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Mega Edition: Alex Murdaugh And The Hunt For A New Trial (9/31/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. Alec Murdaugh,
0:06
Speaker 1: as we all know at this point, is trying to
0:08
Speaker 1: get himself a new trial. And he's using the basis
0:12
Speaker 1: that he got absolutely hosed the first time around. But
0:16
Speaker 1: not on the evidence. No, it was the procedure. It
0:19
Speaker 1: was the way everything cracked off as far as the
0:22
Speaker 1: trial goes. And not only on technicalities, but also, he says,
0:27
Speaker 1: that the court clerk... was in on the whole entire
0:30
Speaker 1: scam to make sure that Alex Murdaugh ended up being
0:34
Speaker 1: found guilty. And while I think that's all hogwash, I
0:37
Speaker 1: am always willing to listen or see whatever evidence is
0:41
Speaker 1: presented by somebody who says that they're getting a raw deal.
0:44
Speaker 1: So in this episode, we're going to take a look
0:47
Speaker 1: at why a Murdaugh retrial might happen. This article was
0:52
Speaker 1: published by the New York Post and the headline, Facebook, Domino's,
0:57
Speaker 1: and the Egg Lady. why a Murdaugh retrial might happen.
1:02
Speaker 1: This article was authored by Dana Kennedy. The so-called trial
1:07
Speaker 1: of the century in South Carolina, which resulted in the
1:10
Speaker 1: conviction of Alec Murdaugh for murdering his wife and son
1:14
Speaker 1: at their rural hunting lodge in Colleton County, might get
1:18
Speaker 1: a do-over, although prosecutors move Friday to thwart that. And
1:23
Speaker 1: the prosecutors, obviously, the last thing they want to do
1:26
Speaker 1: is retry this case. It'll cost a bunch of money
1:29
Speaker 1: for the county, and there's always the chance that their
1:32
Speaker 1: prosecution ends up going south and they end up losing
1:36
Speaker 1: during a new trial. I don't find that to be
1:39
Speaker 1: very likely, but if there was some kind of misconduct
1:43
Speaker 1: on the behalf of the court clerk, they could find
1:46
Speaker 1: themselves in some serious jeopardy. There's no doubt. The question is,
1:50
Speaker 1: is there any fire with all of this smoke? If
1:53
Speaker 1: there's a new trial... It will be due in part
1:57
Speaker 1: to alleged jury tampering by Becky Hill, the kindly, hospitable
2:02
Speaker 1: clerk of the court. And just so we're clear, if
2:05
Speaker 1: there was some kind of misconduct on the behalf of
2:07
Speaker 1: the prosecutors or the court clerk, then there should be
2:10
Speaker 1: serious penalties, including the verdict being thrown out. And that's because,
2:15
Speaker 1: as I've said before, the state has immense power and
2:19
Speaker 1: they can't cut corners. They can't play games. And if
2:22
Speaker 1: there is any prosecutorial misconduct whatsoever, I am always in
2:26
Speaker 1: the camp of the conviction being thrown out. And this
2:29
Speaker 1: is why I'm also a huge proponent of cameras being
2:33
Speaker 1: in the courtroom while things are going down. That way
2:36
Speaker 1: we all see it for ourselves. And the first time
2:38
Speaker 1: around with Alex Murdaugh, I certainly didn't see any kind
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Speaker 1: of prosecutorial misconduct that was out in the open. Now,
2:46
Speaker 1: if something was going on behind the scenes, as far
2:49
Speaker 1: as this court clerk, then they're going to have to
2:52
Speaker 1: show us that evidence. Her meddling, according to a motion
2:56
Speaker 1: filed September 5th by defense attorneys requesting a new trial,
3:00
Speaker 1: may have contributed to abrupt dismissal of one juror right
3:04
Speaker 1: before deliberations began in the case. The one juror, that is,
3:09
Speaker 1: who reportedly thought Murdaugh might be innocent. So if that
3:13
Speaker 1: is true, then this whole entire thing needs to be
3:16
Speaker 1: thrown out, right? And I don't care how you feel
3:19
Speaker 1: about Murda. You all know I don't care for him
3:21
Speaker 1: very much. But the process has to be respected. And
3:25
Speaker 1: the second you have an overshooting prosecutor who is doing
3:29
Speaker 1: whatever they can to secure a conviction, even if that
3:32
Speaker 1: means shitting on someone's rights, well, that prosecutor has to
3:36
Speaker 1: be reined in. Now, again, please don't misunderstand me. I'm
3:39
Speaker 1: not saying that occurred here. But those are the allegations
3:43
Speaker 1: that are being made by Murda and his team. The
3:46
Speaker 1: state responded to the defense's motion Friday by calling aspects
3:51
Speaker 1: of it procedurally defective and added that they had significant
3:55
Speaker 1: factual disputes with the defense's assertions but did not detail them.
4:00
Speaker 1: But prosecutors also conceded in their response that a hearing
4:04
Speaker 1: may be needed to properly resolve some of the serious
4:08
Speaker 1: claims raised in the defense's motion. The next step is
4:12
Speaker 1: up to the South Carolina Court of Appeals. It's astonishing
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Speaker 1: and far more than just alarming if these allegations are true.
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Speaker 1: Ben Gershman told the Post, 100%. If these allegations are true,
4:26
Speaker 1: forget it. The old tomato definitely deserves another trial, and
4:30
Speaker 1: that's without a doubt. A former prosecutor in the New
4:34
Speaker 1: York State Anti-Corruption Office, he is now a law professor
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Speaker 1: at Pace University and a nationally recognized authority on prosecutorial misconduct,
4:45
Speaker 1: and jury tampering. In other words, this guy knows his shit.
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Speaker 1: It's hard to believe that these kinds of interactions would happen,
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Speaker 1: but maybe it's just endemic in small-town America, and this
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Speaker 1: was a way for the clerk to inject herself into
4:59
Speaker 1: a situation to help her feel more important than she is. Wow,
5:04
Speaker 1: that would be something. You want to talk about a bombshell?
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Speaker 1: That would be it, folks. February 24th, 2023. Hill allegedly
5:14
Speaker 1: sees something on Facebook. According to the affidavit, Hill spotted
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Speaker 1: a comment on a Facebook account devoted to Walterboro, South
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Speaker 1: Carolina gossip on February 24th, posted by a man named
5:28
Speaker 1: Timothy Stone, who accused his ex-wife of getting drunk and
5:32
Speaker 1: talking about the case. Hill allegedly believed this person was
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Speaker 1: the ex-husband of Juror 785, who would later be dubbed
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Speaker 1: the Egg Lady Juror. But when asked by a presiding judge,
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Speaker 1: Clifton B. Newman, to produce the original post, Hill could
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Speaker 1: not find it. So she says that she saw this post,
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Speaker 1: and then, when asked by the judge to provide the
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Speaker 1: post that she says that she saw, well, she couldn't
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Speaker 1: find it. So that is concerning, right? Certainly something that
6:02
Speaker 1: has to be looked into. A staffer who worked with
6:05
Speaker 1: Hill then claimed to have found another post by the
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Speaker 1: same Timothy Stone apologizing for what he had written. This post, confusingly,
6:15
Speaker 1: was not located on the Walter Burroughs gossip site, but
6:18
Speaker 1: on Stone's personal page. Murdoch's defense attorneys claim Hill made
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Speaker 1: the story up and, to date, the original post has
6:27
Speaker 1: not been proven to exist. According to the latest court filing,
6:32
Speaker 1: an apology post was apparently written by Timothy Stone, who
6:36
Speaker 1: lives in Georgia and who says he knows nothing about
6:39
Speaker 1: the case. February 27th, 2023. Hill gets a suspicious email. Meanwhile,
6:47
Speaker 1: on February 27th, Hill's office was sent an email in
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Speaker 1: which a local Domino's Pizza employee reported that a coworker
6:55
Speaker 1: claimed to have had a conversation with their landlady, the
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Speaker 1: egg lady juror, about the case. We are supposed to
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Speaker 1: think this person from Domino's Pizza who heard it from
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Speaker 1: a co-worker waited a week to report it in an email,
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Speaker 1: and then this lines up with Becky seeing this Facebook
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Speaker 1: post on the 24th? It just seems so convenient. A
7:15
Speaker 1: longtime observer of the case and the murder trial told
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Speaker 1: the post, February 28th, 2023. Egg lady's tenants are questioned.
