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A South Carolina court clerk at the center of Alex Murdaugh’s battle for a new trial has finally spoken out and denied all allegations that she tampered with the jury that convicted him of murdering his wife and son.
“I did not tell the jury ‘not to be fooled’ by evidence presented by Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys,” Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill wrote in an affidavit filed on Tuesday. “I did not instruct the jury to ‘watch him closely.’ I did not instruct the jury to ‘look at his actions.’ I did not instruct the jury to ‘look at his movements.’”
The denials mark the first time Hill has responded to Murdaugh’s defense team’s allegations, which were first laid out in a September motion for a new trial. The disgraced ex-lawyer’s team has accused Hill of advising jurors not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and defense evidence, encouraging jurors to render a quick verdict, engaging in private conversations with the jury foreperson, and even denying jurors the opportunity to smoke during deliberations.