SLED investigating jury tampering allegations in Murdaugh trial

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is now investigating allegations of jury tampering in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, according to a joint press release late Thursday by SLED and the S.C. Attorney General’s office.

The investigation, which will involve SLED agents interviewing jurors about alleged tampering by Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, will take place over the objections of Murdaugh defense lawyers.

Defense lawyers assert that SLED has a conflict of interest in interviewing jurors.

A 12-person jury last March found Murdaugh guilty of murder in the 2021 shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at the family’s 1,770-acre secluded estate in rural Colleton County. Numerous SLED agents were among the prosecution’s more than 60 witnesses and gave key testimony during the six-week trial.

“SLED has a vested interest in sustaining... (Murdaugh’s guilty) verdict that makes it a conflicted and inappropriate resource when it comes to investigating the allegations,” defense lawyer Dick Harpootlian wrote Creighton Waters on Wednesday. Waters is the Attorney General’s office lead prosecutor in the Murdaugh murder case and financial crimes he is charged with.

Harpootlian also told Waters that if jurors were interviewed, an attorney from the Attorney General’s office should be present, that juror contacts should be recorded and that juror contacts should be conducted in a normal manner during daylight “rather than, for example, in a patrol car at night.”

The 65-word press release Thursday by SLED and the Attorney General’s office was the answer to Harpootlian’s request not to have SLED investigate jury tampering. Harpootlian said Thursday he had received no response to his letter.

The news release said, “The State’s only vested interest is in seeking the truth.

“As with all investigations, SLED and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office are committed to a fair and impartial investigation and will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead.”

The release also said that Attorney General Alan Wilson had requested SLED to “investigate allegations of jury tampering involving the Colleton County clerk of court.”

Harpootlian had also written on Tuesday to U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Adair Boroughs asserting a SLED conflict and asking that her federal prosecutors and the FBI conduct an investigation and interview jurors to determine whether clerk of court Hill had interfered with Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office said it would not comment on Harpootlian’s request. The office and the FBI usually do not confirm or deny pending investigations.

The allegations against Hill were made in a court filing on Tuesday with the S.C. Court of Appeals by Murdaugh attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian. The filing requested a new trial for their client.

The Attorney General’s office must file a reply to Murdaugh’s defense team’s jury tampering allegations on or before Sept. 15.

The filing contained sworn affidavits from two jurors who served on the Colleton County jury that in March convicted Murdaugh, once a prominent Lowcountry attorney, of murdering his wife and son. Affidavits from a defense legal team staffer detail interviews with two other jurors.

The filing alleges Hill tampered with the jury “to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. Ms. Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame,” the filing said.

Hill, 55, published her book, “Behind the Doors of Justice: the Murdaugh Murders,” in late July and it is being sold on Amazon, where true crime television reporter Nancy Grace hypes it as “the true story of the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial from a courthouse insider, who witnessed it all.” Hill was among the first of some dozen writers working on the Murdaugh case to produce a book.

Hill allegedly “told jurors not to be ‘fooled by’ Mr. Murdaugh’s testimony in his own defense,” Murdaugh’s attorneys claim in their filing. “ Ms. Hill had frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson,” including at least once in a single-occupancy bathroom, the filing alleges.

“During the trial, Ms. Hill asked jurors for their opinions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence,” and “Ms. Hill pressured the jurors to reach a quick verdict, telling them from the outset of their deliberations that it ‘shouldn’t take them long.’”

The filing even accuses Hill of “invent(ing) a story about a Facebook post to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty.”

Murdaugh’s trial in Walterboro captured national and international attention and was live-streamed by Court TV.

The prosecution argued that Murdaugh, who maintains his innocence, carried out the killings in an effort to cover up millions of dollars he had stolen from fellow lawyers, a relative and his former clients.

Murdaugh is currently serving two life sentences at an undisclosed South Carolina prison.

Hill was elected as Colleton County’s clerk of court, the administrative official in charge of the county courthouse, in November 2020. Before that, she had worked as a court reporter for 14 years and held administrative jobs in law offices.

Since the allegations against Hill were made, she has retained two prominent Palmetto State attorneys of her own in Justin Bamberg, a state legislator, and Will Lewis, a former assistant U.S. attorney, The State previously reported.

In his Wednesday letter to Waters, Harpootlian urged that any investigation into jury tampering be done in a manner “in which the public can have full confidence.”

The public is not served “if the investigation itself becomes a matter about which allegations must be made and investigated,” Harpootlian wrote.