South Carolina Supreme Court grants Alex Murdaugh's appeal for new trial
Justices said Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill improperly influenced jurors, and prosecutors plan to retry the former lawyer, who remains imprisoned on other convictions.
- On Wednesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions and ordered a new trial, citing "improper external influences on the jury" by former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill in a unanimous 5-0 decision.
- Evidence cited by the court indicated Hill urged jurors to "watch his body language" and "Don't let the defense confuse you," marring the 2023 trial that convicted Murdaugh of killing his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul.
- Following her resignation in March 2024, Hill pleaded guilty in December 2025 to perjury and obstruction of justice charges for using her court position to promote a book about the trial, receiving three years of probation.
- Despite the vacated murder convictions, the 57-year-old Murdaugh will remain imprisoned while serving concurrent state and federal sentences totaling 40 years for dozens of financial crimes, keeping him incarcerated for decades.
- South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson must now decide whether to retry Murdaugh for the 2021 killings of Maggie and Paul in circuit court, determining the next phase of the sprawling legal saga.
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305 Articles
Why Did the Court Overturn Alex Murdaugh's Sentence? What You Need to Know
The legal saga of Alex Murdaugh has taken its most dramatic turn yet, with South Carolina's highest court effectively dismantling what many had called the verdict of the decade. A case once seen as a definitive end to a grisly double murder trial has been reopened, leaving victims' families and the wider public stunned and uncertain about what comes next. Murdaugh, who was convicted for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and their son, Paul, in 20…
The case of US citizen Alex Murdaugh, convicted of double murder of his wife and son, is being reopened. Murdaugh's double murder case caused a lot of attention in the United States, and the trial was broadcast on television for hours. Murdaugh's wife (52) and his son (22) were found dead on the family's property in June 2021. On the stand, the former lawyer had repeatedly burst into tears and claimed his innocence. He admitted, however, that he…
Where is Alex Murdaugh now? Inside the case that became a true crime obsession
The downfall of disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been the subject of multiple documentaries, a Hulu series, and a Lifetime movie. Today, the saga took another turn. Here’s the latest on his case.
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