Disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh just scored the legal equivalent of a jailbreak—thanks, in part, to a courthouse clerk who couldn’t stop talking.
The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned Murdaugh’s double murder conviction in a bombshell 5-0 ruling, ordering a brand-new trial in the 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul Murdaugh.
The once-powerful personal injury attorney—whose family dynasty controlled the local prosecutor’s office for 85 years—had been serving two life sentences after a jury convicted him in 2023 of gunning down his wife and son at the family’s hunting estate.
But the state’s highest court ruled that former Colleton County clerk Becky Hill, 58, improperly influenced jurors during the nationally televised six-week trial, tainting the verdict and forcing the case back to square one.
“Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury,” the justices wrote in the unanimous ruling.
Murdaugh’s lawyers argued Hill became far too personally invested in the sensational case while secretly working on her tell-all trial memoir, Behind the Doors of Justice.
According to affidavits and testimony cited during the appeals fight, Hill allegedly urged jurors to closely scrutinize Murdaugh’s “body language” on the stand.
In a 2024 evidentiary hearing, one juror spoke to Hill’s pervasive influence, “to me, it felt like she made it seem like he was already guilty,” juror Z said.
Prosecutors fought to preserve the conviction, arguing the evidence against Murdaugh, 57, was overwhelming and insisting the disgraced lawyer was “obviously guilty” regardless of Hill’s conduct. They acknowledged some of the clerk’s comments were inappropriate, but argued they did not meaningfully sway the jury’s decision.
The murders of Maggie and Paul were only the beginning of Murdaugh’s sudden downfall. In the months after the killings, the once-prominent attorney became engulfed in accusations that he stole millions from clients, abused opioids, staged a bizarre roadside insurance-fraud scheme involving a botched assisted suicide plot, resigned from his family law firm, and was ultimately disbarred.
Hill, meanwhile, became a scandal in her own right.
The former clerk was charged in 2025 with perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct after prosecutors alleged she leaked sealed evidence to the media, lied under oath, and used her court position to promote and profit from her book about the trial. Sales of the memoir were later halted after Hill admitted portions had been plagiarized.
Hill ultimately pleaded guilty in December 2025 and received three years’ probation.
Even with the murder convictions now erased, Murdaugh is not walking free anytime soon. He is still serving lengthy state and federal prison sentences totaling 67 years after pleading guilty to dozens of financial crimes tied to the theft of settlement money from clients.
Still, prison life apparently hasn’t been too miserable for the fallen legal titan.
His attorney, Jim Griffin, told NBC News in 2024 that Murdaugh spends much of his time behind bars obsessively playing chess with fellow inmates.
A former dorm-mate who spoke to 11Alive News claimed Murdaugh also enjoys unusually cushy treatment in prison, alleging that “everyone caters to him,” including a dedicated person responsible for his laundry.
