Many of Becky Hill’s emails focused on her insider Murdaugh murder trial book

Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill had a book on her mind months before the double murder “trial of the century” of Alex Murdaugh began last January.

As clerk of court, Hill had an inside track to a high-profile trial with national interest — occupying center stage along with Murdaugh, Judge Clifton Newman and prosecution and defense lawyers.

“I am also interested in writing a book,” Hill wrote in an email in November 2022, three months before the start of the trial, to Arthur Cerf, a French journalist who planned to attend the Murdaugh trial and was writing a book on the case.

“If you’re interested in a partnership, let me know!” she told him.

Cerf went on to write his own book, “Les Meurtres du Lowcountry.”

Hill, too, wrote a book — “Behind the Doors of Justice.”

Now Hill’s book and other alleged actions by her have landed her at the center of multiple controversies.

She has been accused by Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorneys of tampering with the Murdaugh jury, getting it to return a quick guilty verdict last March to hype her book sales. She denies the allegation.

Two ethics complaints have painted her as broadly misusing her powers as clerk of court. Among other allegations, the complaints accuse her of misappropriating funds, providing confidential images and records to members of the media and allowing the Colleton County Courthouse to be used for book signings and Netflix shoots.

Hill’s email to Cerf was one of a trove of hundreds of Hill’s emails on her county email account made public Thursday by Colleton County officials. The emails, written and received by Hill between January and early December of this year, were released Thursday morning in response to Freedom of Information requests to Colleton County by various news media, including The State.

Murdaugh, 55, was convicted of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son Paul last March 2 by a Colleton County jury. On March 3, Judge Newman sentenced Murdaugh to two life sentences. Murdaugh contends he is innocent of the killings. His attorneys are appealing.

Hill’s released emails shed little light on whether she tampered with the jury but cover a variety of topics, including Hill’s months-long fixation on writing a book. Doing a book right — and ethically — is a constant theme. Whether she achieved that goal is a matter of debate.

Hill’s book was published Aug. 1 at 200-plus pages, no index and more than three dozen photos, just five months after the trial ended. It is now the focus of the jury tampering allegations made by Murdaugh’s defense lawyers, who are using those claims as one basis for an appeal.

Many of the the emails released Thursday lack attachments and, at best, offer an incomplete but still revealing portrait of Hill. Colleton County also withheld emails that may be the subject of ongoing state law enforcement and Ethics Commission investigations.

The ethics and mechanics of writing a book preoccupied Hill. In the months following the trial, she reached out to the State Ethics Commission, writers and journalists, a prominent media attorney and local politicians.

In June, Hill wrote retired S.C. Law Enforcement Division agent Rita Shuler, who had written a book about a major case she had worked on while at SLED. Hill asked Shuler how to proceed with ethical matters. “I want to make sure I don’t get indicted and go to jail! LOL,” Hill wrote, using the abbreviation for “laugh out loud.”

While the consensus of some she emailed was that Hill would not be violating any rules so long as she did not include confidential information in the book, Hill’s memoir quickly created a firestorm for the clerk of court. Two ethics complaints filed against Hill reference her writing and promoting the book.

In early September, Murdaugh attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin held a highly-publicized press conference on State House grounds, telling reporters that after the book was published, jurors came forward with allegations that Hill improperly influenced them.

Hill’s book offered a peek behind the curtain into the nuts and bolts of running a trial that caught the attention of international media. Hill described her own relationship with the Murdaughs, whom she had known professionally through the courts for over a decade and whose family history of moonshining intersected with Hill’s own ancestors.

For her part, Hill has admitted to keeping notes throughout the trial, but has previously denied deciding to write a book until she connected with Neil Gordon, a journalist, in the weeks immediately following the trial. Hill met Gordon’s wife, Melissa, during the final days of the trial and formed a quick connection, Hill has said previously. Melissa Gordon took many of the book’s photos.

But for many, the allure of Hill’s emails is an opportunity to glean whether the clerk of court had already made up her mind about Alex Murdaugh’s guilt and then pressured the jury to quickly convict him of murdering his wife and son on June 21, 2021.

On page 2 of her book, she declares. “I was mostly concerned about Alex being found innocent when I knew in my heart he was guilty.”

But in the few references to a verdict sprinkled throughout her emails, Hill is more cryptic.

The closest to a damning statement came in an email near the end of the trial. On Wednesday, March 1, the day closing arguments began, she advises a student from USC Salkehatchie that he is welcome to attend the proceedings that Friday —“if we are still here.”

