A South Carolina judge on Monday denied Alex Murdaugh's bid for a new trial after his defense team accused a clerk of court of jury tampering. Judge Jean Toal ruled that even if Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill did tell jurors to watch Murdaugh's actions and body language on the stand, the defense failed to prove that such comments directly influenced their decision to find him guilty. One member of the jury that convicted Alex Murdaugh of murdering his wife and son testified that Hill made the comments, which indicated to her she thought Murdaugh was guilty, the AP reports. But the 11 other jurors said they based their guilty verdicts only on the testimony, evidence, and law presented at trial, and just one mentioned hearing anything similar.
Toal said that after reviewing the transcript of the six-week trial, she couldn't overturn the verdict based on "some fleeting and foolish comments by a publicity-seeking clerk of court." She added: "I find that the clerk of court was not completely credible as a witness. Miss Hill was attracted by the siren call of celebrity." But Toal said Hill's comments didn't actively change the jurors' minds. All 12 jurors took the 90-mile trip from Colleton County to Columbia to give what was typically about three minutes of testimony during the daylong hearing, mostly to yes-or-no questions.
Murdaugh, now a convicted killer, disbarred attorney, and admitted thief serving a life sentence, watched with his lawyers. Hill testified, denying she spoke about the case or Murdaugh with jurors. But the judge questioned her truthfulness after Hill said she took "literary license" in her book on the trial, including about whether she feared as she read the verdict that the jury might find him not guilty. "I did have a certain way I felt," Hill said.
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