|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by JENN WOOD
***
More than three years after a Colleton County jury convicted prominent Palmetto State attorney Alex Murdaugh of murdering his wife and son on a late spring evening in June 2021, South Carolina’s supreme court has struck down those history-making guilty verdicts — reversing Murdaugh’s convictions, vacating his life sentences and remanding his case back to circuit court.
In a widely anticipated decision issued on Wednesday morning (May 13, 2026), the five-member court unanimously overturned the outcome of South Carolina’s ‘Trial of the Century’ – holding that significant errors necessitated the reversal of Murdaugh’s convictions for the June 7, 2021 slayings of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and younger son, Paul Murdaugh.
Most notably, the justices concluded Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial – enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – was “egregiously” violated when former Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca “Becky” Hill made comments to jurors about his testimony during the internationally watched proceedings in Walterboro, S.C. in 2023.
***
***
Hill’s “shocking jury interference” created a presumption of prejudice against Murdaugh – one “the state was unable to rebut,” they concluded.
According to the justices, Hill “placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
“Our justice system provides — indeed demands — that every person is entitled to a fair trial, which includes an impartial jury untainted by external forces bent on influencing the jury toward a biased verdict,” the justices wrote. “We have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial.”
The decision was issued per curium, or “by the court,” meaning chief justice John Kittredge and all four associate justices – John Few, George C. James, Garrison Hill and Letitia Verdin – are all listed as authors.
While the court focused on Hill’s conduct, it also addressed assertions from Murdaugh’s attorneys – Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, Phillip Barber and Maggie Fox – that trial judge Clifton Newman allowed prosecutors far too much latitude in admitting evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes.
***
***
Specifically, the justices noted “considerable unfair prejudice” in Newman allowing prosecutors – led by state grand jury chief Creighton Waters – to “go as far and as deep into detail” as they did in allowing this evidence, which the state contended was central to Murdaugh’s alleged motive for murder.
“By our calculation, the state spent a total of 12.5 hours of actual testimony before the jury over ten days of trial to introduce evidence related to Murdaugh’s financial crimes,” the justices noted. “We are convinced the state could have effectively presented evidence to support its motive theory in a fraction of that time.”
While the court’s ruling vacated the murder convictions entered against Murdaugh – and the life sentences handed down for those crimes – Murdaugh remains incarcerated within the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC) system, having previously pled guilty to numerous financial crimes at the state and federal level.
Those sentences could be revisited at a later date, however, depending on the disposition of the murder charges.
***
Contrary to popular perception, the court’s ruling does not automatically grant Murdaugh a new trial. The decision on whether to try him a second time lies solely with the state. As FITSNews exclusively reported last week, current attorney general Alan Wilson – and each of the four candidates vying to replace him when his term ends in January – are all on the record saying they would retry Murdaugh.
Wilson issued a statement within an hour of the decision affirming as much.
“While we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision, my office will aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible,” Wilson said. “Let me be clear — this decision does not mean Murdaugh will be released. He will remain in prison for his financial crimes. No one is above the law and, as always, we will continue to fight for justice.”
Wilson later told reporters he hoped the case could be retried before the “end of the calendar year.”
***
***
Murdaugh, 57, is the scion of one of the Palmetto State’s most influential political and legal dynasties – a family which ruled the S.C. fourteenth judicial circuit like a fiefdom for more than a century prior to its unraveling. An assistant solicitor in the circuit, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all elected solicitors.
Murdaugh was also a powerful plaintiffs’ attorney at the Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED) law firm in Hampton, S.C., which has since rebranded in the aftermath of his downfall.
As prior to the first trial, Murdaugh is once again presumed innocent as it relates to those allegations. Not only that, he likely has a cause of civil action against Hill for her conduct. Meanwhile, the carefully scripted narrative that Hill – who pleaded guilty to perjury and misconduct in office back in December – never tampered with Murdaugh’s jury has been officially shredded.
“The supreme court’s decision today affirms that the rule of law remains strong in South Carolina,” Murdaugh’s attorneys said in a statement. “The court found Becky Hill’s conduct during the trial attacked Alex Murdaugh’s credibility and his defense. The court rightly described her conduct as ‘breathtaking,’ ‘disgraceful’ and ‘unprecedented in South Carolina.'”
Murdaugh’s attorneys also noted the narrower path available to prosecutors during a second trial.
“We respect the decision that made clear that the retrial must look very different from the first,” they noted. “The initial jury heard more than twelve hours of testimony about Alex’s financial crimes. The court held that this evidence went far beyond what was necessary and gave rise to unfair prejudice. On retrial, that will not be permitted. Alex has said from day one that he did not kill his wife and son. We look forward to a new trial consistent with the Constitution and the guidance this court has provided.”
