Alex Murdaugh's lawyers accuse court clerk of jury tampering and demand new trial

GREENVILLE, S.C. − Attorneys for convicted murderer Richard "Alex" Murdaugh asked for a new trial and accused a Colleton County court official of tampering with the jury and violating Murdaugh's civil rights, according to new legal filings.

Murdaugh, a former attorney and member of a prominent legal dynasty, was handed two life sentences in March after being convicted of murdering his wife and son. Murdaugh has denied killing his family and days after his conviction, his attorneys, Richard Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, announced they intended to appeal.

On Tuesday, Harpootlian and Griffin filed a petition to stay Murdaugh's appeal, which accused Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, who read the verdict and later published a tell-all book about the historic murder case, of jury tampering. The attorneys also sent a request to the South Carolina U.S. Attorney to open a federal investigation into the alleged violation of Murdaugh's civil rights, they said in a joint statement attached to the legal filings.

“She asked jurors about their opinions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence. She instructed them not to believe evidence presented in Mr. Murdaugh’s defense, including his own testimony. She lied to the judge to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty. And she pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict quickly so she could profit from it,” the attorneys wrote.

When contacted for comment, Hill and her co-author, Neil Gordon, said they would be issuing a statement later Tuesday.

Motion for new trial accuses Clerk of Court of jury tampering

Murdaugh's legal team filed a 65-page motion for a stay of Murdaugh's appeal and a new trial with the S.C. Court of Appeals Tuesday along with affidavits from jurors, the ex-husband of a juror, copies of Facebook posts and pages of Hill's book, "Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders."

The filing alleges Hill told jurors not to be "misled" by Murdaugh's evidence or "fooled" by his testimony and pressured them into reaching a quick guilty verdict, telling them that their deliberations "shouldn't take them too long." Hill also allegedly denied jurors a smoke break until they reached a verdict, according to the court documents.

Hill had private conversations with the jury foreperson, both inside the courthouse and when jurors visited the crime scene at the Murdaugh’s property, according to sworn statements from three jurors included in the filing. The filing didn’t include any statement from the foreperson.

Hill allegedly misrepresented information to Judge Clifton Newman in a campaign to have a juror believed to be favorable to the defense removed from the jury and invented a story about a Facebook post to remove a juror who might not vote guilty, according to court documents.

Murdaugh’s lawyers also filed a transcript from a closed door meeting over the juror, where Judge Clifton Newman is quoted as saying “I’m not too pleased about the clerk interrogating a juror as opposed to coming to me and bringing it to me.”

After the verdict, Hill allegedly told the jurors they would be famous, handed out reporters' business cards to them and pressured a group of jurors to do an interview with a network news show before the sentencing, according to court documents. Hill then traveled with the jurors to New York City to appear on "The Today Show," the documents allege.

The motion claims that Hill "did these things to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial," and that "Ms. Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame."

The attorneys also submitted a letter to United States Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs asking for an "urgent federal investigation" into Hill's conduct during the trial, and asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, to investigate their allegations.

Contributing: The Associated Press