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In October, an almost-miracle had seemed to land in Murdaugh’s lap when the South Carolina Court of Appeals agreed to send the murder case back to circuit court to consider allegations of jury tampering, implicating Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. I think it’s fair to say that most trial observers and most of the gaggle of reporters who camped out in Walterboro for those six weeks were flabbergasted. Hill had been like a den mother, helping everyone navigate local rules and find parking spaces, doling out passes to the absent-minded among us (ahem), and joining after-hours gatherings around pizza, birthday cakes and adult beverages.
Surprise eventually gave way to skepticism and fact-checking. Three jurors told similar stories to defense attorneys Richard Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, according to Harpootlian. Each one allegedly said Hill had told them to ignore Murdaugh’s testimony. Most seriously, perhaps, she allegedly played a significant role in the dismissal of one juror, known as the “egg juror,” just hours before deliberations began. (The nickname was born during a brief moment of levity when Newman asked if the female juror had left anything in the jury room. She answered that she had left a dozen eggs there, and she wanted to take them with her.)
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Allegedly, the egg lady didn’t think Murdaugh was guilty and spoke to at least three people outside the courtroom about the trial. This ostensibly mattered a great deal to Hill, who was penning a self-published book at the time with co-author Neil Gordon. One not-guilty vote would have hung more than the jury.
Things really went downhill when it was discovered that Hill had plagiarized most of her book’s preface by lifting whole passages from the work of a BBC journalist. She admitted the plagiarism, explaining that she was in a hurry to meet a deadline. Gordon then pulled the book and promised to donate his proceeds to charity.
Ironically, it was Hill’s book that apparently got jurors upset enough to talk about her to the defense. She wrote that she knew Murdaugh was guilty after she and jurors visited the family home where the murders took place. She also said she was nervous as she was about to read the verdicts aloud. “I was mostly concerned about Alex being found innocent when I knew in my heart he was guilty,” she wrote.
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This was enough to prompt the three jurors to lawyer up and speak out. They said Hill told jurors not to “be fooled” by Murdaugh and coached them to watch his body movements, warning them that he could cry on cue. She allegedly denied them cigarette breaks until they reached a verdict. (Deliberations lasted less than three hours.) She also handed out journalists’ business cards to jurors throughout the trial and met privately with the forewoman in the women’s restroom, according to the defense.
On Jan. 29, the 12 jurors and Hill have been ordered to testify directly to Toal. The former justice made clear in Tuesday’s hearing that she alone would conduct the questioning. She said the hearing would not be a trial of Hill and that she wasn’t interested in the egg juror — only the 12 who actually handed down the guilty verdict. In a no-nonsense voice familiar to practically every member of the South Carolina Bar, she witheringly dismissed the defense attorneys’ arguments and said their witnesses would not be called.
Toal also noted that, thus far, there’s no evidence to support any of the allegations. And, she said, Murdaugh’s lawyers have to prove not only that there was improper contact between Hill and the jury but also that these interactions influenced the guilty verdict. “Prejudice must be proved, not presumed,” Toal said.
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This seems an awfully high bar for the defense team to clear. Meanwhile, some members of the state bar disagree with Toal’s interpretation of the applicable standard from the U.S. Supreme Court case Remmer v. United States and the South Carolina case State v. Green. They say those cases point to the opposite approach, that the onus falls to the state to prove the communications harmless.
That’s a horse of a quite different hue.
The poor jurors, who were always protected from the public glare during the trial, now must appear in court in a context that might make them feel as though they themselves are defendants. First, they have to answer whether Hill spoke to them about the case and then say whether they were influenced by her communications. The second question is a tough one once you’ve convicted a man of two murders.
Even if Toal rules against a new trial, Murdaugh still has a solid case for appeal, especially given what is known, if not publicly, about the egg juror’s experience. Suffice it to say, the full story of the Murdaugh trial has yet to be told.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — In the ever-twisting saga of Alex Murdaugh, convicted almost a year ago of the brutal slaying of his wife and son, a new character has been added to the cast. A Hollywood director could have done no better than retired chief justice of the state Supreme Court Jean Toal — a brilliant jurist and slayer of the pompous and the profane. There’s no one tougher on or off the bench. She’s also one of the finest people you’ll ever meet. You just wouldn’t want to be on the other side of a case with her.
Already, Toal has pricked the pride of Murdaugh’s lawyers, who appeared before her earlier this week in a prehearing to lay out the rules for the upcoming hearing to decide whether Murdaugh will be granted a new trial in the double murders. Toal alone will make the decision.
