampering appeal.
The question of whether Murdaugh gets a new murder trial goes straight to the state’s highest court, bying the typical Court of Appeals process.
The five justices will decide whether comments made by former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill led to his convictions for the killings of his wife and son in a lengthy trial last year.
Three prominent Palmetto state lawyers who are und with the case spoke with WIS on Wednesday about the stakes and what lies ahead.
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They expressed varying opinions about what comes next but one point stuck out: that this case is likely far from over.
There is great public interest in the case, but also a determination to get it right, they said.
“The wheels of justice have always moved faster with Murdaugh-related hearings so I cannot apply any logic that I would apply to any other case to what’s likely to happen in Murdaugh,” attorney Mandy Powers Norrell said.
Veteran Columbia-based defense attorney Jack Swirling said this decision may mean that Murdaugh is one step closer to a retrial, but was hesitant to definitively make that prediction.
“It could go either way, on both issues, any trial errors, but also on the jury tampering,” he said.
Powers Norrell said she believes Murdaugh likely has a low likelihood of succeeding with this particular appeal.
“It’s not low like buying a lottery ticket low,” she said. “I think there is a maybe a 20 percent chance, just looking at the facts of this case and there are enough questions.”
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The likelier scenario, according to Powers Norrell, is that the state Supreme Court will remand the case for a determination of facts.
Local lawyer John Mobley said it is very probable that the of justices grants the disgraced Lowcountry attorney a new trial.
“I would say 75 percent chance of him getting a new trial,” he said. “I think that’s going to give him a significant advantage because the first trial had a lot of unknowns, a lot of variables that the defense could not for.”
In January, former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal determined that though Hill made inappropriate comments to jurors, it did not influence the trial’s outcome.
The state’s highest court is now taking another look at that ruling.
“With it being Murdaugh, I think that the legal community wants this put to bed, the justice system in South Carolina wants this put to bed,” Powers Norell said. “They want it put to bed in a way that delivers justice and fairness and shows that we treat everyone equally under the law.”
Toal guided her decision-making in the case on precedent in a state case called South Carolina v. Green, which put the burden of proof on the defense.
However, Murdaugh’s attorneys argue the burden should instead be placed on the state to prove that the comments Hill made were harmless to the jurors’ deliberations.
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That relies on a federal standard set forth in Remmer v. United States.
“As a lawyer and as an advocate, I’m in favor of the federal standard,” Swerling said. “If there is jury tampering, if there’s improper influence brought on jurors, to me it’s presumptive that there was prejudice. But again, I’m just a lawyer. I just argue this stuff, the judges decide it.”
Swerling praised Toal’s legal mind, calling her a “brilliant Chief Justice,” and suggested that the high court will likely give some deference to her due to her prior position.
Mobley said he thinks Toal got it wrong, citing testimony from one juror at that January hearing who said Hill’s statements influenced her verdict.
Juror Z, as the individual was identified, told Toal that Hill “seems like [Murdaugh] was already guilty.”
“The only way to establish prejudice if you’re trying to determine whether or not the communications influenced the jurors’ outcome is to get the jurors to testify,” Mobley said. “They’re either going to say they did or they did not. That is your evidence. That is the only way any defendant or defense attorney can establish prejudice. And once a juror says, ‘Yes, that comment influenced my decision,’ that is their evidence of prejudice. So I don’t think it even needs to go to that lower standard because they met the higher standard.”
Regardless of the outcome of the murder case, Murdaugh faces multiple convictions in federal and state court related to a slew of financial crimes.
He is currently appealing a 40-year federal sentence for a decade-long scheme to steal millions of dollars from his law firm and clients.
Hill, meanwhile, has resigned from her position as Clerk of Court and is the subject of a state ethics investigation, which focuses on whether she used her elected position for personal gain.
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