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Speaker 1: Judge Newman was made aware of both Hill's report about
7:29
Speaker 1: the alleged Facebook post and the email from the tenant. SLED,
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Speaker 1: South Carolina's law enforcement division agents, went to the home
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Speaker 1: of the Egg Lady's tenants on February 28th, got them
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Speaker 1: out of bed, and interrogated them in separate police cars
7:45
Speaker 1: according to the defense's affidavit. SLED returned to the tenant's
7:50
Speaker 1: home later that night, got them out of bed again,
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Speaker 1: and slapped them both with subpoenas to come to court
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Speaker 1: the next day. The pair were detained in a room
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Speaker 1: in court for nine hours. So they've already tickled this
8:03
Speaker 1: investigation a little bit, and they've brought some of these
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Speaker 1: witnesses all the way to open court. They signed an affidavit,
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Speaker 1: which according to the defense team's latest filing, they later
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Speaker 1: recanted by saying they did not know what they were signing.
8:18
Speaker 1: And even Judge Newman said they had waffled about what
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Speaker 1: the egg lady juror had said when he questioned them
8:25
Speaker 1: in his chambers. Jim Griffin, one of Murdoch's lawyers, told
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Speaker 1: the Post that the two tenants, one of whom works
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Speaker 1: at Domino's, said the egg lady juror had not given
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Speaker 1: them any details about the murder case. The egg lady
8:39
Speaker 1: said in her affidavit that Hill had told her that
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Speaker 1: sled agents had contacted her ex-husband, Tim Stone, which was untrue.
8:48
Speaker 1: Newman also said, according to court transcripts, that he was
8:52
Speaker 1: aware that Hill had spoken to the Egg Lady juror privately.
8:56
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I'm not too pleased about the clerk interrogating
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Speaker 1: a juror as opposed to coming to me and bringing
9:02
Speaker 1: it to me, Newman said. Yeah, I feel him there,
9:06
Speaker 1: because it causes all kinds of chaos and drama, and
9:08
Speaker 1: it gives Alec Murdoch's team that little bit of driftwood
9:12
Speaker 1: that they're looking for when they're drowning. But with that
9:16
Speaker 1: being said, if this lady did do what they're saying
9:19
Speaker 1: she did, there has to be a new trial for Mr.
9:22
Speaker 1: Tomato Head. March 2nd, 2023. Enter the Egg Lady juror.
9:28
Speaker 1: Murdaugh is found guilty. The removal of juror 785 occurred
9:32
Speaker 1: just hours before the Murdaugh jury began rapid deliberations in
9:36
Speaker 1: favor of a guilty verdict on March 2nd. He was
9:40
Speaker 1: later given two life sentences. The jurors dismissal came when
9:44
Speaker 1: Judge Newman said the woman had talked to people outside
9:47
Speaker 1: of the courtroom about the trial. But that announcement was
9:52
Speaker 1: quickly overshadowed by the funny remarks she made to Newman
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Speaker 1: when asked if she had left anything in the jury room.
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Speaker 1: A dozen eggs. she said, causing the court to erupt
10:02
Speaker 1: in laughter. Lost in the laughter was the fact that
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Speaker 1: the egg lady juror, as local media immediately began referring
10:10
Speaker 1: to her, was thought by some members of both the
10:13
Speaker 1: prosecution and defense teams to be iffy on Murdaugh's guilt.
10:18
Speaker 1: As soon as two or three weeks into the trial began,
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Speaker 1: two sources close to the trial told the New York Post.
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Speaker 1: She was dug in, a source familiar with the deliberations
10:29
Speaker 1: also told Fitz News, a South Carolina news site in March.
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Speaker 1: She said he was not guilty and there was nothing
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Speaker 1: anyone could do to change her mind. She would have
10:39
Speaker 1: hung the jury, another source confirmed to the site. Murdoch, 55,
10:44
Speaker 1: was found guilty of gunning down his wife, Maggie, and
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Speaker 1: 22-year-old son, Paul, in the kennels of the family's sprawling
10:51
Speaker 1: Moselle estate in June of 2021. Pivotal to the controversy
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Speaker 1: swirling around the Egg Lady juror is 55-year-old Hill, who
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Speaker 1: was so friendly with media during the trial last winter
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Speaker 1: that she handed reporters business cards to jurors and celebrated
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Speaker 1: a birthday with one of them. Yo, this is not good, folks.
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Speaker 1: Getting more details about this? Certainly not good. And I
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Speaker 1: would not be shocked at all to see this whole
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Speaker 1: thing get turned on its head and Big Red here
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Speaker 1: get a new trial. Hill was too chummy with jurors,
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Speaker 1: Murdaugh's attorneys say. They allege she influenced and pressured the
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Speaker 1: jury and may have even lied to the judge. Hill
11:33
Speaker 1: did not respond to her request for comment from the Post.
11:36
Speaker 1: Probably a good idea. July 2023. Hill publishes her story.
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Speaker 1: Hill was open about her closeness with media in her book,
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Speaker 1: Behind the Doors of Justice, The Murdaw Murders, which came
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Speaker 1: out in July. She even used the term we when
11:52
Speaker 1: describing the epiphany about Murdaw's guilt that she said she
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Speaker 1: and others, including the jury, had when visiting Moselle, the
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Speaker 1: Murdaw hunting lodge, near the end of the trial. And
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Speaker 1: that's the point I made with The House in Idaho, remember.
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Speaker 1: Make sure that house is there so these jurors can
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Speaker 1: go and get a look at it themselves if they
12:13
Speaker 1: so wish. Because it can prove crucial to getting that
12:17
Speaker 1: conviction that the prosecution is looking for, right? And on
12:20
Speaker 1: the flip side, maybe it helps the defense. Maybe they
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Speaker 1: go there, check out the house, and say none of
12:26
Speaker 1: the stuff that the prosecution has told us fits. She
12:29
Speaker 1: was pictured with three jurors when they flew up to
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Speaker 1: New York after the trial to appear on NBC's Today show.
12:36
Speaker 1: Hill said in her book that it was her first
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Speaker 1: airplane ride. Hill's allegedly bizarre and improper conduct was outlined
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Speaker 1: in the bombshell 65-page affidavit that Murdoch's attorneys Dick Harpootlian
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Speaker 1: and Griffin filed on September 5th. Hill advised jurors during
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Speaker 1: the six-week double murder trial not to be misled by
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Speaker 1: evidence presented by the defense, and also, not to be fooled,
13:01
Speaker 1: by Murdaugh's own emotional testimony, the filing states, well, his
13:06
Speaker 1: testimony was garbage. So you notice they're not saying anything
13:09
Speaker 1: about that. And they're also just attacking the process here.
13:13
Speaker 1: They're attacking the technicalities. That's because the evidence was solid.