Want to dig even deeper into this decision? Click here…
***
THE RULING…
(S.C. Supreme Court)
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
As a private investigator turned journalist, Jenn Wood brings a unique skill set to FITSNews as its research director. Known for her meticulous sourcing and victim-centered approach, she helps shape the newsroom’s most complex investigative stories while producing the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts. Jenn lives in South Carolina with her family, where her work continues to spotlight truth, accountability, and justice.
***
SOUND OFF…
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
25 comments
I told you so; thank God; and many, many times, too.
I told so, thank God, and many, many times, too.
Now, instead of insulting me or feigning laughter at me, please listen carefully at my, God willing and FITS permitting, SCIENTIFIC conclusions on the REAL time of death, which is key to everything else, and the likely REAL shooters.
Great – now we’ll spend another million or so to reconvict him (he’s absolutely guilty) and he’ll stay in prison.
Not necessarily so.
Want to know why? Please see my comments below or dare FITS to run my reply to Veni, vide, vici Top Fan.
Not necessarily so.
You shall, God willing, understand if FITS has the courage to let my other comments through.
He may well be guilty but this exposes the fact that Newman is a horrible jurist and Waters is not really a very good prosecutor. They both flouted the rules to determine the outcome. And where was the esteemed Attorney General? He’s also a terrible prosecutor and a nepo baby.
Veni, vidi, vici Top Fan, now-Retired/Active SC Circuit Judge Clifton Newman is NOT “a horrible jurist,” only one imprisoned in the system’s conditioning his special privileges in his contentment to, in his own words to me “stay in my lane.”
I know because, as I often truthfully wrote, I defended myself with him presiding over a five-day jury trial, and thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, was able to to for myself what Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) entire defense team was unable to do for RAM: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction, although RAM’s defense team has now, thank God and thanks to an embarrassed SC supreme court cleaned up PART of their own mess.
I was, always thanks to God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, able to (after great suffering and more false arrests over 30 months) get the false charges against me dismissed WITH PREJUDICE by a jurist other than Clifton Newman.
My issue with the one-time “America’s judge” is that he was totally indifferent to the OBJECTIVE evidence of 353 instances of subornation, perjury, forgery and fabrication, deployed against me in my trial in his own court, and under his own eyes. That’s when his “stay in my lane” comment came and other transcribed comments later came.
I have no doubt that his at least implicit instructions, or his sense of his personal interest lay, was in ensuring my conviction and RAM’s SHORT OF flagrant error.
All Clifton Newman’s “discretionary” or quasi-discretionary rulings in my trial and in RAM’s went against the criminal defendant.
All opportunities to hold the Prosecution to their ethical mandate of probing exculpatory evidence with the same zeal as inculpatory evidence went untaken by Clifton Newman.
Why? For one thing, after my trial, Clifton’s son, the late Brian Newman, ran for Councilor for the City of Columbia, the instigator of my false arrest and prosecution to gain unfair advantage in a law suit I had brought against the City and others.
For another, same Brian Newman later pled guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to no time, was later suspended and still later re-instated.
For still a third, Clifton Newman himself now enjoys a special exception that allows him to gain substantial income as a mediator for a Georgia mediation firm while also earning above-retirement income from special assignments as a judge in SC’s courts.
While I am happy that Becky “Boo” Hill’s cold-blooded evil was called into account, SC’s supreme court portraying Becky Boo as an aberration is sheer hypocrisy.
Every single judge (except perhaps for one or two who prove the rule) and clerk in South Carolina knows on which side his/her bread is buttered and looks for the butter BEFORE or INSTEAD OF the scales of justice. Only when no personal interest is at risk does any one in South Carolina’s legal system does the right thing.
And I have the courage to say that. Does FITS have the courage to run this comment?
Veni, vidi, vici Top Fan, now-Retired/Active SC Circuit Judge Clifton Newman is NOT “a horrible jurist,” only one imprisoned in the system’s conditioning his special privileges in his contentment to, in his own words to me “stay in my lane.”
I know because, as I often truthfully wrote, I defended myself with him presiding over a five-day jury trial, and thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, was able to to for myself what Richard Alexander Murdaugh’s (“RAM”) entire defense team was unable to do for RAM: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction, although RAM’s defense team has now, thank God and thanks to an embarrassed SC supreme court cleaned up PART of their own mess.
I was, always thanks to God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, able to (after great suffering and more false arrests over 30 months) get the false charges against me dismissed WITH PREJUDICE by a jurist other than Clifton Newman.
My issue with the one-time “America’s judge” is that he was totally indifferent to the OBJECTIVE evidence of 353 instances of subornation, perjury, forgery and fabrication, deployed against me in my trial in his own court, and under his own eyes. That’s when his “stay in my lane” comment came and other transcribed comments later came.
I have no doubt that his at least implicit instructions, or his sense of his personal interest lay, was in ensuring my conviction and RAM’s SHORT OF flagrant error.
