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Last month, our media outlet reported on an attempt by Columbia, South Carolina attorney Joe McCulloch to unseal court files related to the investigation of a juror who was controversially dismissed from Alex Murdaugh‘s double homicide trial last year.
Regular members of our audience will doubtless recall the so-called “egg juror” – a.k.a. juror No. 785 – was booted from the Murdaugh panel on the morning the verdicts were announced (and who took a dozen eggs with her when she left). As I reported in covering those verdicts, her dismissal was decisive.
McCulloch is representing the egg juror – and is pushing the court to release all of the files related to her dismissal. The office of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – which successfully prosecuted this case – has refused to consent to their release, however, citing unspecified “ongoing matters.”
“She was dug in,” a source familiar with the deliberations told me at the time. “She said (Murdaugh) was ‘not guilty’ and there was nothing anyone could do to change her mind.”
Another source told me “she would have hung the jury.”
Had that happened, the state would have had to decide whether to try Murdaugh a second time for the murders of his wife 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, on the evening of June 7, 2021.
Which it now may have to do anyway…
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S.C. circuit court judge Clifton Newman removed the “egg juror” following an investigation conducted by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – the same agency which investigated the murders. Our audience will recall I have previously questioned the impartiality of such an inquiry – as well as the impartiality of those currently tasked with prosecuting former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill, who stands accused of of tampering with the Murdaugh jury.
SLED is investigating those tampering allegations, too.
Was Hill the only one tampering with the jury, though? Or were her ham-fisted attempts to sway the panel accompanied by a far more organized, more sinister plot?
In her new book, Enough is Enough, juror No. 785 discusses the forces she contends were instrumental in her removal – including what she insists was a conspiracy of attorneys, podcasters and others who allegedly doxxed her and “targeted” her for removal because “someone thought I could be that one juror who would stand up and vote not guilty.”
There have already been a host of suspicions raised regarding the egg juror’s dismissal – including allegations that Becky Hill “invented a story about a Facebook post to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty.”
In addition to the egg juror’s first-person account – which will reportedly identify those individuals whom she believes “targeted (her) for removal” from the jury – there is a public record of the investigation which led Newman to dismiss her.
Those are the court files mentioned in the lede of this article… files I have called for the state to consent to releasing.
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RELATED | SCRAMBLED JUSTICE
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“I have no idea what these requested records will show,” I wrote last month in reporting on McCulloch’s motion. “Perhaps the state fairly and dispassionately discharged its obligations to Murdaugh under the law. Perhaps not. But whatever information these records contain, it is public information – and must be released. And the state’s refusal to consent to it being released is troubling.”
During an interview with Law & Crime‘s Jesse Weber this week, McCulloch discussed the files – which he has seen in his capacity as juror No. 785’s attorney.
“There had been several days of proceedings backstage – what we call in camera – just the judge, just the prosecution and defense lawyers, and a few witnesses including Juror 785 and some others who gave information to the court,” McCulloch told Weber.
“Once I’d looked at those records, I believed that the public should be entitled to see what happened backstage, to have that information,” McCulloch added. “I will be filing another motion… asking the court to either remand it to a trial judge to conclude if the records should be unsealed or for the court to unseal them spontaneously.”
Obviously our media outlet will provide a copy of any such motion just as soon as we obtain it… just as we plan on reporting on the allegations raised by the egg juror in her book as soon as it is released next week.
According to McCulloch, the sealed court files “will be the subject of public discussion” when they are ultimately released.
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“I think it will take some digestive time,” McCulloch told Weber when asked what the public should expect to see in the documents. “But the defense is in favor and has consented to my motion to unseal, the prosecution has opposed it.”
McCulloch invited Weber and his audience to infer what they may from those drawn battle lines…
As we reported last week, the S.C. supreme court has agreed to hear Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial on the basis of alleged jury tampering – which most analysts agree has dramatically improved his odds of receiving a new trial. Assuming Murdaugh were to fail in his bid at the state level, however, the U.S. fourth circuit court of appeals has consistently upheld a jury tampering standard which Murdaugh’s attorneys appears to have met with room to spare – meaning he could receive a new trial by virtue of a federal court ruling.
During his conversation with Weber, McCulloch said the high court – which is expected to hear the Murdaugh case before the end of the year – could decide to kick the issue back to the trial court “if (justices) conclude there are problems with the standard or problems with the scope of the inquiry.”
In other words, there could be another evidentiary hearing on the jury tampering allegations based “on the standard the court dictates in their decision,” McCulloch hypothesized.
In such a hearing, juror 785 could be compelled to take the stand and share her story under oath.
“I believe that there needed to be further inquiry,” McCulloch told Weber. “I believe strongly that juror 785… I believe her information went to the immediate question of what kinds of communication the clerk of court had with the jury.”
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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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4 comments
Juror 785 admitted to engaging in activity that justified dismissing her from the jury. There were alternate jurors in place, ready to assume the duties of the sitting juror. So, the court was prepared for the possibility that one or more jurors would not be able to complete the entire trial process.
The big question I have is why Juror 785 is fighting so hard. I believe there was a sinister plot involving that jury, and I believe she was at the center of it. Her role was to hang that jury, and she failed. Who’s paying Joe McCullogh, and why is this so important to him? Perhaps there was a conspiracy to get her off that jury, and perhaps it was in place to combat the conspiracy that was in place to put her on the jury and keep her there.
No, the public should not “see” what happened “backstage” everything Murdaugh. Can you imagine our judicial system if we engage in these kinds of theatrics with EVERY. SINGLE. TRIAL? This has gone way beyond insanity. But then, we are talking South Carolina, where no one seems to care that lawyer-legislators are letting murderers, major drug dealers, violent criminals, and many, many others off the hook because they have judges and the entire judicial system in their grimey big pockets.
And by the way, Egg Lady got kicked off the jury for her actions. She betrayed the judicial system by blabbing about the case, after explicitly instructed not to do so by Judge Newman. End of story. Let her have her “book,” er, I mean propaganda piece written by someone else. She’s embarrassed and ashamed, and rightfully so. In the end, she’s left with egg on her face.
Let’s ask Jim Seidel who actually wrote that book..It wasn’t Myra that’s for sure..Let’s ask Jim about how much money HE has stolen from our government..Let’s ask Jim when he plans on paying his debt to society!