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Speaker 1: Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame,
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Speaker 1: the filing alleged. September 5th, 2023, Murdaugh attorneys request a
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Speaker 1: new trial. It appears that this juror was intentionally targeted
13:30
Speaker 1: to be removed from the case, Griffin alleged to the
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Speaker 1: Post on Friday. Columbia, South Carolina attorney Eric Bland, who
13:38
Speaker 1: now represents four jurors in the case, called the affidavits
13:41
Speaker 1: filed by Murdaugh's team, disgraceful. He told the Post on
13:45
Speaker 1: Friday that he expects that a significant number of jurors
13:49
Speaker 1: will say that they were treated well and with respect
13:52
Speaker 1: And no one sought to influence the verdict. Well, what
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Speaker 1: about all of them? A significant number is not all
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Speaker 1: of them. And if one juror was being manipulated, then
14:01
Speaker 1: it's all bad. You will have nine or ten jurors, solid,
14:06
Speaker 1: that will say nothing happened, Bland said. Dick Harpootlian, Murdaugh's lawyer, disagreed.
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Speaker 1: There are indications from at least four jurors that there
14:15
Speaker 1: were things said and done that we believe to point
14:19
Speaker 1: to a new trial, Harpootlian told the Post. Well, Hart Putlian,
14:24
Speaker 1: if you perform anything like you did in the first
14:26
Speaker 1: trial at a new trial, you might as well just
14:28
Speaker 1: sign your guy back up for another 10 life sentences.
14:32
Speaker 1: Columbia attorney Joe McCulloch, who represented Connor Cook, one of
14:36
Speaker 1: the victims of a 2019 boat crash involving Murdoch's son Paul,
14:41
Speaker 1: now represents two of the jurors. He did not identify
14:44
Speaker 1: them by name, but one was removed from the jury
14:47
Speaker 1: and is believed to be the egg lady juror. There
14:51
Speaker 1: is no playbook for all of this, McCulloch told the Post.
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Speaker 1: Even people who believe in their soul that Alex is
14:57
Speaker 1: a murderer should still want him to have a fair trial.
15:00
Speaker 1: One thousand percent. I'll be the first one out here
15:05
Speaker 1: going batshit crazy if they prove to us that this
15:08
Speaker 1: all occurred and this guy doesn't get a new trial.
15:11
Speaker 1: Not because I think he's innocent, but because the process
15:15
Speaker 1: has to be respected. Griffin said he and the defense
15:18
Speaker 1: team don't understand why SLED agents went after the two tenants,
15:22
Speaker 1: but apparently never investigated the strange case of the Facebook
15:26
Speaker 1: posts involving Timothy Stone. People have been defending her and
15:31
Speaker 1: saying this is just Dick and Jim making stuff up,
15:34
Speaker 1: a Murdoch observer told the Post, but put aside the
15:38
Speaker 1: jurors and the attorneys for a minute. So much of
15:41
Speaker 1: this doesn't make sense. There are so many questions. It
15:45
Speaker 1: looks like Judge Newman wasn't in a position to distrust Becky,
15:49
Speaker 1: but under close scrutiny, there are so many more questions
15:53
Speaker 1: and so few answers. But more than anything else, the
15:56
Speaker 1: one piece that is the most damning is Judge Newman
15:59
Speaker 1: saying aloud that he was concerned about Becky talking to
16:03
Speaker 1: the juror. The appeals court is going to want to
16:05
Speaker 1: hear all of this, and I would not be shocked
16:07
Speaker 1: to hear that they schedule a hearing to hear all
16:10
Speaker 1: of this. Murdoch's defense team located the Timothy Stone cited
16:14
Speaker 1: by Hill and got a new affidavit from him that
16:17
Speaker 1: they planned to file soon. Stone, who lives in Jessup, Georgia,
16:22
Speaker 1: stated in the September 5th affidavit that he was unfamiliar
16:25
Speaker 1: with the Murdoch case and had never posted on the
16:28
Speaker 1: Walter Burrow Facebook gossip page, Griffin said. He said the
16:33
Speaker 1: apology post he made was about an in-law and had
16:36
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Egg Lady Juror, whom he does
16:39
Speaker 1: not know. September 14th, 2023. Murdaugh is back in court.
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Speaker 1: During the high-profile proceedings, the state alleged Murdaugh killed his
16:49
Speaker 1: wife and younger son in order to cover up a
16:52
Speaker 1: slew of financial crimes. Murdaugh appeared before Judge Newman in
16:56
Speaker 1: a Beaufort, South Carolina court Thursday in a separate case
17:00
Speaker 1: involving his alleged theft of some $ 3. 5 million from the
17:04
Speaker 1: estate of Gloria Satterfield, a longtime family maid who died
17:09
Speaker 1: under suspicious circumstances at the Murdaugh residence in 2018. A
17:14
Speaker 1: November 27th trial date was set in that case, so
17:18
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on here. And if all of
17:21
Speaker 1: this stuff does pan out, and it turns out to
17:24
Speaker 1: be true, then Alec Murdaugh definitely deserves another trial. But
17:29
Speaker 1: even if he does get another trial, I expect the
17:32
Speaker 1: outcome to be the same. And why do I expect
17:35
Speaker 1: the outcome to be the same? Because the evidence is
17:38
Speaker 1: what the evidence is. And this lady talking to the
17:41
Speaker 1: jurors doesn't change the fact that the evidence puts Alec
17:45
Speaker 1: Murdaugh at the crime scene. Then you look at all
17:48
Speaker 1: of the other evidence that was presented. And to me, anyway,
17:51
Speaker 1: it paints a picture of Alec Murdaugh being the killer.
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Speaker 1: So it's going to be very, very interesting to see
17:57
Speaker 1: which way this all goes and what the appeals court
18:00
Speaker 1: eventually decides. All right, everybody, that's going to do it
18:04
Speaker 1: for this one. If you'd like to contact me, you
18:06
Speaker 1: can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com.
18:16
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
18:18
Speaker 1: be found in the description box. What's up everyone and
18:22
Speaker 1: welcome back to the program. Recently we were talking about
18:26
Speaker 1: how Alec Murdaugh had lost his phone privileges because he
18:30
Speaker 1: granted an interview via phone for a new Fox documentary. Well,
18:36
Speaker 1: now Alec Murdaugh is demanding a second murder trial because
18:40
Speaker 1: he says that his team has found some new evidence.
18:44
Speaker 1: Of course, we have no idea what this new evidence is,
18:47
Speaker 1: but according to him and his team, he deserves a
18:50
Speaker 1: new trial because of it. And for me, a guy
18:54
Speaker 1: like Alec Murdaugh? It's definitely put up or shut up.
18:57
Speaker 1: You had your chance at trial to prove to all
18:59
Speaker 1: of us that you were innocent. You couldn't do that.
19:02
Speaker 1: You took the stand and you absolutely made a fool
19:06
Speaker 1: of yourself. Not that anyone expected anything different, but what
19:10
Speaker 1: do you think is going to come from a new trial?
19:13
Speaker 1: Do you really believe that his lawyers have unearthed some
19:16
Speaker 1: new evidence that they didn't have before? Or do you
19:19
Speaker 1: think that they're trying to reach out and grab hold
19:23
Speaker 1: of a loophole or a technicality? Let's get to this
19:26
Speaker 1: article from the Daily Mail and let's see what's up. Headline,
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Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh demands a second murder trial based on newly
19:34
Speaker 1: discovered evidence as his attorneys prepare bombshell press conference. All right,
19:40
Speaker 1: I'm willing to hear what you have to say because
19:42
Speaker 1: obviously I want the truth, but I don't think that
19:46
Speaker 1: they're going to present anything that we haven't seen or
19:49
Speaker 1: heard before. And if they do, it's going to be
19:52
Speaker 1: more nonsense, such as the two shooter nonsense they tried
19:56
Speaker 1: to pitch to us during this trial. Or maybe Alec
19:59
Speaker 1: Murda has another indigent somewhere stashed away that he can
20:03
Speaker 1: try and pin it on. This article was authored by
20:06
Speaker 1: Will Potter. Disgraced legal scion Alec Murdaugh is seeking a
20:11
Speaker 1: second murder trial based on newly discovered evidence that he
20:16
Speaker 1: claims wasn't presented to a jury before his double murder
20:19
Speaker 1: conviction in March. Attorneys for the killer, 57, have announced
20:24
Speaker 1: a bombshell press conference for Tuesday afternoon where they are
20:28
Speaker 1: set to lay out their strategy for overturning Murdaugh's double
20:31
Speaker 1: life sentence for murdering his wife Maggie and and his
20:34
Speaker 1: son Paul. Can you imagine what kind of horseshit they're
20:37
Speaker 1: going to try and present to us? Oh yeah, our
20:40
Speaker 1: client couldn't have done this. Alec Murdaugh was on the
20:42
Speaker 1: moon during the night of the murders. Is that any
20:45
Speaker 1: more bizarre or stupid than what they tried to tell
20:49
Speaker 1: us in the first place? Because anyone who believes that
20:53
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh wasn't there when his wife and son were
20:56
Speaker 1: killed is crazy. All of the evidence that was presented,
21:00
Speaker 1: plus that Snapchat video, was... A cincher for me. Once
21:05
Speaker 1: I heard that video and I knew that Alec Murdoch
21:08
Speaker 1: had lied about the whole entire thing, then I automatically
21:11
Speaker 1: say to myself, he must be lying about all of it.