All Clifton Newman’s “discretionary” or quasi-discretionary rulings in my trial and in RAM’s went against the criminal defendant.
All opportunities to hold the Prosecution to their ethical mandate of probing exculpatory evidence with the same zeal as inculpatory evidence went untaken by Clifton Newman.
Why? For one thing, after my trial, Clifton’s son, the late Brian Newman, ran for Councilor for the City of Columbia, the instigator of my false arrest and prosecution to gain unfair advantage in a law suit I had brought against the City and others.
For another, same Brian Newman later pled guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to no time, was later suspended and still later re-instated.
For still a third, Clifton Newman himself now enjoys a special exception that allows him to gain substantial income as a mediator for a Georgia mediation firm while also earning above-retirement income from special assignments as a judge in SC’s courts.
While I am happy that Becky “Boo” Hill’s cold-blooded evil was called into account, SC’s supreme court portraying Becky Boo as an aberration is sheer hypocrisy.
Every single judge (except perhaps for one or two who prove the rule) and clerk in South Carolina knows on which side his/her bread is buttered and looks for the butter BEFORE or INSTEAD OF the scales of justice. Only when no personal interest is at risk does any one in South Carolina’s legal system does the right thing.
And I have the courage to say that. Does FITS have the courage to run this comment?
Before I, God willing and FITS permitting, continue with my SCIENTIFIC explanations of my conclusions that Richard Alexander Murdaugh (“RAM”) is ACTUALLY innocent of the shootings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh SOME TIME after 8:49 pm on Monday, 7 June 2021 (as of this writing, RAM stands CONSTITUTIONALLY innocent of said shootings), I need to promptly hold the FOURTH ESTATE accountable for what appear to be quick-propping malicious or negligent inaccuracies.
The first alert to reach my laptop AFTER the South Carolina Advance Sheets of today, 13 May 2026, was this from CBS News via Windows:
“Court overturns Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions, orders new trial[.] Story by Mark Osborne • 19m • 3 min read An appeals court rejected Murdaugh’s ask for a new trial in January 2024, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision on Wednesday. … Murdaugh had initially claimed he wasn’t at the family’s 48-acre hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night his wife and his younger son, Paul, then-22 years old, were killed. However, during the trial, it emerged that Alex Murdaugh’s voice could be heard on a cellphone video recorded by Paul shortly before the killings at the property’s kennels on June 7, 2021.”
RAM never, ever “claimed he wasn’t at the family’s 48-acre hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night his wife and his younger son, Paul, then-22 years old, were killed.” He had ONLY OMITTED his visit to the kennels before leaving to see his dementia-afflicted mother in Almeda, SC.
HUGE DIFFERENCE.
I always believed, and later showed, why and how the kennels video was at most irrelevant but, if assessed correctly, is exculpatory of RAM.
I really think that Dick and Jim should gracefully bow out of the case they bungled now that they managed to clean up part of their own mess and let RAM represent himself.
RAM should IMMEDIATELY move pro se for a hearing to quash the indictments against him and to dismiss the murder charges against him WITH PREJUDICE based on the lies and negligent or malicious omissions of the investigators.
A criminal defendant is entitled, not only to a fair trial, but also to DUE PROCESS as to whether charges should have been brought against him/her ab initio.
And I volunteer to be RAM’s expert witness on General Medicine, Pathology, and Psychiatry, free of charge.
Yes! I have a personal interest because, I too, had been wrongly and maliciously falsely indicted and arrested.
But that interest makes more, not less, as an expert witness because I also know first hand the internal reactions of the actually innocent on trial for serious time. And there is no published work on the psychological/psychiatric support of the exonerated.
Indeed, there is at least one case of a man who, after exoneration after a long wrongful incarceration, and after receiving financial compensation for the wrongful conviction, took his own life.
There is not a minute to spare.
If this comment does not reach RAM directly, his lawyers (if they really put his interest above theirs) should take to him and let him make his own decision.
After all, RAM’s lawyers made many disastrous decisions, including but not limited to, advising him to plead guilty to the so-called “financial crimes” and not challenging effectively or at all the Prosecution’s alleged time of death and Judge Newman’s dismissal of Juror 785.
Okay, so Becky Hill tainted the jury poll. But in my opinion, Murdaugh is still guilty.
1) Paul Murdaugh was a financial and legal liability because of the boating under the influence crash that resulted in the death of Mallory Beach.
2) It was rumored that Maggie Murdaugh was shopping for divorce attorneys.
3) Alex Murdaugh was embezzling money from his law firm for his addiction to opioid pain medicine.
His financial crimes are a key factor that showed Murdaugh’s financial status was built on a house of cards. One document showed a financial overdraft of $300,000. Yet, Palmetto State Bank charged him an overdraft fee of $5.00.
Paul’s Snapchat video, which is timestamped, at the dog kennels places him, Alex, and Maggie at the crime scene.
