Colleton County court clerk Rebecca Hill, once seen as the sweet and friendly “Miss Becky,” will be the focus of a three-day trial, beginning Jan. 29 in South Carolina, to see if convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh deserves a new trial.
Lawyers for Murdaugh – currently serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul – claimed in their appeal that Hill tampered with jurors, leading them to believe that Murdaugh was guilty during the six-week trial that ended on 3 March 2023.
Hill has denied any wrongdoing.
“Becky Hill is a narcissist who is in over her head and out to get a hot book [about the case] out while, at the same time, seemed to cross a lot of lines with the jury,” a Hampton County native who knew many of the players on both sides of Murdaugh’s trial told The Post. “Now it looks as if some of the local yokels are really monkeys up to trial; if impropriety is shown at the hearing, South Carolina law enforcement will want it corrected. It all looks very tainted now and my guess is he is [Murdaugh] will get a do-over.”
Alex Murdaugh was convicted of the double murder of his wife and son during a six-week trial last year — but because of alleged jury tampering, it’s possible he could get a new trial. AP
Hill did not return calls for comment.
According to a pre-trial brief filed by Murdaugh’s attorneys on Wednesday, they don’t have 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 attorney wrote in the brief. “If Mr. Murdaugh proves his claim that Ms. Hill communicated with the jury about the evidence presented by the defense during her murder trial, South Carolina and federal law require Mr. Murdaugh to receive a new trial, regardless of whether the court believes the verdict the trial would have been the same had Ms. Hill’s jury not been distracted.”
State prosecutors filed their arguments Thursday, claiming that the defense no need to prove that there was juror interference and also that at least one juror was biased because of it.
Rebecca “Miss Becky” Hill is the clerk of court for Colleton County. His alleged inappropriate communications with jurors will be the subject of a hearing later this month to see if Alex Murdaugh gets a new trial because of it. Facebook/Rebecca Hill for Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill (right) with some of the Murdaugh jurors as they travel to New York to be on NBC’s “Today” show. Facebook
What could also come up during the evidentiary hearing is whether a juror widely believed to have abstained from voting to convict Murdaugh was improperly removed from the jury just hours before they began deliberations.
The controversial removal of the so-called “Egg Lady Juror” (nicknamed because she asked if she could have a box of eggs when the judge told her she was dismissed) involved Hill because of an incriminating Facebook post by a juror that Hill claimed to have seen – but she couldn’t prove ever existed.
The case against Hill appears to have grown stronger in recent weeks as a result of the incriminating data release of 2,100 of his work emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The emails suggest that Hill seemed to be playing favorites with reporters, offering some special access and that he was working and promoting his book on the government dime.
Three of Murdaugh’s lawyers — Phillip Barber, Dick Harpootlian, and Jim Griffin — held a heated press conference in September in which they accused Hill of tampering with the jury. AP
Hill has already faced two ethics complaints against him, including one involving work he did on his book while at work.
Additionally, his son Jeffrey Hill, 34, who had been the head of IT for Colleton County, was arrested in November for allegedly illegally wiretapping conversations while on the job.
The clerk also sent direct emails to prosecutors and law enforcement witnesses for the state during the trial about “the merits of testimony from defense witnesses,” Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Phillip Barber and Margaret Fox wrote in the brief.
Some of the emails have been withheld from the media but are expected to come out at a pre-trial public status hearing on Jan. 16, before the three-day session begins Jan. 29.
Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son, Paul, 22, were brutally murdered by Alex at the Murdaugh farm in Islandton, SC, on June 7, 2021. Facebook The entrance to Moselle, the Murdaugh country home in Islandton, SC, where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed on the night of June 7, 2021. The Kennedy Fund
Things got worse for Hill two weeks ago when, as a result of the emails, it was discovered that he had also plagiarized parts of “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” his memoir about the trial.
He admitted plagiarism and the book was withdrawn from publication.
But South Carolina’s highly respected 80-year-old former Chief Justice Jean H. Toal, who will oversee the trial in Richland County court, may also be concerned about the often-charged media and legal circus surrounding the case, which has that said has long influenced the narrative surrounding Alex Murdaugh.
A cottage industry of lawyers, bloggers, journalists and podcasters emerged after the sensational and brutal murders of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul, 22, at their country estate in Islandton, SC, in June 2021, with many cashing in on the scandal through books, TV appearances, and even merchandise.
One is Eric Bland, 61, a Columbia, SC, attorney specializing in legal and medical malpractice who represented the four jurors in Murdaugh’s trial, the son of Gloria Satterfield — Murdaugh’s housekeeper who died mysteriously in their home — and Sandy Smith.
The latter is the mother of Stephen Smith, the young gay man who was found dead on a country road not far from the Murdaughs’ home in 2015.
Bland was called out in a brief filed Wednesday for being a “publicity-seeking” attorney in part because he wanted to be included in the Homicide trial this month because he represented four jurors.
Bland responded with a response that has become familiar, especially among the army of Murdaugh assassination fans online who are often at odds with each other.
Attorney Eric Bland has played a role in the Murdaugh saga since it began. An Eric Bland bobblehead doll is among the merchandise involving the Murdaugh case for sale. mimi lutz/Facebook
“My only answer is that my partner and I continue to live rent-free [Murdaugh attorney Dick] Harpootlian head,” Bland told The Post. “But I think it’s very rich that Dick Harpootlian talks about lawyers who seek publicity when there are no microphones or television cameras that he doesn’t want. He really is an understanding lawyer at this point. Sad. Just reinforces the notion that lawyers should expire like yogurt.”
Bland, who calls herself “EB” online, also co-hosts two podcasts, “True Sunlight” and “Cup of Justice,” with Mandy Matney and her colleague Liz Farrell under the Lunashark Media umbrella —which charges about 3000 premium members $14.95 monthly fee. He began appearing on TV regularly once he got the Satterfields as a client.
Bland’s media profile has grown to the point where she hosts an occasional Twitter series called “Meet EB + Renee” with his wife and sells items like “EB” bobblehead dolls, T-shirts with phrases like “Lawyer Up!” and a mug reading “The world has too many Dicks. Need more EB.” Proceeds go to charity.
You can also order his private videos on Cameo for $50.
The Murdaugh family. The surviving son, Buster (left) has barely spoken since Alex was convicted of Maggie and Paul’s murder. Facebook
Bland’s representation of Sandy Smith that began last March means she has some oversight of the GoFundMe set up in March to pay for the cost of exhuming Stephen’s body and for a second independent autopsy.
The GoFundMe raised more than $130,000 in the days before it was shut down and a scholarship fund was set up in its place.
It is a donor advised fund which means it is sponsored by a larger organization and therefore it is impossible to trace the amount of money that 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 killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul. AP
He said he had not been notified of the results of the second autopsy, despite having arranged and funded it, adding that he and Bland had been told to turn the report over to SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement.)
Murdaugh’s longtime attorney Harpootlian says the online circus has been an ongoing issue before, during, and after Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial.
“The new element here is social media and podcasts, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Dick Harpootlian told The Post. “They live their own lives where everyone becomes an expert whether they have qualifications or not.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
