Disgraced Clerk Accused of Tampering With Murdaugh Jury Resigns
A South Carolina court clerk once accused of tampering with the jury that convicted Alex Murdaugh of murder has resigned.
Rebecca “Becky” Hill announced on Monday that she is leaving her elected position as Colleton County clerk of court “immediately,” in the midst of her first term. Running as a Republican, Hill was elected in 2020 after earning more than 55 percent of the vote to handle logistics for the Lowcountry county courthouse.
“I am proud to say that our clerk’s office will seamlessly move forward,” Hill said in a Monday press conference outside the courthouse. “I will fondly remember the true, amazing friendships that I have made while serving the incredible people of Colleton County. And so, as we fix our eyes forward, I would like to announce, also, that my resignation as clerk of court will be effective immediately.”
Bramberg added that the resignation is not in response to “anything going on with any investigation or anything of that nature. ” Gov. Henry McMaster’s office confirmed Monday that he received Hill’s signed copy of her resignation and will fill her vacancy soon.
The resignation comes five months after Hill was first accused of improperly influencing the 12-person jury that convicted Murdaugh, who is currently facing two life sentences for the 2021 murder of his wife and son at their family’s hunting estate. The allegations—which were first made by Murdaugh’s defense team in their bid for a new trial—spurred an ethics complaint about Hill’s alleged misuse of her office and two separate state probes. The sale of Hill’s book about Murdaugh’s high-profile trial, Behind the Doors of Justice, was halted after she admitted to plagiarism.
While Hill has kept a low profile lately, she had to decide by April 1 whether she would run again for court clerk.
“I will be able to focus on being a wife, mother, and grandmother... and will be spending time with people who mean the most to me,” Hill said about her decision not to run for re-election.
Hill and her lawyer also declined to take questions on the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigations. Hill’s co-author, Neil Gordon, confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was interviewed by a SLED agent on Friday morning, when they asked him about “how many different times Becky did book signings, interviews, and speaking engagements during the workday.”
“They expressed a great deal of concern about Becky possibly using her office for personal gain,” Gordon said. “I sincerely hope her resignation lessens any potential action taken against her, and that it restores public trust in the office of clerk of court.”
Judge Slaps Down Alex Murdaugh’s Bid for a New Trial
Murdaugh’s lawyers accused Hill of encouraging the jury to render a swift verdict and having private conversations with the jury foreperson throughout the February 2023 trial. They claimed that Hill also pushed for a guilty verdict to help her get a book deal.
During a January evidentiary hearing before former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal, who took over the case, Hill denied making any statements to the jury that would influence their opinion or telling a fellow court clerk that a guilty verdict would boost book sales. Only one juror testified that the comments made by the now-former court clerk “made it seem like [Murdaugh] was already guilty.”
“I did not have a conversation with any juror about anything related to this case,” Hill said.
Toal denied Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial, saying that while she did not believe the jury was tainted, she did not agree with Hill’s actions amid the trial. The judge also took the time to rebuke Hill, whom she said was lured by the “siren call of celebrity” and her own “desire for a guilty verdict.”
“She wanted to write a book about the trial and expressed that as early as November 2022, long before the trial began,” Toal said in the January hearing.
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