Telematics (OnStar) from Murdaugh’s firm issued Chevrolet Suburban traces his route. Cellphone pings also confirmed his movements.
Ralph Hightower Top Fan, as Juror 785 titled her book, “Enough is Enough.”
Enough of claiming “Paul Murdaugh was a financial and legal liability.”
The Mark-Tinsley-contrived civil law suits are not even against Paul himself. They are or were against Richard Aleander Murdaugh (“RAM”) and his wife Maggie for “bad parenting” of Paul and against the deep-pocketed Greg Parker for having sold the under-aged Paul alcohol after he used his brother’s driver’s license, and even against Buster for the loss or theft of his driver’s license by Paul.
Paul himself was not sued; and even if sued and found civilly liable, his liability would not have been borne by his parents because he was in that unique age zone: above 18, therefore not a child whose parents are financially responsible to him, but below 21, therefore unable to purchase alcohol.
Paul was an invaluable asset in the civil defense of his brother and parents.
Paul could have credibly testified that he stole Buster’s ID, thus letting Buster off the hook.
And Paul could have charmed the jury by how personable and down-to-earth and hand-in-mud-and-grease young man he was. Thus he could destroyed Mark Tinsley’s hope of recovery.
It would have also been a swearing contest between Paul and Connor as to who, if any one, was actually piloting the boat before it crashed.
And it would have been any one’s guess whom the jury would have believed between Connor, who was looking to break up with Mallory Beach and who let her go from his arms and swam to his own safety without her, and Paul, who always shared his expensive toys, from guns to boats, with his less moneyed friends.
Maggie Murdaugh was NOT “shopping for divorce attorneys” nor is there evidence that she ever contacted one.
If anyone profited from Paul’s and Maggie’s death it is Mark Tinsley, Ever-Bluffing Eric Bland (“EBEB”), Malicious Mandy Matney (“MMM”), and to a lesser extent Sanctimonious Sandy Smith (“SSS”) who said it in so many words on a national show, “Some one else had to die for Stephen’s case to be reopened.”
And look what actually happened:
1. “Some one else” died and Stephen’s case got reopened.
2. MMM’s podcast took off; she quit FITSNews because she wanted half Will Folks’ company, which he did not part with; and MMM is now playing scared victim to avoid a depostion which MIGHT expose her as the remote orchestrator of Paul and Maggie’s shootings.
3. EBEB got over $10M because Gloria Satterfield died IN HOSPITAL of natural pre-existing causes three weeks after her coincidental or jointly-staged fall at Moselle.
4. Mark Tinsley got $20M from Gregg Parker’s insurance and still wants many more millions because Gregg Parker wanted to paint Paul and Buster as gay.
So, you tell me, who REALLY profited from Paul and Maggie’s deaths?
What is the story with MM and the deposition re Paul and Maggie’s deaths? I haven’t heard about this!
Connect the dots from this reply of mine to another comment:
? @Nonna7384 , you’re again assuming that the shootings were at 8:49 – 8:52, which (as I explained many, many times previously) is ABSOLUTELY INCONSISTENT with the victims’ stomachs’ contents at autopsy where the food was too little and too digested for the demise to have occurred only 22 minutes after their large and relatively fatty last meal ended at 8:30 pm. The real shooters were not really mad at the Murdaughs; they only wanted to silence Paul and Maggie from testifying that there were no dogs when Gloria Satterfield fell. Also, shooting Alex would have ended the civil part of the boat crash case because the suit was against Alex and Buster for “bad parenting” and for Paul’s use of Buster’s ID. Please look up my previous comments here and elsewhere. Thanks!
The AG should seek to make Becky Hill pay for the new trial. This wasn’t Judge Newman’s fault, or Waters or Wilson’s fault, it was hers and hers alone. Nothing else that happened vis-a-vis the jury would have ever caused the case to be overturned, not by a long shot.
There should NOT be a retrial but an outright dismissal. Please see my other comments.
SubZeroIQ:
Tinsley was going after the money, Alex Murdaugh. Sorry that I didn’t explain it clearly, the boat crash that resulted in the death of Mallory Beach, was piloted by a drunken Paul Murdaugh. Paul, while living under the roof of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, was supplied with beer by his parents. In my opinion, that would make Paul a legal and financial liability to Alex Murdaugh.
However, Tinsley would’ve found that Murdaugh’s finances was built on a house of cards.
ABC4news.com and People Magazine reported that Maggie drove to Charleston looking for a divorce attorney. FITSNews may have reported the same.
Ralph Hightower Top Fan, it is true that some media outlets reported that Maggie was looking for a divorce lawyer; BUT IT IS ALSO TRUE that media, whether mainstream or alternative, have grown careless, inaccurate, and/or downright malicious in false reporting. Fortunately, some law suits, difficult as they are, succeed in punishing such conduct or deterring it ab initio.
