Alex Murdaugh’s Wild Jury Tampering Claims Don’t Add Up, Prosecutors Say

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office finally responded Friday to allegations that a court clerk tampered with the jury that convicted Alex Murdaugh of murder, saying state investigators have found “significant factual disputes” with the claims.

The response was filed just before the Friday deadline to respond to the motion for a new trial filed by Murdaugh’s defense team on Sept. 5. In their searing 65-page motion, Murdaugh’s attorneys accused Colleton clerk of court Rebecca Hill of advising the jury “not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense.”

Friday’s reply from the AG’s office shot down Murdaugh’s hopes, with prosecutors asserting that a fresh trial cannot be requested while the previous case is still on appeal, as Murdaugh’s is. Still, prosecutors said they’d already asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to investigate claims against Hill and the agency hadn’t found any evidence to support the claims to date.

Read more at The Daily Beast.