Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, once seen as the sweet, homely “Miss Becky,” will be the center of a three-day hearing, beginning Jan. 29 in South Carolina, to see whether the Convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh deserves a new trial.
Lawyers for Murdaugh, who is now serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, allege in their appeal that Hill manipulated the jury, leading them to believe Murdaugh was guilty during the six-week trial that ended on March 3, 2023.
Hill has denied any wrongdoing.
“Becky Hill is a narcissist who was lost and was pushing for a hot book. [about the case] while, at the same time, he seemed to be crossing a lot of lines with the jurors,” a longtime Hampton County native who knows most of the players on both sides of the Murdaugh trial told The Post. “Right now it looks like some local yokels really screwed up the trial; If irregularity is demonstrated at the hearing, South Carolina jurisprudence will want it corrected. Everything seems very contaminated at the moment and I suppose he [Murdaugh] I will have a second chance.”
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of the double murder of his wife and son during a six-week trial last year, but due to alleged jury tampering, he may be able to get a new trial. AP
Hill did not respond to a call for comment.
According to a pretrial brief filed Wednesday by Murdaugh’s attorneys, they don’t even need to prove that Hill influenced them.
“Mr. Murdaugh need not show actual bias on the part of any juror to obtain a new trial,” his lawyers wrote in the brief. “If Mr. Murdaugh proves his allegation that Ms. Hill communicated with the jury about evidence presented by the defense during his murder trial, federal and South Carolina law requires that Mr. Murdaugh receive a new trial, regardless of whether the court believes the outcome of the trial would have been the same had it not occurred. jury tampering by Ms. Hill.”
State prosecutors presented their arguments Thursday, saying the defense does We have to show that there was jury tampering and also that at least one of the jurors was biased because of it.
Rebecca “Miss Becky” Hill is the Colleton County Clerk of Court. Her alleged inappropriate communication with jurors will be the subject of a hearing later this month to see if Alex Murdaugh gets a new trial for it. Facebook/Rebecca Hill for Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill (right) with some of the Murdaugh jurors when they traveled to New York to be on NBC’s “Today” show. Facebook
What could also arise during the evidentiary hearing is whether the lone juror widely believed to be the only holdout in voting to convict Murdaugh was improperly removed from the jury just hours before deliberations were to begin.
The controversial dismissal of the so-called “Egg Lady Juror” (who received that nickname because she asked if she could get a carton of eggs back when the judge told her she had been dismissed) involves Hill over an incriminating Facebook post by the jury in which he said that Hill claims to have seen it, but has not been able to prove that it ever existed.
The case against Hill has apparently grown even stronger in recent weeks as a result of a leak of incriminating data from 2,100 of his work emails via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The emails suggest that Hill apparently played favorites among journalists, offering some special access, and that he worked on and promoted his book with government money.
Three of Murdaugh’s attorneys, Phillip Barber, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, held an explosive press conference in September in which they accused Hill of jury tampering. AP
Hill had already been fighting two ethics complaints about her, including one related to work she did on her book while on the job.
Additionally, his son Jeffrey Hill, 34, who had been Colleton County’s IT chief, was arrested in November for allegedly wiretapping work telephone conversations.
The clerk also emailed state prosecutors and police witnesses directly during the trial about the “merits of defense witnesses’ testimony,” Murdaugh’s attorneys, Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Phillip Barber and Margaret Fox.
Some emails were not disclosed to the media, but are expected to come to light at a pretrial public hearing on Jan. 16, before the three-day session begins on Jan. 29.
Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son, Paul, 22, were brutally murdered by Alex at the Murdaugh estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021. Facebook The entrance to Moselle, the country home of Murdaugh in Islandton, South Carolina, where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were murdered on the night of June 7, 2021. Dana Kennedy
Things got even worse for Hill two weeks ago when, as a result of the emails, it was discovered that she also plagiarized parts of “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” her memoir about the trial.
She admitted the plagiarism and the book will be withdrawn from publication.
But highly respected former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean H. Toal, 80, who will oversee the hearing at the Richland County courthouse, may also be briefed on the often highly charged legal and media circus. , surrounding the case, which some say has long influenced the narrative surrounding Alex Murdaugh.
A cottage industry of lawyers, bloggers, journalists and podcasters emerged following the sensational and brutal murders of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul, 22, at their Islandton, South Carolina, estate in June 2021, with many monetize the scandal through books, television appearances and even merchandise.
One is Eric Bland, 61, a Columbia, S.C., medical and legal malpractice attorney who represents four jurors in the Murdaugh trial, the children of Gloria Satterfield, Murdaugh’s housekeeper who died in mysterious circumstances at her home, and even Sandy Smith.
The latter is the mother of Stephen Smith, the young gay man found dead on a rural road not far from the Murdaugh home in 2015.
Bland was criticized in the brief filed Wednesday for being a “publicity-seeking” attorney, in part because he wants to be included in this month’s Murdaugh hearings since he represents four jurors.
Bland responded with the kind of response that has become the norm, especially among the armies of online Murdaugh assassination fans who regularly fight each other.
Attorney Eric Bland has played a role in the Murdaugh saga since it began. An Eric Bland bobblehead doll is among the products for sale related to the Murdaugh case. mimi lutz/Facebook
“My only answer is that my partner and I continue to live rent-free in [Murdaugh attorney Dick] The Harpootlian head,” Bland told The Post. “But I find it interesting that Dick Harpootlian is talking about lawyers seeking publicity when there is no microphone or television camera he cannot please. He really he’s a greedy lawyer right now. Sad. He simply reinforces the idea that lawyers should expire like yogurt.”
Bland, who goes by “EB” online, also hosts two podcasts, “True Sunlight” and “Cup of Justice,” with Mandy Matney and her colleague Liz Farrell under the Lunashark Media umbrella, which charges its roughly 3,000 members. premium. a monthly fee of $14.95. She began appearing on television regularly once he landed the Satterfields as clients.
Bland’s media profile has grown to the point of hosting an occasional Twitter series called “Meet EB + Renée” with his wife and sells products like an “EB” bobblehead doll, T-shirts with phrases like “Lawyer Up!” and mugs that said “The world has too many dicks. We need more EB.” Proceeds from the merchandise go to charity.
You can also reserve a custom video of him on Cameo for $50.
The Murdaugh family. The surviving son, Buster (left), has barely spoken once since Alex was convicted of Maggie and Paul’s murders. Facebook
Bland’s representation of Sandy Smith that began last March means he has had some oversight of a GoFundMe established in March to pay for the costs of exhuming Stephen’s body and a second independent autopsy.
GoFundMe raised more than $130,000 in just a few days before it was shut down and a scholarship fund was established in its place.
It is a donor-advised fund, meaning it is sponsored by a larger organization and therefore it is impossible to know how much money has been donated.
Smith told The Post this week that people are still donating to the scholarship fund.
Murdaugh is currently serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. AP
She said she has not been notified of the results of the second autopsy, despite organizing and funding it, adding that she and Bland were told to turn the report over to SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement).
Harpootlian, Murdaugh’s longtime attorney, said the online circus has been a constant theme before, during and after Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial.
“The new element here is social media and podcasts. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Dick Harpootlian told The Post. “They take on a life of their own where everyone becomes an expert, whether they have qualifications or not.”
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