Case in point: Buster’s law suit against Michael Dewitt, Netflix et. al., is still proceeding against the defendants who did not settle.
And I am still hoping the wonderful Dr. Erin Presnell who did Stephen Smith’s first autopsy (100% confirmed by the second autopsy) sues: (1) that idiot Thomas Moore, who had that pompousness to go harass her to change her diagnosis; (2) that unscrupulous paid-propagandist-masquerading-as-journalist Valerie Bauerlein, who wrote in her book that Dr. Presenell was fired after she did Stephen Smith’s autopsy when, in fact, Dr. Presnell had been PROMOTED, not fired; and (3) that washed-up self-important has-been Katie Couric, who said in her interview with Sanctimonious Sandy Smith (“SSS”) that Dr. Presnell should not be still practicing because it sounds as if “she’s not very competent.”
Perhaps Dr. Presnell is too involved on her professional work to waste time on a good law suit; or perhaps SLED’s refusal to release the results of the second autopsy which 100% confirmed Dr. Presnell’s work is one more of Malicious Mandy Matney’s (“MMM”) machinations to run the statute-of-limitations clock on Dr. Presnell’s potential law suit(s) for defamation per se.
I do not know. But I do know (being NOT a lawyer but better than most) that the statute of limitations for defamation runs from the date of the last publication; and these shows keep getting re-run.
Back to the FALSE reports that Maggie “drove to Charleston looking for a divorce attorney,” did Maggie take a metal detector and scan Charleston’s side walks for a a fallen “divorce attorney”? Or stand in the Four-Corners-of-the-Law holding a sign saying, “Lost and looking for a divorce attorney?” Or what?
In this day and age, one doesn’t drive somewhere looking for an attorney. One finds one on the internet or by word of mouth and phones the attorney’s office to make an appointment.
NOT ONLY IS THERE ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE OF SUCH CONTACT BETWEEN MAGGIE AND A DIVORCE ATTORNEY, Blanca was yesterday on Ann Emmerson’s “Criminally Obsessed” show re-affirming what Maggie’s sister and close friends already said: Alex and Maggie’s marriage was as strong as ever and they cared for each other very much.
As to Mark Tinsley’s law suit, and setting aside the question of who, if anyone, was actually piloting the boat at the moment of the crash, Paul’s drunkenness that night was due to alcohol sold by Parker’s and other stores, NOT supplied by Alex OR Maggie.
True, parents should not give their under-age children alcohol; but Mark Tinsley’s law suit would have failed on the essential question of the lack of foreseeable linkage between Paul having a beer with his parents at a party a year earlier and the boat crash.
It would also have failed on the contributory negligence of the parents of the other five young people on that boat for letting their offspring go on a boat party with a known under-age drinker.
Mark Tinsley’s law suit would have failed at many points. It succeeded only in the same way that Khartoom-the-horse’s severed head being found in the bed of the rich and powerful movie director’s bed succeeded in given a singer a coveted come-back role in The Godfather-I movie.
A prize horse severed head in your bed or your wife and younger son found shot to death in your kennels make you “not refuse” the offer you refused previously.
That is why I am crusading against civil plaintiffs’ lawyers participating in criminal proceeding to gain unfair advantage in civil litigation, which is unethical and forbidden by the Rules of Professional Conduct, if only anyone would enforce them!
How does this effect Alan Wilson’s run for the governor’s office? Does he pull back, plow ahead and focus on a retrial?
And Harpootlian; how’s he been getting paid? He doesn’t live off of fresh air & sunshine.
Please see my previous comments.
Dick and Jim have now, thank God, cleaned up part of their expensive mess. They should take a quick victory lap and let Richard Alexander Murdaugh (“RAM”) represent himself in seeking dismissal of the murder charges outright and withdrawal of his guilty pleas to the financial crimes, which pleas were made under the psychiatric duress of having been falsely accused AND FALSELY CONVICTED of the murders of his wife and younger son.
Neither Judge Clifton Newman, nor Federal Judge Gergel inquired about that psychiatric duress because that is not part of the litany made by non-physician judges.
Again, I volunteer to be RAM’s medical expert witness free of charge in such motions.
And again, I am not a lawyer but was complimented on the transcribed record by at least one federal jurist as better than lawyers.
And again, I do have a personal interest; but one which makes more credible, not less credible, as a medical expert.
They can find no other like me in this vicinity, not only for my excellent intellect and education, but more significantly for my moral authority.
I will NOT testify free of charge for RAM if Dick and Jim do not step aside, for no reason other than their pasts as prosecutors make them lack the moral authority to expose prosecutorial abuses.
It is my time and talents and my choice to whom I give them free of charge.
It is now RAM’s choice whether to expose the system of prosecutorial abuses, and of using criminal charges to gain unfair advantage in civil litigation, which three generations of his ancestors built, which came back to bite him and his sons, or to let others suffer from it.