21:14
Speaker 1: Because if he can't be honest about the fact that
21:16
Speaker 1: he was even there, why is he going to be
21:18
Speaker 1: honest about the rest of it? So all of the
21:20
Speaker 1: evidence has pointed us in the direction of Alec Murdoch
21:24
Speaker 1: being guilty from the very beginning. Then the jury got
21:27
Speaker 1: a look at it and slammed that point home. So
21:30
Speaker 1: I don't know what his lawyers think they're going to
21:32
Speaker 1: accomplish here. But I guess if you're facing double life sentences,
21:36
Speaker 1: you'll do whatever you can to try and get off
21:39
Speaker 1: from that term. And that's what we're seeing here. I
21:41
Speaker 1: doubt they have any new evidence to present to us.
21:45
Speaker 1: Attorneys for the Killer 57 have announced a bombshell press
21:49
Speaker 1: conference for Tuesday afternoon where they are set to lay
21:52
Speaker 1: out their strategy for overturning Murdaugh's double life sentence for
21:56
Speaker 1: murdering his wife Maggie and his son Paul. Dick Hartputlian
22:01
Speaker 1: and Jim Griffin, who represented Murdaugh at his trial earlier
22:04
Speaker 1: this year, have not offered details about the new evidence
22:08
Speaker 1: that they plan to submit. Oh, I can only imagine
22:11
Speaker 1: what Hartputlian has cooked up because they had some real
22:15
Speaker 1: doozies during this trial that they were trying to pitch
22:18
Speaker 1: to us. and none of them ever made any sense.
22:21
Speaker 1: And then in court, to let Alec Murdaugh go to
22:24
Speaker 1: the stand like that is one of the most absurd
22:26
Speaker 1: decisions I have ever seen inside of a courtroom. What
22:30
Speaker 1: do you think that a guy like Alec Murdaugh is
22:32
Speaker 1: going to accomplish? You think he's going to sway the jury?
22:36
Speaker 1: Zero chance. The jury's looking at him like the buffoon
22:40
Speaker 1: that he is. Then he gets up there and tries
22:42
Speaker 1: to gaslight the jury from the witness stand? That never
22:46
Speaker 1: goes over well, and juries are a lot smarter than
22:49
Speaker 1: that for the most part. The move comes days after
22:52
Speaker 1: Murdaugh's surviving son Buster broke his six-month silence on his
22:56
Speaker 1: family's ordeal to insist he believes that his father was
23:00
Speaker 1: wrongfully convicted. Imagine being presented with an overwhelming amount of
23:04
Speaker 1: evidence that your dad killed your mother and your brother,
23:08
Speaker 1: and still believing that your dad is an innocent man?
23:11
Speaker 1: I just don't know how you rectify that. Look, you
23:14
Speaker 1: want to support your dad. I get that. But your
23:16
Speaker 1: mother and your brother are laying dead because of your father.
23:20
Speaker 1: How the hell does anyone support their father in a
23:22
Speaker 1: situation like that? The press conference is set to be
23:26
Speaker 1: held at the South Carolina State House grounds near the
23:29
Speaker 1: Court of Appeals, where Murdoch's attorneys filed their retrial request
23:34
Speaker 1: just over six months after they lost his murder case.
23:38
Speaker 1: you can file as many retrial requests as you want,
23:42
Speaker 1: and even if you were to get a retrial. Does
23:45
Speaker 1: anyone think that the result would be any different on
23:48
Speaker 1: the back end? A jury convicted Murda on March 2nd
23:52
Speaker 1: for the fatal shooting of Maggie and Alex at their
23:56
Speaker 1: family hunting lodge in June of 2021. He was sentenced
24:00
Speaker 1: to two life sentences the day after his guilty verdict,
24:04
Speaker 1: and he has reportedly spent his time behind bars enjoying
24:08
Speaker 1: his celebrity status as he responds to fan mail, plays
24:12
Speaker 1: video games, and watches television. Sounds like he's on summer
24:16
Speaker 1: break from high school. And while I'm a huge proponent
24:19
Speaker 1: for prison reform, does a guy like this really need
24:22
Speaker 1: to be this comfortable? Throw this dude in the hole
24:25
Speaker 1: and let him sit there for 23 hours a day
24:28
Speaker 1: staring at a wall. Bro, you killed your wife and
24:30
Speaker 1: your kid. I don't want to hear shit from you.
24:33
Speaker 1: But Murdaugh has also allegedly rubbed prison officials the wrong way.
24:37
Speaker 1: with his behavior and flouting of the inmate rules. Officials
24:42
Speaker 1: in the McCormick Correctional Institution said Murdaugh had a disciplinary
24:46
Speaker 1: hearing last week after he violated the prison's policies on
24:51
Speaker 1: giving news interviews and using another inmate's PIN number to
24:54
Speaker 1: make a call behind bars. That's never a good idea
24:58
Speaker 1: under any circumstances. you're going to get yourself in debt
25:02
Speaker 1: to the wrong guy by using his PIN number or whatever,
25:05
Speaker 1: and they're going to want their payment, and they're going
25:07
Speaker 1: to want it in spades. Maybe not this time around,
25:11
Speaker 1: but eventually. So Alec Murdaugh better get hip to what
25:14
Speaker 1: goes on in prison, and he better get hip quick.
25:17
Speaker 1: Murdaugh first reportedly read information to Griffin, who recorded their
25:21
Speaker 1: exchange and provided it to the media. When prison guards
25:24
Speaker 1: found out, Murdaugh's tablet and phone were revoked immediately, leading
25:29
Speaker 1: him to then steal a another inmate's PIN number to
25:32
Speaker 1: make further phone calls. Steal or borrow? That's a whole
25:37
Speaker 1: different story. If he stole somebody's PIN number, he's going
25:40
Speaker 1: to be in big trouble because whoever he stole it from,
25:43
Speaker 1: they're going to look for retribution. Now, my guess is
25:46
Speaker 1: he didn't steal it. He probably traded some sort of
25:49
Speaker 1: commissary items. or something like that, to get access to
25:53
Speaker 1: the PIN number. But either way, you don't want to
25:55
Speaker 1: be dealing with these other inmates if you're somebody like
25:59
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh. He is not built for this life, and remember,
26:02
Speaker 1: he's basically a cop to these other inmates. Being a prosecutor?
26:07
Speaker 1: That's as bad or worse as being a cop in prison.
26:12
Speaker 1: Following his disciplinary hearing, the disbarred attorney lost his telephone
26:16
Speaker 1: and canteen privileges for 30 days. according to Live 5 News.