Toal was appointed to the Murdaugh case after the previous judge, Clifton Newman, recused himself before retiring late last year. Newman’s recusal at the behest of Murdaugh’s defense team was based on the judge’s unfiltered contempt for the defendant as he sentenced Murdaugh to two consecutive life terms.
In the months since Murdaugh’s six-week trial ended, several other proceedings have brought him into various courthouses. In November, he pleaded guilty to 22 of more than 100 financial crimes, including fraud and money laundering, by which he bilked clients, law partners and family members of millions of dollars. For these crimes, he was sentenced to 27 years. Under the plea agreement, he has to serve at least 85 percent of that time, or 22 years — a “practical life sentence” for the 55-year-old, said state prosecutor Creighton Waters.
In October, an almost-miracle had seemed to land in Murdaugh’s lap when the South Carolina Court of Appeals agreed to send the murder case back to circuit court to consider allegations of jury tampering, implicating Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. I think it’s fair to say that most trial observers and most of the gaggle of reporters who camped out in Walterboro for those six weeks were flabbergasted. Hill had been like a den mother, helping everyone navigate local rules and find parking spaces, doling out passes to the absent-minded among us (ahem), and joining after-hours gatherings around pizza, birthday cakes and adult beverages.
Surprise eventually gave way to skepticism and fact-checking. Three jurors told similar stories to defense attorneys Richard Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, according to Harpootlian. Each one allegedly said Hill had told them to ignore Murdaugh’s testimony. Most seriously, perhaps, she allegedly played a significant role in the dismissal of one juror, known as the “egg juror,” just hours before deliberations began. (The nickname was born during a brief moment of levity when Newman asked if the female juror had left anything in the jury room. She answered that she had left a dozen eggs there, and she wanted to take them with her.)
Allegedly, the egg lady didn’t think Murdaugh was guilty and spoke to at least three people outside the courtroom about the trial. This ostensibly mattered a great deal to Hill, who was penning a self-published book at the time with co-author Neil Gordon. One not-guilty vote would have hung more than the jury.
Things really went downhill when it was discovered that Hill had plagiarized most of her book’s preface by lifting whole passages from the work of a BBC journalist. She admitted the plagiarism, explaining that she was in a hurry to meet a deadline. Gordon then pulled the book and promised to donate his proceeds to charity.
Ironically, it was Hill’s book that apparently got jurors upset enough to talk about her to the defense. She wrote that she knew Murdaugh was guilty after she and jurors visited the family home where the murders took place. She also said she was nervous as she was about to read the verdicts aloud. “I was mostly concerned about Alex being found innocent when I knew in my heart he was guilty,” she wrote.
This was enough to prompt the three jurors to lawyer up and speak out. They said Hill told jurors not to “be fooled” by Murdaugh and coached them to watch his body movements, warning them that he could cry on cue. She allegedly denied them cigarette breaks until they reached a verdict. (Deliberations lasted less than three hours.) She also handed out journalists’ business cards to jurors throughout the trial and met privately with the forewoman in the women’s restroom, according to the defense.
On Jan. 29, the 12 jurors and Hill have been ordered to testify directly to Toal. The former justice made clear in Tuesday’s hearing that she alone would conduct the questioning. She said the hearing would not be a trial of Hill and that she wasn’t interested in the egg juror — only the 12 who actually handed down the guilty verdict. In a no-nonsense voice familiar to practically every member of the South Carolina Bar, she witheringly dismissed the defense attorneys’ arguments and said their witnesses would not be called.
Toal also noted that, thus far, there’s no evidence to support any of the allegations. And, she said, Murdaugh’s lawyers have to prove not only that there was improper contact between Hill and the jury but also that these interactions influenced the guilty verdict. “Prejudice must be proved, not presumed,” Toal said.
This seems an awfully high bar for the defense team to clear. Meanwhile, some members of the state bar disagree with Toal’s interpretation of the applicable standard from the U.S. Supreme Court case Remmer v. United States and the South Carolina case State v. Green. They say those cases point to the opposite approach, that the onus falls to the state to prove the communications harmless.
That’s a horse of a quite different hue.
The poor jurors, who were always protected from the public glare during the trial, now must appear in court in a context that might make them feel as though they themselves are defendants. First, they have to answer whether Hill spoke to them about the case and then say whether they were influenced by her communications. The second question is a tough one once you’ve convicted a man of two murders.
Even if Toal rules against a new trial, Murdaugh still has a solid case for appeal, especially given what is known, if not publicly, about the egg juror’s experience. Suffice it to say, the full story of the Murdaugh trial has yet to be told.
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