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The South Carolina court of appeals published an order on Thursday (August 1, 2024) rejecting a procedural bid by attorneys for convicted killer Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh’s attorneys – Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Phillip Barber and Maggie Fox – petitioned the court last month for a delay in the appeal of his murder convictions while the state supreme court decided whether to weigh in on his motion for a new trial.
The supreme court has yet to rule on that request, but the appellate court’s order denied a bid by Murdaugh’s lawyers to “hold (his) appeal in abeyance” until they do.
At the conclusion of a six-week, internationally watched trial, a Colleton County jury unanimously found Murdaugh guilty of the graphic murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh – on the family’s hunting property near Islandton, S.C. on the evening of June 7, 2021.
Murdaugh was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
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On September 5, 2023 – six months after the verdicts were announced – Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a motion publicly accusing former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill of tampering with the Murdaugh jury. According to Harpootlian and Griffin, this alleged tampering included conspiring to have a juror removed from the panel.
As we reported last month, Murdaugh’s lawyers want the high court to take up former S.C. chief justice Jean Toal’s controversial denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial – which was issued from the bench five months ago.
Toal’s ruling came as a surprise to many seeing as Murdaugh’s attorneys appeared to meet her high threshold for a new trial based on Hill’s alleged jury tampering.
“Common sense says that when an elected state official goes into the jury room during a murder trial to advocate for a guilty verdict because she wants to make money selling books about the guilty verdict, the result should be a mistrial,” Murdaugh’s attorneys argued in the motion (.pdf).
Toal disagreed, however, and refused to grant Murdaugh a new trial.
Hill remains under investigation, incidentally, although there are questions as to the integrity of that process in the aftermath of some curious prosecutorial decisions.
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RELATED | ‘LIMITED DESIGNATION‘
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The question of whether Murdaugh should receive a new trial on the tampering allegations is separate from his broader appeal – which will address a host of other issues related to last year’s ‘Trial of the Century’ in Walterboro, S.C. It is that appeal which must now proceed as Murdaugh’s lawyers wait for the supreme court to weigh in on their bid for a new trial.
“It means we have to adhere to the briefing schedule put forward by the court of appeals,” Griffin said. “I don’t read anything more into the ruling than that.”
Attorneys for S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – who successfully pursued the murder cases against Murdaugh – have consented to Murdaugh’s request that the supreme court hear his request for a new trial.
The state has also asked the high court to roll both matters – the motion for a new trial and the broader appeal – into one case under its original jurisdiction.
Again, the court has yet to address either issue.
At the time the appellate court submitted its latest order, the supreme court was in the midst of a significant recalibration. Former chief justice Donald Beatty was serving his final day in office, while new chief justice John Kittredge had just been sworn in as the new leader of the judicial branch. Meanwhile, justice Letitia Verdin took over the seat vacated by Beatty’s retirement.
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THE ORDER…
(S.C. Supreme Court)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
Any leads on the “real killers”.
Who is paying his legal fees?