26:21
Speaker 1: So it's not a crime, right? It's an infraction. So
26:25
Speaker 1: what happens is if you build up enough infractions while
26:28
Speaker 1: you're in the lockup, you have your privileges taken away
26:31
Speaker 1: from you, whether it's using the phone, watching TV, whatever
26:36
Speaker 1: it is, they'll take those privileges away from you if
26:39
Speaker 1: you get these infractions. But you don't get more time
26:42
Speaker 1: nailed to your sentence from these infractions. Last week, Murdoch's
26:47
Speaker 1: surviving son Buster broke his silence over six months after
26:51
Speaker 1: the blockbuster trial to sensationally claim he doesn't believe his
26:55
Speaker 1: father killed his brother and his mother. The eldest son
26:58
Speaker 1: of the disgraced South Carolina attorney told Fox Nation he
27:02
Speaker 1: doesn't think it's possible that his dad, 55, killed Maggie
27:06
Speaker 1: and Paul at their hunting estate in 2021. He said,
27:10
Speaker 1: I think that I hold a very unique perspective that
27:14
Speaker 1: nobody else in the courtroom ever held. And I know
27:17
Speaker 1: the love that I have witnessed. So that could be
27:20
Speaker 1: his bias talking, right? He's still in denial. He doesn't
27:24
Speaker 1: want to believe that his father is capable of this.
27:27
Speaker 1: And I get that. I wouldn't want to believe that
27:29
Speaker 1: my dad's capable of it either. And if it was
27:32
Speaker 1: anybody but my mom and my sister or my brother
27:35
Speaker 1: or whatever, I'd probably back my dad up. But when
27:38
Speaker 1: you look at the evidence here, it's relatively clear what
27:42
Speaker 1: went down. So I don't know how anyone could look
27:44
Speaker 1: at Alec Murdaugh and be like, oh, this dude got railroaded.
27:47
Speaker 1: He didn't get a fair shake. Bro had a fair shake, OK?
27:51
Speaker 1: He's a prosecutor. He had great lawyers. They looked at
27:55
Speaker 1: every angle and they couldn't come up with a plausible defense.
27:59
Speaker 1: And you know why? Because Alec Murdaugh was guilty. That's why. Buster, 26,
28:06
Speaker 1: also had the finger pointed at him over the death
28:08
Speaker 1: of his schoolmate, Stephen Smith, 19, in 2015, as well
28:13
Speaker 1: as claims the pair had a gay relationship. But in
28:17
Speaker 1: the interview, he denied any links to it, adding, I
28:20
Speaker 1: never had anything to do with his murder, and I
28:23
Speaker 1: never had anything to do with him on a physical
28:26
Speaker 1: level of any regard. So there really hasn't been much
28:29
Speaker 1: evidence that Buster Murdaugh is the person who killed Stephen Smith.
28:34
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of rumor and innuendo, but certainly
28:38
Speaker 1: something that has to be looked into. And the investigators
28:41
Speaker 1: are doing that as we speak. Murdoch's trial earlier this
28:46
Speaker 1: year captured international attention as numerous shocking details emerged during
28:51
Speaker 1: the proceedings, including how Alex allegedly stole millions of dollars
28:56
Speaker 1: from his clients. The high profile trial was slammed by
29:00
Speaker 1: Buster as unfair, feeling the public outcry over the crimes
29:05
Speaker 1: may have swayed the outcome as he branded it a
29:07
Speaker 1: tilted table. Oh, yeah, sure. Very tilted. Buster, I have
29:11
Speaker 1: bad news for you, buddy. Your dad's guilty. He murdered
29:14
Speaker 1: your mom and your brother. And the more you defend them,
29:18
Speaker 1: the worse you look. He took aim at the police
29:21
Speaker 1: and the judge, claiming they had a crappy motive, and
29:24
Speaker 1: he does not believe it was fair that all 12
29:27
Speaker 1: jurors found him guilty. I was there for six weeks
29:30
Speaker 1: studying it, and I think it was a tilted table
29:33
Speaker 1: from the beginning, Buster said. Didn't Buster get kicked out
29:37
Speaker 1: of law school? Really probably shouldn't be giving us his
29:41
Speaker 1: opinion on legal matters no and I think unfortunately a
29:46
Speaker 1: lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when
29:48
Speaker 1: they had to deliberate it was predetermined in their minds
29:52
Speaker 1: prior to when they even heard any shred of evidence
29:56
Speaker 1: that was given in that room He believes that Jerry
29:59
Speaker 1: ultimately found his father guilty of the shootings because of
30:03
Speaker 1: everything they had the ability to read prior to the trial. Look,
30:07
Speaker 1: I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that a guilty
30:10
Speaker 1: man is looking for loopholes and technicalities to save his ass.
30:15
Speaker 1: And I'm willing to go out on a limb here
30:17
Speaker 1: and say at the press conference that they have planned
30:20
Speaker 1: for tomorrow, it's going to be more of the same.
30:23
Speaker 1: Either way, as soon as they're done with that press conference,
30:26
Speaker 1: we'll get it added to the catalog and we'll see
30:29
Speaker 1: where things stand. All right, folks, that's going to do
30:32
Speaker 1: it for this one. All of the information that goes
30:34
Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.
30:38
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. So
30:43
Speaker 1: the situation down in South Carolina concerning Alec Murdaugh and
30:47
Speaker 1: his push for a new trial continues to roll on.
30:51
Speaker 1: Now we're learning that Becky Hill, the court clerk who
30:54
Speaker 1: was under fire, admitted in a new book that she
30:58
Speaker 1: worried that the jury would acquit Alec Murdaugh. Now look,
31:02
Speaker 1: I think Alec Murdaugh is as guilty as the day
31:05
Speaker 1: is long. But if there was prosecutorial misconduct and this
31:09
Speaker 1: lady was out here trying to influence the jury, that's
31:13
Speaker 1: a big problem. And when you have the evidence that
31:16
Speaker 1: they had against Alec Murdaugh, I don't know why anyone
31:19
Speaker 1: would think that they need to convince a jury that
31:22
Speaker 1: this man is guilty. The jury was going to come
31:24
Speaker 1: to that conclusion on their own. But now this lady
31:28
Speaker 1: possibly has thrown a monkey wrench in things and Alec Murdaugh,
31:32
Speaker 1: aka the Big Red Tomato, might get himself a new trial.
31:36
Speaker 1: So let's get to this article from the Daily Mail
31:39
Speaker 1: and let's see what's going on in the world of
31:41
Speaker 1: the Big Red Tomato. Headline, Becky Hill, biased court clerk
31:46
Speaker 1: in Alec Murdaugh trial, admits in new book that she
31:49
Speaker 1: worried Jerry would acquit legal scion of murdering his wife
31:53
Speaker 1: and son. Now imagine being that involved. Like you're already
31:57
Speaker 1: the court clerk. Why do you got to get involved
32:00
Speaker 1: with the jury? Just go and do your job. Don't
32:03
Speaker 1: put anything in jeopardy. And certainly don't throw a lifeline
32:06
Speaker 1: to somebody like Alec Murdaugh. But that looks like exactly
32:11
Speaker 1: what she has done. And while I'm not sure if
32:13
Speaker 1: the appellate court is going to get on board fully,
32:16
Speaker 1: of all the requests for retrials that we hear these
32:19
Speaker 1: convicted criminals ask for, I think that this one, based
32:23
Speaker 1: on the merits that we know of, and remember, I'm
32:26
Speaker 1: just going off of the public knowledge, I think this
32:29
Speaker 1: one has the best shot of actually going through and
32:32
Speaker 1: ending up being a retrial. And that's just downright shitty,
32:35
Speaker 1: considering the evidence that they've had and still have against
32:39
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh. And if it becomes a new trial, I
32:42
Speaker 1: think they're going to end up at the same destination.
