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South Carolina’s supreme court justices filed an order on Tuesday (August 13, 2024) agreeing to certify the appeal of Alex Murdaugh‘s murder convictions – meaning they will take up the controversial decision reached back in January to deny Murdaugh a new trial on the basis of alleged jury tampering.
The ruling from the high court came a little over a month after a motion to certify Murdaugh’s appeal was filed by his attorneys – Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Phillip Barber and Maggie Fox. That motion (.pdf) asked the justices to revisit former S.C. chief justice Jean Toal’s decision from January denying Murdaugh a new trial – even though he appeared to have met the high bar she established in his case (and even though federal law appears to be on Murdaugh’s side).
According to Murdaugh’s attorneys, Toal erred in denying his motion for a new trial – effectively “ruling that South Carolina courts should disregard (the) binding precedent of the U.S. supreme court.”
That precedent? Remmer v. United States, in which the nation’s high court unanimously held that in a criminal case, any “tampering … with a juror during a trial about the matter pending before the jury is, for obvious reasons, deemed presumptively prejudicial.” Remmer further stated that “the burden rests heavily upon the government to establish . . . that such contact with the juror was harmless.” Critically for Murdaugh’s case, the U.S. fourth circuit court of appeals – which has jurisdiction over South Carolina – has held the Remmer presumption as “clearly established federal law.”
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According to Murdaugh’s defense, Toal incorrectly ruled that a South Carolina case – State v. Green – directed its courts to ignore the standard established by Remmer. Murdaugh’s attorneys have argued Toal misinterpreted – and misapplied – the Green case to Murdaugh.
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.
The erstwhile untouchable scion of one of South Carolina’s most prominent legal and political dynasties has also pleaded guilty and been sentenced at the state and federal level for host of financial crimes – although his federal sentencing is currently being appealed.
On September 5, 2023 – six months after the guilty verdicts were announced – Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a motion which publicly accused former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill of tampering with the Murdaugh jury.
Hill has since resigned from office – and found herself in the midst of any number of criminal investigations. Meanwhile, the prosecutors who secured the guilty verdicts against Murdaugh are facing scrutiny for their handling of Hill’s case – and the broader jury tampering “investigation.”
While the investigation of Hill drags on, Murdaugh’s appeal – and his bid for a new trial – both are continuing to advance in the state court system.
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RELATED | THE MURDAUGH SAGA’S LOOSE ENDS
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According to the motion filed by Murdaugh’s counsel, the state supreme court must decide “whether the verdict returned after Mr. Murdaugh’s internationally televised murder trial should be overturned due to unprecedented jury tampering by a state official, the former Colleton County clerk of court.”
The legal principle of major importance the defense is asking the court to consider?
“Whether it is presumptively prejudicial for a state official to secretly advocate for a guilty verdict through ex parte contacts with jurors during trial, or whether a defendant, having proven the contacts occurred, must also somehow prove the verdict would have been different at a hypothetical trial in which the surreptitious advocacy did not occur,” Murdaugh’s lawyers argued.
In other words, was the tampering itself enough to warrant a new trial? Or did Murdaugh’s lawyers also need to prove it impacted the outcome of the proceedings?
“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,” they concluded.
While it’s important not to read too much into the supreme court’s decision to grant Murdaugh’s motion for certification, the court could have dismissed it outright – or deferred action on the request until Murdaugh submitted his broader appeal. The fact the justices have chosen to hear his arguments is revealing…
What happens now? Murdaugh’s attorneys have thirty days to submit their first brief before the supreme court – although we are informed it will be submitted today (August 13, 2024). Prosecutors in the office of attorney general Alan Wilson will have thirty days from that point to submit their reply.
Based on that timetable, the court could schedule oral arguments in the case as soon as December…
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THE ORDER…
(S.C. Supreme Court)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Jenn Wood is FITSNews’ incomparable research director. She’s also the producer of the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts and leading expert on all things Murdaugh/ South Carolina justice. A former private investigator with a criminal justice degree, evildoers beware, Jenn Wood is far from your average journalist! A deep dive researcher with a passion for truth and a heart for victims, this mom of two is pretty much a superhero in FITSNews country. Did we mention she’s married to a rocket scientist? (Lucky guy!) Got a story idea or a tip for Jenn? Email her at jenn@fitsnews.com.
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7 comments
Any leads on the “real killers”.
Now that the hack of a chief justice is gone and his minion, the preceding chief justice, doesn’t have him to run interference for her maybe the courts in South Carolina with be run properly and all the rules will be followed. Whether he did it or not, Murdaugh deserves a fair and unbiased trial.
Did the court rule on Toal’s order?
I think someone jumped the gun on social media this morning stating he had won a new trial. I can’t find any official word on a decision being made to grant the second trial.
AC, Murdaugh did get a fair trial. Judge Clifton Newman made sure of it. AleX’s incompetent and whiney attorneys are reaching into a full box of cereal to get to the prize. But they didn’t read the box … there is no prize, just a box of Fruit Loops.
Newman and his daughter are both terrible judges. His lack of knowledge of the rules in allowing information in at trial shows this. As for his daughter, that moronic ruling on the death penalty she made should serve to show that she has no business on the bench.
If Murdaugh does get a new trial, maybe he’ll listen to his attorneys’ advice, “Shut the F’ up! And don’t testify!”
But there’s that timestamped Snapchat video that Paul took that places him at the crime scene, the cellphone pings, and the OnStar GPS data that traces his driving.