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News Live No new trial: Judge rules on Murdaugh jury tampering allegations Click to Unmute Video By Anisa Snipes and Amanda Shaw Published: Jan. 26, 2024 at 8:57 AM EST|Updated: moments ago COLUMBIA, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill and jurors testified in court on Monday in a hearing to determine if former Lowcountry attorney and convicted killer Alex Murdaugh will get a new trial. In Columbia, Judge Jean Toal led the proceedings with the jurors and Hill. Alex Murdaugh’s defense team claims the jury was tampered with by Hill, who denies the allegations.

WALTERBORO, S.C. — Lawyers for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh filed a motion Tuesday seeking a new trial, alleging they had uncovered evidence of jury tampering. Rebecca Hill, the Colleton County clerk of court, "tampered with the jury by advising them 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," attorneys Richard "Dick" Harpootlian and Jim Griffin claim in the motion. Harpootlian said at...

Cringeworthy prison selfies have emerged of double murderer Alex Murdaugh – who appears carefree and topless in his cell as he serves his two life sentences. Murdaugh is seen in dozens of images taken from his prison tablet, according to YouTube channel Phone Calls From Prison, which said it obtained the snaps from the South Carolina Department of Corrections in a Freedom of Information request. The disgraced lawyer is either wearing a white T-shirt or displays his pasty torso in his spartan digs at the McCormick Correctional Institution, where he is serving two life sentences for gunning down his wife,...

The 2015 death of Murdaugh-linked Stephen Smith is now considered to be a murder, South Carolina authorities revealed — ahead of the planned exhumation of the gay teen’s body. The state law enforcement division had been waiting to drop the bombshell development until after the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial wrapped up and the ensuing drama quieted down, Bland Richter Law Firm announced Tuesday. “SLED officials have revealed that they did not need to exhume Stephen Smith’s body to convince them that his death was a homicide,” said Charleston attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who were retained by Smith’s...

Lawyers probing the mysterious death of Murdaugh-linked Stephen Smith say the crime scene showed no signs he was hit by a car and the investigation into his passing was improperly handled. Smith’s body will be exhumed seven years after it was found in the middle of the road in South Carolina and lawyers working for his mother, Sandy Smith, hope a new autopsy and investigation will show how he really died. Sandy has long disputed the coroner’s determination of a hit-and-run – which clashed with initial reports from officers on the scene – saying she believes her son was murdered....

Double murderer Alex Murdaugh is reportedly being kept alone in maximum security because prison officials fear the notorious, once-powerful legal scion will be a target for other inmates. Online records show that the newly shaven-headed convict is being held in Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, where he smirked in his latest mugshot. Sources told TMZ that the lying, pill-popping murderer is being kept away from other inmates over fears they “might wanna take him down a few notches due to his notoriety.” He is also being kept in the most secure area, the sources said of the prison...

Alex Murdaugh’s older brother is convinced the convicted murderer is still lying over the brutal slayings of his wife and son. “He knows more than what he’s saying,” Randy Murdaugh, 56, told the New York Times of his drug-addicted, serial-lying brother who still denies gunning down wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22. “He’s not telling the truth, in my opinion, about everything there.” Randy’s admission is in sharp contrast to a claim by his 54-year-old brother’s defense team that the whole family was “more convinced” of the disgraced legal scion’s innocence after his six-week trial.

For a year and a half, Alex Murdaugh denied he was anywhere near where his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son, Paul, were brutally killed. But it was one of his victims -- his son -- who would provide key proof after his death that legal experts say exposed his father's web of lies and ultimately led to his conviction in the double homicide. "It is ironic, in the end, that it was the victim, Paul Murdaugh, who solved his own murder," Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Florida's Palm Beach County, told CNN Thursday night. Murdaugh, a now disgraced former South...

Verdict is in on the double murder charges facing Alex Murdaugh. Pundits are opine he is guilty

Sitting on the aisle a few rows behind his father, the 26-year-old’s left hand rested against the side of his face as each jury member confirmed their verdict, according to live courtroom footage. As a handcuffed Alex Murdaugh was led from the courtroom, he said a few words to his lawyer, but did not turn to look at Buster, who remained seated. Alex Murdaugh’s conviction comes after a weekslong trial where he stood accused of fatally shooting his 52-year-old wife Maggie and 22-year-old son Paul.

Alex Murdaugh’s high-profile trial for allegedly murdering his wife and son has been as twisted as the disgraced lawyer’s murky personal and professional lives. The disbarred South Carolina attorney faces possible life imprisonment over the fatal shootings of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, who were found shot to death in the dog kennel of their Islandton hunting lodge on June 7, 2021. Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh, 54, killed them in order to deflect from his financial crimes. Even if he is found not guilty, he is expected to potentially spend decades in prison for stealing from clients...

Alex Murdaugh, a once-wealthy and powerful South Carolina attorney on trial for allegedly shooting his wife and son, took the stand Thursday, testifying he had no part in the grisly double murder and blaming an addiction to painkillers for his erratic behavior in front of friends and law enforcement officials. "I did not shoot my wife or my son any time — ever," he said of Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, who had been gunned down in June 2021. Murdaugh admitted he had lied several times to authorities about his whereabouts the night of the shootings. "I lied about being...

Moments after prosecutors called their 38th witness, Judge Clifton Newman ordered the evacuation of the Colleton County Courthouse at Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial due to a reported bomb threat.

Keeping up on the spectacle of South Carolina’s Murdaugh murder case is like riding a land rocket without steering. The rural killings of the wife and a son of a father later accused of plotting his own shooting to reap an insurance payout has more twists and turns than three television shows filmed in the Palmetto State: “Southern Charm,” “Outer Banks” and “The Righteous Gemstones.” This is an ongoing reality show taking place in Hampton and Colleton counties that already has at least two major podcasts as well as reporters from The New York Times and national television networks scrambling...

A suspect is in custody in connection with the mysterious shooting of prominent lawyer Alex Murdaugh, and authorities say Murdaugh arranged for the man to do it.

A spokesperson for South Carolina's Law Enforcement Division confirmed to Fox News that state law enforcement had been asked to investigate a shooting in Hampton County and that the victim was the 53-year-old Murdaugh, but he could not release additional details. "I have been told he is going to be OK," his brother, John Murdaugh, told Fox News... Murdaugh was found on Salkehatchie Road in Hampton County Saturday afternoon... Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, 22 and 52, were found shot to death on a family property in Islandton on June 7. The homicide case remains unsolved. Shortly after Paul and Maggie...

Investigators are probing the possibility that 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh — who was facing trial in connection with the death of a young woman — may have been the one marked in the attack, The Island Packet reported. The University of South Carolina student and Maggie Murdaugh, 52, were found shot to death Monday on their sprawling estate in the center of the state. It remains unclear if the shootings were related to the 2019 tragedy, the report said. No arrests have been made. Sources told the newspaper that Murdaugh was shot at least twice with a shotgun, while his mother...