The day the jury began deliberating, Thursday March 2, Hill wrote to an attorney who regularly attended the trial but needed help getting into the courthouse that day, “Let’s hope for swift and firm justice today!”

When Hill emailed someone who had requested a seat in court for the final day of the trial, she finishes with “Think it will be a guilty verdict?”

Hill’s efforts to be ethical

Dozens of emails show what appear to be Hill’s attempts to follow the rules for government officials who publish books about an issue they are involved in. As early as April, Hill was reaching out to authors and attorneys for their opinion on her book.

Available emails show:

▪ Hill was worried that her efforts to write a book could land her in controversy, if not a crime, according to a June email she wrote to Walterboro Mayor Bill Young.

“I spoke with my Chief Justice of SC (Donald Beatty) and he verbally gave me the go ahead on writing a book about the Murdaugh trial that we had earlier this year…However, I really want to be sure I don’t get indicted and tried in a criminal court.” Hill wrote.

▪ Earlier, in April, Hill wrote veteran media attorney Jay Bender of Columbia about the ethics of writing a book about a subject close to her office, and Bender had replied on April 24., “I have concluded that based on the definition of ‘official capacity’ that since your office would not normally provide authorship of a book within its normal services, and since you are not subject to expense reimbursement for writing the book, you are not subject to any restrictions imposed by law for receiving compensation relating to the sales of copies of a book you write.”

▪ Two days after Bender sent his opinion, Hill reached out to Courtney Laster at the State Ethics Commission: “I have a question about the writing of a book by a clerk of court about the process of trial from beginning to end, Focusing on the process itself the history of it and of course the high profile cases that South Carolina has had. What would be the ethic (sic) procedures behind this?”

▪ Another Ethics Commission staffer replied to Hill on May 5. The reply was not included in documents released Thursday by Colleton County. Hill forwarded the reply to Bender, who told her on May 8, “I think the opinion of the Ethics Commission is consistent with my analysis. Keep writing, but don’t use confidential information.”

▪ On May 6, Hill noted in an email to her co-author, Gordon, that there would be a conference in early August in California she might attend. “If I went, could we use it to promote book?” she asks.

▪ Hill also sought book-writing advice from veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein, a former reporter for The State Media Co., emailing Bauerlein on June 3, 2023, “Ok, Val...... here we go. I have to turn it in tomorrow evening. So any parts you can review and peruse, I am grateful.”

Hill also turned to Bender for advice on trying to get money from Netflex, a video streaming company. Her query to Bender about the use of the courthouse by Netflix wasn’t made public, but Bender’s reply cautioned care.

“Any compensation for the use of the courthouse would need to be paid to your office or to the county treasury. The receipt of compensation by you for making the courthouse available, should you have that authority, would likely be a violation of the ethics act as outlined in the letter from the Ethics Commission,” Bender wrote her on May 8. “This situation differs from your authorship of a book because it relates to the use of public property over which you have some authority in the ordinary course of your duties.”

By mid-September, after Murdaugh’s lawyers made their allegations about jury tampering, Hill grew mostly silent.

On Sept. 12, Hill emailed a supporter who told her to stay strong in the face of the jury tampering allegations. “.I can’t talk about the whole case or investigation at the moment, however, in a very short time, I will be able to... It will be worldwide again when there is an apology given to me from the defense team.

“If you will wait on me, just a couple more days, I will be prepared to talk,” Hill wrote to Post & Courier reporter Thad Moore on Sept. 13. “Please do not talk to Neil Gordon without me... I can promise you it will be worth the wait.”

On Friday, Oct. 6, Hill replied to a woman who emailed her and accused her of making “blood money” from her book. “My side has not been presented yet. But it’s coming. And I stand on the truth and boy, is it totally different from what the defense team has spun.”

Murdaugh’s full appeal has not yet been filed.

Meanwhile, a controversy has arisen concerning Hill’s son, Colleton County’s longtime technology director. Last month, he was charged by SLED with wiretapping and fired from his $90,537-a-year job. Exact details of the allegations were not made public.

Former S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal has been appointed to the case, since state Judge Clifton Newman is due to retire at the end of the month.

Toal, who is semi-retired, will preside at what appears to be the case’s next step: holding a hearing that possibly could delve into jury tampering allegations.

At that hearing, Hill could once again be a center of attention — but this time, as a witness.

Bristow Marchant, Sarah Ellis, Javon L. Harris and Joshua Boucher contributed.