I can, God willing, take on the abusive prosecutorial system without RAM; but RAM cannot do it without me.
Again, I made my choice. RAM needs to make his quickly.
This reply of mine to Alan Wilson’s and Creighton Waters’ press conference few minutes ago deserves to be re-pasted here:
? @reenakemp9132 , if you listened carefully to what Creighton Waters said in the press conference few minutes ago, you will understand that Creighton Waters ABANDONED the sacred prosecutorial duty to explore exculpatory evidence with the same zeal as inculpatory evidence.
He did NOT do that.
Indeed, he BRAGGED about doing THE OPPOSITE.
He said in so many words “aggressive” and “concern for double jeopardy.”
TRANSLATION: if you, as a prosecutor, obey your duty to include exculpatory evidence and the criminal defendant gets acquitted, the State cannot appeal because of double jeopardy. But if you as a prosecutor “aggressively” include irrelevant and prejudicial evidence, and it causes a wrongful conviction, the criminal defendant can appeal and if “the system works” he gets a new trial as just happened.
Right? NO, no, no! WRONG, wrong, wrong!
“The system” trusts the prosecutors to err on the side of caution, not on the side of conviction at any price.
Lives get destroyed because of wrongful convictions, even if later reversed.
The public confidence in the legal system gets rightly shaken.
And most significantly, the REAL perpetrator gets to avoid accountability (for five years now and going) or forever.
If Alan Wilson were truly non-political, he should have announced a reopened neutral investigation and invited all with new information to contribute.
FITS, this reply of mine to Alan Wilson’s and Creighton Waters’ press conference few minutes ago deserves to be re-pasted here:
? @reenakemp9132 , if you listened carefully to what Creighton Waters said in the press conference few minutes ago, you will understand that Creighton Waters ABANDONED the sacred prosecutorial duty to explore exculpatory evidence with the same zeal as inculpatory evidence.
He did NOT do that.
Indeed, he BRAGGED about doing THE OPPOSITE.
He said in so many words “aggressive” and “concern for double jeopardy.”
TRANSLATION: if you, as a prosecutor, obey your duty to include exculpatory evidence and the criminal defendant gets acquitted, the State cannot appeal because of double jeopardy. But if you as a prosecutor “aggressively” include irrelevant and prejudicial evidence, and it causes a wrongful conviction, the criminal defendant can appeal and if “the system works” he gets a new trial as just happened.
Right? NO, no, no! WRONG, wrong, wrong!
“The system” trusts the prosecutors to err on the side of caution, not on the side of conviction at any price.
Lives get destroyed because of wrongful convictions, even if later reversed.
The public confidence in the legal system gets rightly shaken.
And most significantly, the REAL perpetrator gets to avoid accountability (for five years now and going) or forever.
If Alan Wilson were truly non-political, he should have announced a reopened neutral investigation and invited all with new information to contribute.
My defense of now-Retired/Active SC Circuit Judge Clifton Newman against BLATANTLY racist attacks on him should not be taken as a defense of his pro-prosecution attitude.
He presided over my 22-26 February 2010 General Sessions jury trial in Richland County, where and when, thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, I did for myself what RAM’s entire defense team could not do for him: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction (although, now thank God, they cleaned up part of their own mess).
My jury hopelessly deadlocked after over five hours of deliberations into the night. And after an Allen charge and sending the jury back to deliberate some more, Judge Clifton Newman declared a mistrial shortly before midnight.
I became a legend of pro se advocacy in the Richland County courthouse. And to dispirit me, false rumors were spread that my jury was split 10-2 of 11-1 for conviction although Judge Clifton Newman never asked for the jury split because that is the correct law and the jury left without talking to anyone.
Perhaps Becky Hill had heard of my feat, which is why she was in such panic to get Myra Catherine Crosby off the jury lest she hangs RAM’s jury as the rumors pretended one juror hung mine,
How would Becky Hill even have known about my case? Easy! David Amadeo Fernandez.
Fernandez was Columbia Assistant City Attorney (“CACA”) in 2008-2014 or so. And he was DIRECTLY seeking to hold me in contempt of court every time I advocated for my constitutional rights to a speedy retrial after the mistrial or dismissal of the false criminal charges against me.
For the 30 months between February 2010 and August 2012, I was arrested three more times on more false charges of which I was later acquitted; and I was again incarcerated by the out-of-control Marion Oneida Hanna (a white literal “bastard” whose father never married her mother), who flew into a rage when she heard that I had OUTSIDE OF COURT called then-CACA Fernandez a bastard for having received a motion of mine by hand-delivery then immediately thrown it on the floor to deny service.