32:44
Speaker 1: But as guilty as I think Alec Murdaugh is, that
32:47
Speaker 1: doesn't give the state the right to run roughshod over
32:50
Speaker 1: his rights. Or... In this case, the county clerk allegedly
32:55
Speaker 1: trying to influence the jury. This article was authored by
33:00
Speaker 1: Laura Collins. The court clerk accused by Alec Murdoch's lawyers
33:05
Speaker 1: of influencing the jury's guilty verdict with her personal bias
33:09
Speaker 1: has admitted that she worried that he would be found
33:11
Speaker 1: innocent when she said. I knew in my heart he
33:15
Speaker 1: was guilty, DailyMail.com can reveal. You imagine looking at somebody
33:19
Speaker 1: and saying, oh, I know in my heart you're guilty,
33:21
Speaker 1: so I'm going to go and influence the jury. Here's
33:24
Speaker 1: an idea. Let the process play out. Defense attorneys Jim
33:28
Speaker 1: Griffin and Dick Hart-Pootlian filed a motion calling for a
33:31
Speaker 1: new trial earlier this month after unearthing evidence that they
33:36
Speaker 1: claim shows the Colleton County Clerk of Court, Becky Hill,
33:40
Speaker 1: counseled jurors to disbelieve 65-year-old Murdaugh's testimony and pressured them
33:45
Speaker 1: to reach a quick verdict. Now, I don't know why
33:48
Speaker 1: you would need anybody to tell you that Murdaugh's testimony
33:51
Speaker 1: was BS, because all you had to do was listen
33:53
Speaker 1: to it. The guy was pumping more BS than just
33:57
Speaker 1: about anybody ever who sat on a witness stand. But
34:01
Speaker 1: somehow his team thought that would be a good idea.
34:03
Speaker 1: And allegedly, Ms. Hill here thought it would be a
34:06
Speaker 1: good idea to try and influence the jurors before this
34:10
Speaker 1: buffoon even gave his testimony. And if these allegations are true,
34:14
Speaker 1: then Ms. Hill certainly needs to be charged under whatever
34:19
Speaker 1: statute that they have on the books for something like this.
34:22
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, what's the difference of the mafia trying
34:25
Speaker 1: to shake down a witness and as opposed to the
34:28
Speaker 1: court clerk going in there and trying to influence it.
34:31
Speaker 1: Now obviously the court clerk, I would guess, isn't threatening violence,
34:34
Speaker 1: but it's the same concept. Griffin and Harpoolian allege that Hill, 55,
34:39
Speaker 1: was motivated by a desire to secure a book deal
34:43
Speaker 1: and media appearances, neither of which would have been possible
34:47
Speaker 1: had the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict and
34:50
Speaker 1: proceedings ended with a mistrial. So they're saying she was
34:53
Speaker 1: trying to enrich herself and benefit, personally, from Alec Murdoch
34:57
Speaker 1: getting a guilty charge in this case. And when you
35:00
Speaker 1: look at the statements that this lady has made, you
35:03
Speaker 1: could certainly make that case. And I know if I
35:05
Speaker 1: was rotting in prison with the evidence stacked against me,
35:09
Speaker 1: I'd be trying to attack the process as well, and
35:11
Speaker 1: especially if they give you some low-hanging fruit like this.
35:15
Speaker 1: According to their motion, Ms. Hill betrayed her oath of
35:18
Speaker 1: office for money and fame. The ink was barely dry
35:23
Speaker 1: on Murdaugh's guilty verdict when Hill released her book, Behind
35:26
Speaker 1: the Doors of Justice, The Murdaugh Murders, and she is
35:29
Speaker 1: a prominent contributor on season two of Netflix documentary, Murdaugh Murders,
35:34
Speaker 1: A Southern Scandal, released last week. Now, Hill's own words,
35:39
Speaker 1: as reviewed by DailyMail.com, confirm that while her role as
35:43
Speaker 1: an officer of the court requires her to be impartial
35:46
Speaker 1: or recuse herself from the proceedings, should she find that impossible,
35:51
Speaker 1: She was extraordinarily partisan and believed, very strongly, in the
35:55
Speaker 1: disgraced lawyer's guilt from the get-go. And if you're a
35:58
Speaker 1: private citizen, all of that is fine and well. You
36:01
Speaker 1: can run around and talk to your friends, talk to
36:03
Speaker 1: whoever you want about this one's guilty or that one's guilty.
36:06
Speaker 1: But if you're the court clerk or you're on a jury,
36:09
Speaker 1: all that shit has to go out the window and
36:11
Speaker 1: you have to call those balls and strikes in a
36:13
Speaker 1: clinical fashion. And if you're unable to do that, then
36:16
Speaker 1: you need to recuse yourself. Or if you're on a jury,
36:19
Speaker 1: tell the judge that you're not capable of rendering a
36:23
Speaker 1: fair decision. The defense motion for a new trial states
36:28
Speaker 1: that Hill instructed jurors not to be misled by evidence
36:32
Speaker 1: presented in Mr. Murdaugh's defense, nor fooled by Murdaugh's own testimony.
36:38
Speaker 1: They have also accused Hill of fabricating a Facebook post
36:41
Speaker 1: that saw a juror removed because, they allege, the clerk
36:46
Speaker 1: was concerned that the juror would not vote guilty. Hill
36:49
Speaker 1: claimed to have seen a post made by the juror's
36:52
Speaker 1: ex-husband in which he claimed she was drinking with him
36:56
Speaker 1: and expressing opinions about Murdaugh's guilt or innocence. So they're
37:00
Speaker 1: saying that Ms. Hill made all of this up with
37:03
Speaker 1: the express purpose of removing this juror and getting a
37:06
Speaker 1: juror in there who is more favorable towards a guilty
37:09
Speaker 1: verdict for Alec Murdaugh. And if what they're alleging is true,
37:13
Speaker 1: then you can expect Alec Murdaugh to get a retrial.
37:16
Speaker 1: And of course, the million dollar question is, Is what
37:19
Speaker 1: they're saying to us true? And as of now, we
37:22
Speaker 1: just don't know. All we have are allegations and assertions
37:26
Speaker 1: from Alec Murdoch's team. There is some evidence that's backing
37:30
Speaker 1: it up, but we don't have a full view, a
37:32
Speaker 1: full scope of what they've collected or what they say
37:36
Speaker 1: is going on here. So we're going to have to
37:38
Speaker 1: wait and see till more evidence is produced and until
37:41
Speaker 1: the judge and the court take a look. Griffin and
37:45
Speaker 1: Hartputlian say that the post, which Hill failed to produce
37:48
Speaker 1: and said must have been deleted, never existed, stating bluntly
37:52
Speaker 1: that she made it up. They also allege that a
37:55
Speaker 1: retraction she said was posted by the juror's ex-husband was
37:59
Speaker 1: from a fake account in a similar name, but which
38:02
Speaker 1: bore the wrong profile picture. According to the defense motion,
38:06
Speaker 1: Hill inappropriately questioned the juror herself and refused to let
38:11
Speaker 1: her see the post when she asked. Later that day,
38:14
Speaker 1: Judge Clifton Newman spoke to the juror, who denied expressing
38:18
Speaker 1: any opinion, and pointed out that she had not seen
38:21
Speaker 1: her ex-husband for three years. After dismissing her, Murdaugh's lawyers
38:26
Speaker 1: note Judge Newman said, They add, He was right to
38:37
Speaker 1: be concerned. Yeah, I would say so. And look, I'm
38:40
Speaker 1: not some lawyer, right? I'm just someone following along with
38:43
Speaker 1: the legal process. But if you have this kind of
38:46
Speaker 1: situation cracking off and then the judge has already said
38:50
Speaker 1: that it happened, at least the part of the clerk
38:54
Speaker 1: talking to the juror without bringing it to the judge.
