COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — The South Carolina Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in Alex Murdaugh’s appeal of his murder conviction.
According to the court’s docket, the case’s oral arguments will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 11, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The convicted killer will not be in attendance.
Murdaugh, a now disgraced lawyer, was convicted of multiple fraud-related crimes worth millions. He was also convicted in March 2023 of the murder of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in a Walterboro courtroom before Circuit Judge Clifton Newman.
He was given two life sentences for the 2021 murders, which he appealed soon after.
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FILE- Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill is sworn in before taking the stand to testify during the Alex Murdaugh jury-tampering hearing at the Richland County Judicial Center, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Hill, under investigation amid allegations of tampering with the jury in the Alex Murdaugh trial, announced her resignation on Monday, March 25, 2024. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File)
Murdaugh’s team believes he deserves a retrial, in part due to alleged misconduct by former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill and the inclusion of his admitted financial crimes in the original trial.
Hill pleaded guilty to charges including obstruction of justice, perjury, and misconduct in office back in December 2025.
Murdaugh’s legal team claims the alleged improper statements to the murder trial jury influenced at least one juror to vote guilty and compromised the integrity of the trial. It remained his legal team’s position even after former South Carolina Chief Justice Jean Toal ruled that the convicted killer was not entitled to a new trial in January 2024.
Murdaugh’s team argues in its filings that Hill was seeking a guilty conviction to drive sales of a book she planned to write about the trial. Additionally, the filing alleges that during Murdaugh’s murder trial, the court erred in allowing the jury to hear arguments regarding the former lawyer’s financial crimes.
The two-pronged argument lays the basis for Murdaugh’s lawyers to allege he didn’t receive a fair trial.
“Any person accused of a crime – even Alex Murduagh – has a constitutional right to a fair trial,” the filing reads. “When a fair trial is denied, he is entitled to a new, fair trial – he is not required to earn it by proving he would have been acquitted had he been given a fair trial the first time.”
After oral arguments, the Supreme Court will need to sift through a trove of documentation obtained through numerous legal proceedings since the six-week double-murder trial in 2023.
There is no timeline for when the court is expected to return its opinion on the matter.
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