Marion Oneida Hanna was later privately-something by South Carolina’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel for her lack of decorum (putting it charitably) in a 28 March 2011 hearing where I had been diverted to her to thwart my renewed motion for speedy retrial or dismissal of the harassment charges which had then been improperly remanded to Columbia Municipal Court (“CMC”) because Hatchet-for-Hire Heather (Weiss) did not have the integrity of dismissing them but knew she had no TRUE facts to retry them after my post-trial reseach uncovered the subornation, perjury, forgery, and fabrication deployed against me in my trial in Judge Clifton Newman’s court.
In August 2012, always than God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, I got the false harassment charges against me dismissed WITH PREJUDICE with CACA Fernandez staring evilly but helplessly at me.
Back to CACA Fernandez, he followed Hatchet-for-Hire Heather to SC Attorney General’s office (“SCAG”) after having procured from that office a letter saying BASICALLY that said office will prosecute someone who injures a dog but will not prosecute someone who injures Dr. Marie Faltas even if local prosecutors recuse themselves.
Guess where CACA Fernandez pops up on the national stage next!
Right: Murdaugh’s trial where Fernandez confabulated a bucket of bloody water at the kennels AND the fake FaceBook post which got Myra Catherine Crosby off the jury.
I do not speak or write without OBJECTIVE support.
In the transcript of the in-chambers proceedings, Fernandez FALSELY tells Judge Clifton Newman “we know [Myra Catherine Crosby’s husband’s] name: Tim Stone.”
I checked few minutes ago; and Fernandez was still listed at SCAG’s office.
But Fernandez did not appear alongside Allan Wilson and Creighton Waters yesterday evening’s press conference.
Coincidence or is SC’s supreme court following up on Fernandez’ role in the machinations against Myra Catherine Crosby?
I do not know. But what I do know is that Allan Wilson can lay no claim to prosecutorial integrity unless and until he SERIOUSLY investigates Heather Weiss’ and Fernandez’ histories of LYING to courts to obtain FALSE convictions.
My defense of now-Retired/Active SC Circuit Judge Clifton Newman against BLATANTLY racist attacks on him should not be taken as a defense of his pro-prosecution attitude.
He presided over my 22-26 February 2010 General Sessions jury trial in Richland County, where and when, thank God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, I did for myself what RAM’s entire defense team could not do for him: prevent a jury from returning a wrongful conviction (although, now thank God, they cleaned up part of their own mess).
My jury hopelessly deadlocked after over five hours of deliberations into the night. And after an Allen charge and sending the jury back to deliberate some more, Judge Clifton Newman declared a mistrial shortly before midnight.
I became a legend of pro se advocacy in the Richland County courthouse. And to dispirit me, false rumors were spread that my jury was split 10-2 of 11-1 for conviction although Judge Clifton Newman never asked for the jury split because that is the correct law and the jury left without talking to anyone.
Perhaps Becky Hill had heard of my feat, which is why she was in such panic to get Myra Catherine Crosby off the jury lest she hangs RAM’s jury as the rumors pretended one juror hung mine,
How would Becky Hill even have known about my case? Easy! David Amadeo Fernandez.
Fernandez was Columbia Assistant City Attorney (“CACA”) in 2008-2014 or so. And he was DIRECTLY seeking to hold me in contempt of court every time I advocated for my constitutional rights to a speedy retrial after the mistrial or dismissal of the false criminal charges against me.
For the 30 months between February 2010 and August 2012, I was arrested three more times on more false charges of which I was later acquitted; and I was again incarcerated by the out-of-control Marion Oneida Hanna (a white literal “bastard” whose father never married her mother), who flew into a rage when she heard that I had OUTSIDE OF COURT called then-CACA Fernandez a bastard for having received a motion of mine by hand-delivery then immediately thrown it on the floor to deny service.
Marion Oneida Hanna was later privately-something by South Carolina’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel for her lack of decorum (putting it charitably) in a 28 March 2011 hearing where I had been diverted to her to thwart my renewed motion for speedy retrial or dismissal of the harassment charges which had then been improperly remanded to Columbia Municipal Court (“CMC”) because Hatchet-for-Hire Heather (Weiss) did not have the integrity of dismissing them but knew she had no TRUE facts to retry them after my post-trial reseach uncovered the subornation, perjury, forgery, and fabrication deployed against me in my trial in Judge Clifton Newman’s court.
In August 2012, always than God and WITHOUT A LAWYER, I got the false harassment charges against me dismissed WITH PREJUDICE with CACA Fernandez staring evilly but helplessly at me.
Back to CACA Fernandez, he followed Hatchet-for-Hire Heather to SC Attorney General’s office (“SCAG”) after having procured from that office a letter saying BASICALLY that said office will prosecute someone who injures a dog but will not prosecute someone who injures Dr. Marie Faltas even if local prosecutors recuse themselves.
Guess where CACA Fernandez pops up on the national stage next!
Right: Murdaugh’s trial where Fernandez confabulated a bucket of bloody water at the kennels AND the fake FaceBook post which got Myra Catherine Crosby off the jury.
