Lawyers for attorney and convict Alex Murdaugh filed an appeal against his sentence on Tuesday. They say improper testimony and clerk Becky Hill’s alleged jury tampering “contaminated the trial with unfairness.”
Murdaugh, 56, is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting his wife Maggie and youngest son Paul on their family’s hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina, in June 2021.
Prosecutors argued that their killings were an attempt to divert attention from Murdaugh’s increasing financial crimes, which began to come to light around that time.
In April this year, the disgraced legal scion was sentenced to an additional 480 months, on top of his two life sentences, for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, five counts of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and 14 counts of bank fraud. money laundering.
Prosecutors allege Murdaugh used his power and family influence in the Lowcountry to target clients’ cases, extracting them “significant funds” and then keeping a fair share of the proceeds for himself.
But in their 132-page appeal, filed Tuesday, Murdaugh’s attorneys argue that their client’s financial crimes should not have been included in his previous murder case. They argue that they were irrelevant and could have portrayed him in a bad light, which negatively affected the jurors.
The appeal also alleges that former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill, who resigned amid allegations of jury tampering in Murdaugh’s case, led jurors to find him guilty.
Of the 12 jurors who found Murdaugh guilty of murder in March 2023, 11 said Hill had not influenced their decisions. One said he heard the clerk comment about looking at Murdaugh’s body language, but said her words did not influence his judgment.
Judge Jean Toal ruled in January that the charges against Hill were not enough to grant the suspect a new trial in the murder case.
Murdaugh’s lawyers have appealed this ruling.
Hill, who is charged with 76 ethics violations, was scheduled to appear before the state Ethics Commission on Dec. 19.
But that hearing has been suspended in light of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Public Prosecution Service, the Staatskrant reported.
The appeal also alleges that prosecutors introduced multiple guns into evidence without any evidence linking them to the murders, and that gunshot residue on a raincoat shown in court did not link any evidence to their client were brought.
