Alex Murdaugh has sued the former court clerk whose conduct during his 2023 murder trial helped lead South Carolina’s Supreme Court to overturn his convictions and life sentence, his attorneys said alongside the new filing.
Murdaugh’s lawsuit, filed Sunday in federal court, targets former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. The complaint accuses Hill of violating Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial and asks for punitive and compensatory damages plus attorneys’ fees.
According to the U.S. filing, Hill’s behavior during the state trial “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by telling or suggesting to jurors that Murdaugh was guilty and that his testimony could not be trusted. Murdaugh spent $600,000 on his trial defense, the suit says, as part of its claims for damages.
The state Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in May 2024 described Hill’s remarks to jurors as “egregiously” undermining his credibility. In that decision, the court said Hill “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by suggesting to jurors that he was guilty and that his testimony could not be trusted, according to the reporting that covered the ruling.
Murdaugh’s lawsuit also seeks to frame Hill’s alleged conduct as a constitutional violation beyond error. The complaint accuses Hill of “reckless or callous indifference to Mr. Murdaugh’s federally protected right to trial before an impartial jury” and says her behavior was motivated by “evil motive or intent.”
Hill’s attorney, Will Lewis, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An attorney for Murdaugh, Jim Griffin, said at a news conference Monday that the lawsuit seeks to hold Hill accountable and to “reveal the entire scope of her conduct,” arguing that the matter had not been fully investigated or held to account by the state.
Griffin said Murdaugh became emotional when discussing the Supreme Court decision, describing Murdaugh reading the court’s ruling and saying he was still finding it difficult to believe the convictions were reversed.
The South Carolina Supreme Court described Hill’s alleged motivation as the “siren call of celebrity,” and said her goal included increasing sales of a book about the trial titled “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders.” The book was later pulled from publication after plagiarism allegations, and Hill has pleaded guilty to lying about what she said and did during the trial, including showing graphic crime scene photos to media members, according to the account of the case.
The state Supreme Court’s decision also included details about what some jurors reported to the court, including that Hill, who was assigned to oversee evidence and the jury during the trial, urged jurors to watch Murdaugh’s body language and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.
Prosecutors have said they plan to retry Murdaugh, which likely means the case will return to a lengthy court process. The case has drawn wide public attention, including streaming miniseries, bestselling books and true-crime podcasts, and Murdaugh remains in prison while serving federal and state sentences for other convictions, including financial crimes.
As covered after the Supreme Court’s ruling, prosecutors moved toward a retrial—MSI previously reported that prosecutors planned to retry Alex Murdaugh following the overturning of the verdict after the Supreme Court overturns his convictions.
At the same time, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a news release that the “Becky Hill matter was previously referred to and reviewed by an independent prosecutor,” a response Griffin disputed in arguing that the state had not fully investigated or held Hill accountable.