Murdaughs

‘Egg Juror’ Conspiracy: Supreme Court Blocks Release Of Murdaugh Juror Files

Documents related to juror’s controversial dismissal remain under seal…

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The South Carolina supreme court unanimously denied a bid to unseal hidden files related to the controversial – and decisive – last-minute dismissal of a juror from Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial last year.

“The requests to intervene and unseal the records are denied,” the court noted in a terse ruling (.pdf) issued on Thursday (October 31, 2024).

Attorney Joe McCulloch asked the court to unseal the files on behalf of his client, former Murdaugh juror Myra Crosby. Prosecutors in the office of attorney general Alan Wilson opposed the release of records related to Crosby, citing unspecified “ongoing matters.”

Wilson’s office has yet to present a compelling argument as to why these documents – which are public records – shouldn’t be made public.

FITSNews’ audience will recall Crosby was dismissed as a juror on the morning the murder verdicts against Murdaugh were handed down for allegedly discussing the case with two of her tenants. She has denied those allegations – and stated her removal was the result of a conspiracy involving disgraced former Colleton County clerk of court Becky Hill and several others aimed at ensuring a guilty verdict.

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RELATED | THE EGG JUROR CONSPIRACY

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Hill is currently facing a host of ethical and criminal allegations – including tampering with the jury that convicted Murdaugh last March of the murders of his wife and younger son. Hill’s tampering was first detailed in a bombshell motion submitted on September 5, 2023 by Murdaugh’s attorneys, Dick HarpootlianJim GriffinPhillip Barber and Maggie Fox. It was subsequently documented during an evidentiary hearing held on January 29, 2024 in Columbia, S.C.

While technically unrelated to Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial – which so far focused on the impact of the tampering on the jurors who decided the case – Crosby’s eleventh hour dismissal was decisive.

“Prior to the removal of a juror earlier in the day, sources familiar with the deliberations indicated Murdaugh’s trial would have likely ended in a hung jury,” I wrote.

Instead, Murdaugh was unanimously found guilty of the savage murders of his wife, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, on June 7, 2021 at Moselle – the family’s 1,700-acre hunting property straddling the Salkehatchie River in the picturesque Palmetto Lowcountry. The following day, Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole by S.C. circuit court judge Clifton Newman.

The fallen scion of one of the Palmetto State’s most influential legal dynasties also pleaded guilty to multiple state and federal charges related to millions of dollars fleeced from former clients, law partners, family members and friends – a bizarre web of crime and corruption which remains gnawingly unresolved.

While prosecutors have refused to explain why the Crosby files should remain under wraps, they claimed her attorney’s bid to unseal them was an effort to “rescind a consent order that she entered into” with the objective of “making matters public that she originally agreed that she would not disclose.”

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“She has changed her mind about the agreement she entered into with the court,” Wilson’s prosecutors noted in a filing last month. “The state has not changed its position.”

As I noted at the time, this argument constituted “an incredibly dishonest framing” of the issue. The state’s own brief made it abundantly clear it was lead Murdaugh prosecutor Creighton Waters – not Crosby – who insisted on inserting the non-disclosure requirements.

The files sought could shed light on the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED)’s “investigation” into the allegations made against Crosby by her tenants. SLED was the agency which investigated Murdaugh for the murders of his wife and younger son (controversially, at that).

Our audience will recall I have previously questioned the impartiality of SLED leading any jury tampering probe – as well as the impartiality of those currently tasked with prosecuting Hill on the jury tampering allegations.

To me, it seems clear the goal of all these actors is to protect the guilty verdicts against Murdaugh at all costs as opposed to discovering the truth about “what happened backstage.”

As for Crosby, her attorney told FITSNews those seeking to keep the story under wraps may have won the battle… but not the war.

“My client is disappointed in the ruling,” McCulloch told me. “But truth has a way in South Carolina of floating to the surface. Secrecy only has a half-life in our state.”

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THE RULING…

(S.C. Supreme Court)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks on phone
Will Folks (Brett Flashnick)

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.

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2 comments

Just Another Guest October 31, 2024 at 6:43 pm

The number of your children, FITS, seems to be a swing state by itself.
If you are going to recycle a photo of yours, have the journalistic precision of updating the caption under it.
Otherwise, how do you hope to earn and maintain credibility?

Reply
Just Another Guest-o-azz November 1, 2024 at 11:32 am

SCDC can make bed space for you.

Reply

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