I do not speak or write without OBJECTIVE support.
In the transcript of the in-chambers proceedings, Fernandez FALSELY tells Judge Clifton Newman “we know [Myra Catherine Crosby’s husband’s] name: Tim Stone.”
I checked few minutes ago; and Fernandez was still listed at SCAG’s office.
But Fernandez did not appear alongside Allan Wilson and Creighton Waters yesterday evening’s press conference.
Coincidence or is SC’s supreme court following up on Fernandez’ role in the machinations against Myra Catherine Crosby?
I do not know. But what I do know is that Allan Wilson can lay no claim to prosecutorial integrity unless and until he SERIOUSLY investigates Heather Weiss’ and Fernandez’ histories of LYING to courts to obtain FALSE convictions.
Dualling post-opinion interviews vindicate my call for the defense team to bow out and let Alex represent himself.
Sadly, as committed to his client as Mr. Harpootlian is, he seems to have learned NOTHING from the now-reversed conviction where he and Jim Griffin ASSUMED the jury will discount Creighton Waters’ crazy theories on the time of death and on motive.
Even more sadly, cases are now won or lost, not in courtrooms but in public opinion; and seeing the majority of comments on the post-reversal stories, Creighton Waters is already winning the retrial.
For those deluded by, and extolling, Creighton Waters, listen carefully to what he he said in his presser after the opinion reversing the conviction but sparing HIM overt criticism.
You will understand that Creighton Waters ABANDONED the sacred prosecutorial duty to explore exculpatory evidence with the same zeal as inculpatory evidence.
He did NOT do that.
Indeed, he BRAGGED about doing THE OPPOSITE.
He said in so many words “aggressive” and “concern for double jeopardy.”
TRANSLATION: if you, as a prosecutor, obey your duty to include exculpatory evidence and the criminal defendant gets acquitted, the State cannot appeal because of double jeopardy. But if you as a prosecutor “aggressively” include irrelevant and prejudicial evidence, and it causes a wrongful conviction, the criminal defendant can appeal and if “the system works” he gets a new trial as just happened.
Right? NO, no, no! WRONG, wrong, wrong!
“The system” trusts the prosecutors to err on the side of caution, not on the side of conviction at any price.
Lives get destroyed because of wrongful convictions, even if later reversed.
The public confidence in the legal system gets rightly shaken. And most significantly, the REAL perpetrator gets to avoid accountability (for five years now and going) or forever.
If Alan Wilson were truly non-political about this, he should have announced a reopened neutral investigation and invited all with new information to contribute.?
FITS, what do you lose by running this comment of mine here?
So, Creighton Waters now vindictively brandishes the death penaltyI
He’s in over his head.
Now that the Catholic Church has declared its opposition to the death penalty to be a core belief, Prancing Creighton Waters (“PCW”) cannot exclude jurors opposed to the death penalty if they are Catholic.
Instead of itching to execute the innocent, Alan Wilson should show some zeal in improving murder investigations.
To expiate for his Frankenstein creation, FITS should do a whole show or a whole story on the scientific failures of the investigation into Paul and Maggie’s shootings.
Here is more about ballistics which is augmented by this (link to video deleted for publishability).
It shows SLED, presumably in the early morning of 8 June 2021, supposedly collecting evidence from around and inside the house at Moselle.
Many mistakes appear in that short clip:
1. The spent bullets collected from around the exterior seven-step stoop are BASICALLY rubbed together by the evidence gatherer thus HOPELESSLY contaminating the subsequent tool-mark microscopic examination and analysis if such analysis were a science to begin with.
2. The evidence gatherers arrived without simple plastic or paper bags in which to put each bullet separately with an identification of the precise location it was found.
3. They then resort to a quick and dirty non-solution of putting a bullet in each finger of a “new glove” again without precise location identification and after the bullets had scarred each other from being basically rubbed together.
4. The exterior door handle is not dusted for fingerprints nor swabbed for DNA.
5. Once inside the house, no effort or attention is paid to any food or drink containers with residue or unconsumed content. That should be basic in any murder investigation even where the victims had been visibly shot: had they been poisoned or attempted to be poisoned before the shootings? Were they under the influence of anything they had consumed before being confronted by their shooter(s)? That may not necessarily have been the case here; but these are basics of any investigation started on a blank slate.
6. They are heard commenting to each other that the autopsies already started. They should have carefully looked for evidence of unconsummated or recently-consummated food and drink to supply to the autopsy performer.
Or course, many more mistakes appear even in that short clip.
Now that the Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial jury has been vindicated, it is essential to vindicate the DUE PROCESS right to a scientifically-sound investigation before charges are even brought against anyone.
Of course, many more mistakes appear even in that short clip.
Now that the Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial jury has been vindicated, it is essential to vindicate the DUE PROCESS right to a scientifically-sound investigation before charges are even brought against anyone.