Becky Hill, accused of tampering with Alex Murdaugh jury, resigns as clerk of court

Becky Hill, the beleaguered Colleton County clerk of court who became a celebrity in the aftermath of the Alex Murdaugh murder trial last year and then was enmeshed in numerous controversies, announced her resignation at a Monday news conference.

Just over a year after she stood on the balcony of the courthouse and received the grateful thanks of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office following Murdaugh’s conviction, a composed and resolute Hill tendered her resignation, with barely an acknowledgment that her actions had thrown the Murdaugh case into chaos.

The resignation from her $101,256-a-year job is effective immediately.

Hill, 57, a Republican first elected in 2020, made her announcement in front of the Colleton County courthouse, standing beside one of her attorneys, state Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg.

“It has been my honor to serve as your Colleton County clerk of court,” Hill said Monday. In her brief remarks, she thanked her staff and reflected on the day-to-day operations of the courthouse as well as the Murdaugh trial, which brought the international spotlight to Colleton County. The trial ultimately saw her mired in controversy, including allegations of jury tampering, investigations by state ethics and law enforcement agencies, as well as the admission that she had plagiarized sections of her memoir.

Scrutiny from national and international media had “caused me to reflect on my decisions involving my stay in the office of clerk of court,” Hill said, reading from a prepared statement.

”And so after my reflection, I have decided that it is best not to run again for re-election. I will now be able to focus on being a wife, a mother and a grandmother to my two grand-boys, and will be spending time with the people who mean the most to me.”

Her resignation is effective immediately, Bamberg said. A resignation letter was delivered Monday to Gov. Henry McMaster, whose office said he accepted it. McMaster’s office said he will appoint a successor to Hill in a few days.

Hill was also moved to resign because controversies had become a distraction to the public trying to make informed decisions about the upcoming election for clerk of court, Bamberg said. One week remains in the filing period for candidates across the state, and Hill and her attorney stated that the controversies attached to her had become central to the race. Candidates must file by noon April 1.

The presence Monday of multiple news outlets, including journalists from three newspapers as well as TV stations from around the state, to cover the resignation of a local official showed just how much scrutiny Hill is still under.

Bamberg strongly denied that Hill’s decision to resign was motivated by any developments in the investigations against Hill.

“Let me be extremely clear, today is not a response whatsoever to anything going on with any investigation... today is about the people of Colleton County,” Bamberg said. “It is what it is.”

Hill is under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division because of allegations that she used her elected position for personal gain in trying to promote an insider book she wrote about her behind-the-scenes experiences at the Murdaugh murder trial last year.

Hill also was accused by Murdaugh’s attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, of tampering with Murdaugh jurors in hopes of persuading them to reach a quick guilty verdict in order to promote her book, “Behind the Doors of Justice,” published last year a few months after the trial.

However, Judge Jean Toal ruled in January that although Hill may have made improper comments to jurors, there was not enough evidence to show that her contacts with jurors brought about the guilty verdict.

“I simply do not believe that the authority of our S.C. Supreme Court requires a new trial in a very lengthy trial such as this on the strength of some fleeting and foolish comments by a publicity-influenced clerk of court,” Toal said.

Hill’s resignation comes nearly three months after she admitted plagiarizing sections of her insider Murdaugh book in late December from a draft an upcoming article that a reporter for the BBC had mistakenly emailed her. Hill told the reporter that she would delete the draft, but she didn’t. The book was quickly withdrawn from publication. Hill apologized for the plagiarism, which blindsided her co-author, Neil Gordon, who had played no role in the plagiarism.

Gordon released a statement on Monday.

“A SLED agent interviewed me Friday morning. They expressed a great deal of concern about Becky possibly using her office for personal gain,” said Gordon in his statement.

“In their questioning of me, they were honing in on how many different times Becky did book signings, interviews, and speaking engagements during the workday. I sincerely hope her resignation lessens any potential action taken against her, and that it restores public trust in the office of clerk of court,” Gordon said.

A spokesperson for SLED Monday described the investigation into Hill as “active and ongoing,” but declined to provide any details.

Two employees of Colleton County filed complaints against Hill with the state ethics commission, alleging that Hill misused her position.

Hill’s resignation also comes nearly four months after her son, Jeff Hill, was arrested by SLED agents on a wiretapping charge and fired from his $90,537-a-year job as Colleton County technology director. The wiretapping charge involves an allegation he eavesdropped on other people and used county equipment to do so.

At the end of Murdaugh’s trial, in which he was convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, Hill read the verdicts aloud on national Court TV.

Within a few days, NBC News flew Hill and three jurors flew from Charleston to New York where they were interviewed on NBC’s The Today Show.

“That trip was extra special for me because it was my first time ever flying in an airplane,” wrote Hill in her book, recalling how NBC chauffeured her and the jurors around and put them up in a Manhattan hotel and took them to a restaurant on the Avenue of the Americas.

Hill also was one of the first to publish a book about the trial, using her perch as a court official with access to the jury and behind-the-scenes goings-on to spin a narrative of one of America’s most-watched criminal trials in years.

Hill also appeared as a witness in a nationally-televised Court TV airing of a hearing in January in a bid by Murdaugh to win a new trial. The jury tampering allegations were the main focus of the hearing. Judge Toal indicated that she did not believe portions of Hill’s testimony.

During Murdaugh’s six-week trial at the Colleton County courthouse, Hill quickly gained a reputation for being friendly, competent and helpful to the public, media and court officials.

After the trial’s verdict was announced on the evening of March 2, 2023, state Attorney General Alan Wilson publicly praised Hill at a news conference in front of the Colleton County courthouse.

Wilson called her by her nickname, “Becky Boo,” before using her formal title.

“I want to thank you, Madame Clerk, for you, the entire team, the bailiffs, the court security, the staff here, there was no role that was too small they weren’t willing to do for us,” said a jubilant Wilson, whose team of prosecutors had just convinced the Murdaugh jury to return guilty verdicts in less than three hours.

In her book, Hill wrote about how complicated the entire Murdaugh story is, with the double murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, and numerous unexpected developments.

“I guess we will wait to see if any other twists reveal themselves and take the Murdaugh saga in another surprising direction,” Hill wrote, not realizing that she herself would be one of those “twists.”

Jay Bender, the Columbia attorney who served as an intermediary between Judge Clifton Newman and the media at the Murdaugh murder trial, worked frequently with Hill at the trial.

“I was sorry she got caught up in all of that,” Bender said. “She seemed to be a very thoughtful and gracious person.”

In addition to Bamberg, Hill is also represented by attorney Will Lewis.