The South Carolina Supreme Court has unanimously overturned the 2023 murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former lawyer found guilty of killing his wife Maggie and son Paul at their family estate in June 2021, and ordered a new trial. The court's 5-0 ruling, issued on Wednesday, found that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill had improperly interfered with the jury, denying Murdaugh his constitutional right to a fair trial. State Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office would "aggressively seek to retry" Murdaugh "as soon as possible."
The justices found that Hill, who was responsible for overseeing evidence and the jury during the trial, made a series of prejudicial comments to jurors. According to juror affidavits cited in the ruling, Hill told jurors to "watch [Murdaugh] closely" and urged them not to be "fooled" by the defence's evidence. When deliberations began, she reportedly told jurors: "This shouldn't take us long." The jury convicted Murdaugh after just three hours of deliberation following a six-week trial. The court concluded that Hill's conduct "egregiously attacked Murdaugh's credibility" and that a court official placing "fingers on the scales of justice" was an error so serious it could not be remedied without a new trial. Hill later pleaded guilty to misconduct in office, obstruction of justice, and perjury in a separate case. A book she wrote about the proceedings — titled Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders — was pulled from publication after plagiarism allegations emerged.
The ruling also criticised the original trial judge for allowing too much evidence of Murdaugh's extensive financial crimes into the murder proceedings, finding it created "considerable danger of unfair prejudice." Murdaugh, now 57, had separately pleaded guilty to stealing approximately $12 million from clients and is currently serving a 40-year federal sentence for those financial crimes, meaning he will remain in prison regardless of the murder case outcome.
The case has captivated audiences well beyond South Carolina since it first came to light. Murdaugh, whose family had long dominated the legal and political establishment of rural Hampton County in the state's Lowcountry region, was accused of committing the murders to conceal years of financial fraud. His prosecution spawned streaming documentaries, bestselling books, and numerous true-crime podcasts. Legal experts caution that retrying the case will present significant challenges. The property where the murders occurred has since been sold, key evidence may no longer be available in the same form, and selecting an impartial jury for such a high-profile case will be exceptionally difficult. No date or venue for a new trial has yet been set, with a change of venue considered likely by defence lawyers.