Lawyers for Alex Murdaugh react to charges filed against Becky Hill

Javon L. Harris, The State (Columbia, S.C.) on May 14, 2025

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Following years of controversy surrounding Becky Hill ⏤ the former Colleton County Clerk of Court who oversaw Alex Murdaugh’s double homicide trial ⏤ Murdaugh’s lawyers reacted to the clerk’s arrest on Wednesday, May 14.

Hill was charged Wednesday by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division with two counts of misconduct in office, one count of obstruction of justice and perjury after it was alleged that she tampered with the jury that decided Murdaugh’s fate in 2023.

Lawyers for Murdaugh, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, say they’re not surprised.

“We have long raised our concerns about her conduct during and after the trial and this arrest further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the judicial process,” Griffin and Harpootlian said in a statement. “Every defendant is entitled to a fair and impartial trial and we look forward to Alex Murdaugh finally getting that fair treatment.”

Since the Murdaugh trial ended in March 2023, Hill has admitted plagiarizing portions of a book she co-wrote on the trial, was the subject of an ethics investigation, and resigned her post in disgrace last year.

On Wednesday, Hill was arraigned twice. Once in Colleton County before Magistrate Fishburne and again in Richland County before Magistrate P. Van Ellis.

Fishburne set a $10,000 unsecured bond for two counts of misconduct in office and one count of obstruction of justice. Ellis granted a $50,000 personal recognizance bond on the perjury charge.

A year ago, the S.C. Ethics Commission announced it had found probable cause in 76 different incidents to believe that Hill repeatedly misused her position to enrich herself and promote her book — “Behind the Doors of Justice.” The book was released in mid-summer 2023 just five months after Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his wife, Maggie, and son Paul in June 2021. He is serving two life sentences.

Hill resigned her $101,256-a-year post in March 2024.