Murdaugh murder convictions overturned by South Carolina Supreme Court
The South Carolina Supreme Court has unanimously ruled to overturn the 2023 double murder conviction of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh.
In its 27-page, 5-0 ruling Wednesday, the S.C. Supreme Court said the actions of former Colleton County Court Clerk Becky Hill denied “Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Murdaugh’s case will now return to circuit court, according to the ruling.
“Both the State and Murdaugh’s defense skillfully presented their cases to the jury as the trial court deftly presided over this complicated and high-profile matter. However, their efforts were in vain because Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice,” the ruling said. “... 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 and remand for a new trial.”
Wednesday’s ruling overturning what was popularly called “the trial of the century” began making national news shortly after the opinion was released at 10 am. Murdaugh’s conviction in March 2023 after a six-week trial was televised and attracted an audience of millions because of its combination of not only brutal murder but also the naked corruption of a supposedly upstanding South Carolina attorney who stole millions from defenseless clients who had won millions in legal settlements.
Untold numbers of newspaper stories, television and cable news reports, documentaries and more than 20 books — including one in French by a French journalist attending the trial —— have been written about the case. An audience of millions across the nation and around the world followed the trial live on Court TV.
Although the Supreme Court’s ruling ended months of speculation among true crime fans, lawyers and everyday folks whether Murdaugh’s conviction would be overturned, it also raised new questions, unanswered as of Wednesday:
- When will a new trial take place?
- Will Murdaugh’s attorneys or the prosecution ask for a change in venue, or location?
The state Supreme Court’s decision was the result of a nearly three-hour February hearing about whether jury tampering and improper prosecution evidence about Murdaugh’s financial crimes spoiled his right to a fair trial. At the hearing, justices grilled lead Murdaugh trial prosecutor Creighton Waters with questions so pointed about questionable events during the trial that the severity of the questions themselves led to widespread public speculation that the conviction would be overturned.
Another point of view, now descredited, about that hearing was that the Supreme Court would acknowledge the jury tampering, but uphold the verdicts on the grounds that evidence about Murdaugh’ guilt was so overwhelming that any trial errors amounted to “harmles error.”
Murdaugh, 57, a once wealthy fourth-generation lawyer in his family law firm in Lowcountry Hampton County, is serving two life sentences for murder at a maximum security state prison in McCormick County. Murdaugh was disbarred by the high court in 2022.
The man that the S.C. Supreme Court called a “notorious former attorney” is also serving multiyear state and federal sentences for defrauding hapless clients of millions of dollars. Murdaugh has admitted his financial frauds and plead guilty to them.
Murdaugh says he is innocent
But he contends he is innocent of murder and was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and son.
In 2023, Murdaugh was found guilty of two counts of murder for the June 7, 2021, shooting deaths of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on the family’s remote 1,770-acre estate, called Moselle.
In addition to the murder charges, Murdaugh also was convicted of two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime at the end of the March 2023 trial.
Attorney general says Murdaugh will be retried
On Wednesday, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said he would retry Murdaugh on the murder charges.
“While we respectfully disagree with the Court’s decision, my office will aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible,” Wilson said in a news release.
Murdaugh’s attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, both of Columbia, said a retrial was in order and will be welcomed.
“Alex has said from day one that he did not kill his wife and son. We look forward to a new trial conducted consistent with the Constitution and the guidance this court has provided,” Murdaugh’s attorneys said in a statement sent to news media.
Wilson pointed out that despite the S.C. Supreme Court’s ruling, Murdaugh will remain incarcerated for convictions on other crimes.
“Let me be clear — this decision does not mean Murdaugh will be released,” Wilson said. “He will remain in prison for his financial crimes.”
Murdaugh is currently serving a 27-year sentence in a South Carolina Department of Corrections prison for financial crime convictions. Murdaugh is also serving a concurrent 40-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty to the financial crimes.
Murdaugh will be in his late 80s or 90s when he’s released from federal prison, if he lives that long.
Road to a retrial
During an October 2023 appeal, Murdaugh sough to file a motion for a new trial because he said that Hill tampered with the jury in multiple ways. Murdaugh contended that Hill:
- Advised the jury not to believe his testimony and other defense evidence
- Pressured the jury to reach a quick guilty verdict
- Misrepresented information to the trial court in an attempt to have the court remove a juror she believed to favor the defense
In the February hearing before the S.C. Supreme Court justices, the prosecution argued the jury convicted Murdaugh “because he was obviously guilty, and not because three jurors heard Hill’s ‘foolish and fleeting’ comments about his upcoming testimony,” Wednesday’s ruling said.
But that wasn’t enough to sway the S.C. Supreme Court justices — a group that includes Chief Justice John Kittredge as well as John Few, George James, D. Garrison Hill and Letitia Verdin.
“We agree with Murdaugh,” the ruling said. “Prejudice is presumed from Hill’s comments, and while this presumption is rebuttable, the State failed to overcome this presumption.”
But the justices were clear about who they found most responsible for this outcome.
“The breathtaking and disgraceful effort of Hill to undermine the jury process is unprecedented in South Carolina,” the ruling said.
Hill resigned her $101,256-a-year clerk of court job In March 2024 after she was charged with obstruction of justice in the leaking of confidential court information to a reporter. Hill later pleaded guilty to perjury and misconduct charges and received probation.
“There is no excuse for my mistakes,” Hill said following her December 2025 conviction. “I am ashamed of them, and I will carry that shame with me for the rest of my life.”
Columbia attorney Will Lewis, who’s Hill’s lawyer, was unavailable Wednesday and unable to comment, his office said.
In its ruling, the S.C. Supreme Court also weighed in on the admissibility of Murdaugh’s financial crimes in the retrial.
Calling it a “thorny issue,” the S.C. Supreme Court said that 12.5 hours of testimony from the original trial on the financial crimes to establish a motive was too much time, and could have been presented “in a fraction of that time,” according to the ruling.!!!
The S.C. Supreme Court’s guidance for the retrial is that if prosecutors seek to reintroduce that evidence it must be done “efficiently without the lengthy presentation of inflammatory details with little to no probative value that was permitted in the first trial,” the ruling said.
Harpootlian and Griffin agreed with that as well.
“We respect the decision that made clear that the retrial must look very different from the first,” Murdaugh’s attorneys said. “The initial jury heard more than 12 hours of testimony about Alex’s financial crimes. The court held that this evidence went far beyond what was necessary and gave rise to unfair prejudice. On retrial, that will not be permitted.”
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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Murdaugh murder convictions overturned by South Carolina Supreme Court."