38:57
Speaker 1: And if the clerk is that brazen, do you think
38:59
Speaker 1: that the clerk isn't going to try and manipulate what's
39:03
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes? That's the argument they're going
39:06
Speaker 1: to try and make. So it's going to be up
39:08
Speaker 1: to the court, obviously, to either accept that argument and
39:12
Speaker 1: give Alec Murdoch a new trial or to tell them
39:15
Speaker 1: to kick rocks. The juror maintained she had neither formed
39:20
Speaker 1: nor expressed an opinion, but was subsequently excused. In her book,
39:24
Speaker 1: Hill not only paints an excoriating picture of the defendant,
39:28
Speaker 1: but repeatedly voices her belief in Murdaugh's guilt. In fact,
39:32
Speaker 1: her personal certainty that Murdaugh murdered his wife, Maggie, 52,
39:37
Speaker 1: and younger son, Paul, 22, appears to be the prism
39:41
Speaker 1: through which she viewed the proceedings. Maggie and Paul were
39:44
Speaker 1: gunned down near kennels at the family's property of Moselle,
39:48
Speaker 1: in Islington, South Carolina, on June 7th, 2021. The bodies
39:53
Speaker 1: were found where they fell. Paul blasted twice with a shotgun.
39:58
Speaker 1: The fatal shot blowing his brains from his head was
40:01
Speaker 1: found by the feed room. His mother, apparently running towards
40:04
Speaker 1: her son as he was slaughtered, was shot multiple times
40:08
Speaker 1: with an assault rifle. She may have already been dead
40:11
Speaker 1: when the final shot was dispatched to the top of
40:14
Speaker 1: her head. And according to Alec Murdaugh, he had nothing
40:17
Speaker 1: to do with any of it. Unfortunately for him, the
40:20
Speaker 1: evidence that we saw during the trial was pretty outstanding.
40:25
Speaker 1: And that evidence led the jury to coming to a
40:28
Speaker 1: guilty verdict. But now that might all be in jeopardy
40:31
Speaker 1: because this court clerk doesn't know how to do her job.
40:35
Speaker 1: The brutality of the crime shocked the small community, as
40:38
Speaker 1: did the identity of the suspect, Murdaugh, the scion of
40:42
Speaker 1: a once revered legal dynasty, husband of Maggie, father to
40:46
Speaker 1: Paul and Buster, 26, and a man whose world quickly
40:51
Speaker 1: and publicly unraveled in the wake of the crime. As
40:54
Speaker 1: the investigation unfolded, with law enforcement finding no other person
40:58
Speaker 1: of interest, the truth of Murdaugh's life of chronic addiction
41:02
Speaker 1: to opioids and embezzlement and theft of his client's settlements
41:06
Speaker 1: to the tune of millions emerged. By the time he
41:10
Speaker 1: stood to swear his oath in Colleton County Courthouse, his
41:13
Speaker 1: reputation was in tatters. But Murdaugh was still due the
41:16
Speaker 1: presumption of innocence gifted by law, 1,000%. I don't know
41:21
Speaker 1: how much more clear I have to be about that.
41:23
Speaker 1: I don't care who the person is, even if it's
41:26
Speaker 1: Ghislaine Maxwell or if they dug Jeffrey Epstein's disgusting ass up.
41:31
Speaker 1: Everybody's innocent until they're not. Now, does that mean we
41:35
Speaker 1: can't have opinions? Of course not. But the process in
41:38
Speaker 1: the courtroom has to be sterile. And if the state
41:42
Speaker 1: is not doing the right thing and they have employees
41:45
Speaker 1: who are shitting on the process and causing it to
41:48
Speaker 1: be prosecutorial misconduct, well, unfortunately, the state has to pay
41:52
Speaker 1: for that. Yet, recalling the moment, Hill appears to have
41:55
Speaker 1: been convinced of his guilt even then. She writes in
41:59
Speaker 1: her book, Just before he took the witness stand for
42:02
Speaker 1: two days, I swore him in. It seems Alex's style
42:05
Speaker 1: on the stand as a witness was excruciating for everyone
42:08
Speaker 1: who watched. She said, I searched his eyes the whole
42:12
Speaker 1: time I was speaking to him. He seemed to be
42:14
Speaker 1: in a distant place, not really seeing me, but seeing
42:17
Speaker 1: something else. Almost like he was programmed to do this.
42:21
Speaker 1: He knew exactly what to say. He said, I do,
42:24
Speaker 1: even before I was finished. He was just anxious to
42:27
Speaker 1: get on the stand to tell his version of the story. Now,
42:31
Speaker 1: why is a court clerk writing a book in the
42:32
Speaker 1: first place? Shouldn't there be some kind of law or
42:35
Speaker 1: rule about that? And if not, they need to go
42:38
Speaker 1: back and change it. If you want to write a
42:41
Speaker 1: book after you retire or whatever, great. But during the
42:44
Speaker 1: trial or right after the trial, especially if you're engaged
42:48
Speaker 1: in alleged misconduct, probably not the right thing to do.
42:52
Speaker 1: She refers to Murdaugh as an actor and cites as
42:55
Speaker 1: proof of his guilt the direction of his eyes excessively fidgeting,
42:59
Speaker 1: changes in his speech patterns, mostly talking way too much.
43:03
Speaker 1: I glean this from years of experience working in the
43:06
Speaker 1: courtroom and researching psychologists who study this. Well, there you
43:11
Speaker 1: have it, folks. This lady is the obvious expert. She's
43:14
Speaker 1: read a few books. Hill states quite bluntly, I believe
43:18
Speaker 1: he was lying in changing his story on the fly.
43:21
Speaker 1: making it up as he went along, trying to deflect
43:23
Speaker 1: and distract Creighton. She writes that Murdaugh is a classic
43:27
Speaker 1: narcissist with a lofty thought about himself and says, I
43:31
Speaker 1: feel like if he convinced himself he was innocent and
43:34
Speaker 1: that he had cleaned up the murders so that he
43:37
Speaker 1: would not get caught. Hill also describes the defense's insistence
43:41
Speaker 1: on a jury site visit to the murder site of
43:44
Speaker 1: Moselle as a strategic misstep that may have cost them
43:47
Speaker 1: the case. In their motion, Murdaugh's attorneys allege that during
43:52
Speaker 1: this trip, Hill, who was one of several court officials
43:55
Speaker 1: to accompany the jury that day, had private conversations with
43:59
Speaker 1: the jury foreperson, separate from the rest of the group.
44:02
Speaker 1: In her own recollection of the excursion, Hill appears to
44:05
Speaker 1: suggest that communicated her sense of Murdaugh's guilt, a breathtaking
44:10
Speaker 1: impropriety for an officer of the court. She writes, while
44:14
Speaker 1: the jurors viewed the Moselle property, we all could hear
44:17
Speaker 1: and see Alex's story was impossible. Some of us, either
44:22
Speaker 1: from the courthouse, law enforcement, or jury at Moselle, had
44:25
Speaker 1: an epiphany and shared our thoughts with our eyes. At
44:29
Speaker 1: that moment, many of us standing there knew. I knew
44:32
Speaker 1: and they knew that Alex was guilty. So how long
44:36
Speaker 1: before this lady has a TikTok page where she's saying
44:39
Speaker 1: she's a tarot card reader and a crystal ball user?
44:42
Speaker 1: Hill also recalls sharing a birthday party with members of
44:45
Speaker 1: the regional and national media at which after a little
44:48
Speaker 1: truth serum in the form of liquid refreshments, some were
44:52
Speaker 1: asked how they would vote at that point in the trial.
44:56
Speaker 1: She reveals before answering, we pledged the cone of silence.
