Attorneys for lawyer-turned-convict Alex Murdaugh filed to attraction his sentence on Tuesday, saying improper testimony and courtroom clerk Becky Hill’s alleged jury tampering “contaminated the trial with unfairness.”
Murdaugh, 56, is serving a life sentence for fatally taking pictures his spouse, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, in June 2021 on their household’s looking property in Colleton County, South Carolina.
Prosecutors argued that their murders had been an try to distract from Murdaugh’s mounting monetary crimes, which had been starting to come back to mild round that point.
This April, the disgraced authorized scion was sentenced to a further 480 months, on high of his two life sentences, for conspiracy to commit wire and financial institution fraud, financial institution fraud, 5 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 14 counts of cash laundering.
Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh used his energy and household affect within the Lowcountry to tackle purchasers’ instances, win them “vital funds” after which maintain a good portion of the earnings for himself.
However of their 132-page attraction, filed on Tuesday, Murdaugh’s attorneys argue that their consumer’s monetary crimes shouldn’t have been included in his earlier homicide trial, stating they had been irrelevant and will have painted him in a nasty mild that negatively influenced jurors.
The attraction additionally alleges that former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill, who resigned over allegations of jury tampering in Murdaugh’s case, swayed jurors to search out him responsible.
Of 12 jurors who discovered Murdaugh responsible of homicide in March 2023, 11 stated Hill didn’t affect their choices. One stated he heard the clerk make feedback about watching Murdaugh’s physique language, however stated her phrases didn’t affect his verdict.
Decide Jean Toal dominated in January that the allegations towards Hill weren’t sufficient to grant the defendant a brand new trial within the homicide case.
Murdaugh’s attorneys argued towards that ruling of their attraction.
Hill, who’s accused of 76 ethics violations, was anticipated to face the State’s Ethics Fee on Dec. 19.
However that listening to is on maintain in mild of a pending prison investigation by the Lawyer Basic’s Workplace, the State newspaper reported.
The attraction additionally alleges that prosecutors launched a number of weapons as proof that had no proof linking them to the murders, and that gunshot residue on a raincoat proven as proof in courtroom weren’t linked to their consumer by any proof.
Supply hyperlink