44:59
Speaker 1: And for that reason, I cannot reveal the results of
45:02
Speaker 1: our straw jury poll. What I can say is that
45:05
Speaker 1: many of the party guests agreed with what ended up
45:09
Speaker 1: becoming the actual verdict of the trial. The verdict was,
45:13
Speaker 1: of course, guilty. According to the South Carolina Code of Conduct,
45:17
Speaker 1: Canon 3, a staff attorney or law clerk shall respect
45:21
Speaker 1: and comply with the law and should conduct himself or
45:24
Speaker 1: herself at the time in a manner that promotes public
45:27
Speaker 1: confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and
45:32
Speaker 1: of his office. The code goes on to state, a
45:35
Speaker 1: staff attorney or law clerk shall disqualify himself in a
45:39
Speaker 1: matter where his or her impartiality might reasonably be questioned,
45:44
Speaker 1: including but not limited to instances where, one, he has
45:48
Speaker 1: personal bias or prejudice concerning the matter, and I would
45:52
Speaker 1: say that Ms. Hill fits all of those parameters if
45:55
Speaker 1: these reports are true. Yet again and again in her book,
46:00
Speaker 1: Hill voices her belief in Murdaugh's guilt, painting him as
46:03
Speaker 1: a narcissistic charlatan, and even alleging, word is from someone
46:08
Speaker 1: on the defense team, that Alex had been practicing and
46:11
Speaker 1: perfecting his snot and crying display, for weeks and stating
46:15
Speaker 1: that Murdaugh's decision to take the witness stand directly contradicted
46:19
Speaker 1: his attorney's advice. Well, I believe that. I don't think
46:23
Speaker 1: any attorney that's right thinking would put Alec Murdaugh on
46:26
Speaker 1: the stand. This guy's an absolute fool. There's no doubt
46:29
Speaker 1: about it. And he proved that on the stand. His
46:32
Speaker 1: testimony was straight up garbage and his testimony led directly
46:37
Speaker 1: to his conviction. Perhaps the biggest challenge Jim Griffin had
46:42
Speaker 1: was his client, Alex himself. It was clear to me
46:45
Speaker 1: from hearing courthouse conversations that Murdahl was calling the shots.
46:50
Speaker 1: Behind closed doors and private conversations with members of the
46:53
Speaker 1: legal community, Alex was like an extra lawyer on his
46:56
Speaker 1: own case. Well, yeah, what do you expect him to do?
46:59
Speaker 1: Guy's a lawyer, right? just going to sit back and
47:02
Speaker 1: not take an active role in defending himself? And furthermore,
47:05
Speaker 1: my dislike for this lady is growing considering she's making
47:08
Speaker 1: me defend the Big Red Tomato. Reading Hill's own account,
47:13
Speaker 1: it's hard to escape the feeling that she was caught
47:15
Speaker 1: up by the media attention and her key role in
47:18
Speaker 1: a trial that made national and international news. The South
47:22
Speaker 1: Carolina Code of Conduct states, A staff attorney or law
47:26
Speaker 1: clerk should not engage in any activities that would put
47:29
Speaker 1: into question the propriety of his conduct in carrying out
47:33
Speaker 1: the duties of his office. He or she should not
47:36
Speaker 1: allow his family, social, or other relationships to influence his
47:40
Speaker 1: social conduct or judgment. He should not lend the prestige
47:45
Speaker 1: of his office to advance the private interests of others.
47:48
Speaker 1: All basic stuff. The same kind of stuff that you
47:51
Speaker 1: learn as a child. Yet, according to Murdaugh's attorneys, at
47:55
Speaker 1: the end of the six-week trial, Hill told jurors that
47:58
Speaker 1: they would be famous and predicted that the media would
48:01
Speaker 1: request interviews with them. Ms. Hill even handed out reporters'
48:05
Speaker 1: business cards to jurors during the trial. Look, folks, this
48:09
Speaker 1: is all bad, and I have to call them balls
48:11
Speaker 1: and strikes how I see them, and for the prosecution,
48:15
Speaker 1: they're going to have some explaining to do to the court,
48:17
Speaker 1: and they better hope that those explanations find pay dirt.
48:22
Speaker 1: The defense claims after the verdict and immediately before the sentencing, Ms.
48:26
Speaker 1: Hill pressured the jury to speak as a group to
48:29
Speaker 1: reporters from a network news show. She traveled with jurors
48:33
Speaker 1: to New York City when they appeared on the Today show.
48:36
Speaker 1: She got her book deal. Attorney General Alan Wilson filed
48:40
Speaker 1: the state's response to Murdoch's motion last week, pushing back
48:44
Speaker 1: against the motion central claim. And he cast doubt on
48:47
Speaker 1: their credibility and cited a point of law that a
48:50
Speaker 1: motion for a new trial may not be made while
48:53
Speaker 1: the case is on appeal. Wilson stated that South Carolina
48:57
Speaker 1: law enforcement's division of investigation remains ongoing and has already
49:03
Speaker 1: revealed significant factual disputes as to the claims in the
49:07
Speaker 1: appellant's motion. Now, remember, these are just the claims of
49:11
Speaker 1: Alec Murdaugh's team. We don't know them to be factual
49:14
Speaker 1: or But it looks concerning. We have to be honest
49:18
Speaker 1: and we have to call them how we see them.
49:20
Speaker 1: And if the stuff that they're alleging is true, it
49:22
Speaker 1: is very, very concerning for the overall case. Now, is
49:28
Speaker 1: it true? That's going to be the question that has
49:30
Speaker 1: to be answered. But he acknowledged it may well be
49:34
Speaker 1: that suspension of the appeal is and a remand for
49:38
Speaker 1: evidentiary hearing will be necessary to properly resolve some of
49:42
Speaker 1: the serious claims raised by the appellant. Hill has lawyered
49:47
Speaker 1: up and has not commented on the allegations, but Neil R. Gordon,
49:51
Speaker 1: co-author of her book, has denied any suggestions of impropriety
49:56
Speaker 1: or that she was motivated by a big payday. Speaking
50:00
Speaker 1: to Court TV, he said, I was pretty upset at
50:04
Speaker 1: what Harpootlian said about was the motivation Becky had. Last
50:08
Speaker 1: time I checked, Simon & Schuster did not send us
50:11
Speaker 1: a check for $ 200, 000. In fact, Gordon pointed out, the
50:15
Speaker 1: pair had put up $ 30, 000 of their own money to
50:17
Speaker 1: self-publish the book because it was an interesting story to tell. Well,
50:21
Speaker 1: I understand that it's interesting, but are you really going
50:24
Speaker 1: to pony up $ 30, 000 if you think you're getting nothing
50:27
Speaker 1: on the back end? Maybe if you're rich, but to
50:29
Speaker 1: the rest of us, that's not even a possibility. Several
50:33
Speaker 1: legal experts have spoken out with concern about Hill's actions.
50:38
Speaker 1: Lawyer Daniel Caron, a former law professor at the University
50:41
Speaker 1: of Michigan and the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law,
50:45
Speaker 1: told DailyMail.com, where there's smoke, there's fire. And it looks
50:50
Speaker 1: a lot like clerk court Becky Hill did something very wrong.
50:54
Speaker 1: He added, I can't know whether she entered the jury
50:57
Speaker 1: room or said anything inappropriate to the jurors, as alleged.
51:00
Speaker 1: but the fact that she's already published a book about
51:03
Speaker 1: her story when this wasn't her story to begin with,
51:07
Speaker 1: to me smacks of meddling and opportunism. It's people like
51:11
Speaker 1: her who tend to step over the line. So this
51:14
Speaker 1: is the argument. The question is, is any of it true?
51:18
Speaker 1: And that's what we're working towards as we speak. So
51:22
Speaker 1: we'll continue to follow along and we'll continue to add
51:25
Speaker 1: any new so-called evidence that Murdaugh's team says that they have.
51:29
Speaker 1: And of course, when the prosecution responds to that evidence,
51:32
Speaker 1: we'll have that added as well. All right, folks, that's
51:36
Speaker 1: going to do it for this one. If you'd like
51:38
Speaker 1: to contact me, you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com.
51:42
Speaker 1: That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. All of the links that go
51:50
Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.