By admin 
Former clerk of court Becky Hill won.
In recent years, Hill was revealed to have plagiarized parts of her book on Alex Murdaugh’s 2023 double-murder trial. She later resigned her Colleton County clerk of court’s post in disgrace. In 2025, she pleaded guilty to perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. Earlier this year, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Hill’s jury tampering in Murdaugh’s murder trial was “shocking jury interference.”
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On Thursday, Hill prevailed.
Federal Judge Richard Gergel of Charleston dismissed a lawsuit against her brought by Murdaugh that sought $600,000 and other compensation for tampering with the jury during his double-murder trial.
Gergel’s order of dismissal said that there was no connection linking Murdaugh’s purported loss of money — some $600,000 in funds from Murdaugh’s retirement account he liquidated for his murder defense — and Hill’s jury tampering.
“We are appealing,” said Columbia lawyer Dick Harpootlian, one of Murdaugh’s attorneys, later Thursday.
In his five-page order, Gergel said Murdaugh’s complaint, filed in May, contained “a fatal flaw—the lack of a causal connection between the funds he expended for his defense in the first trial and Defendant’s misconduct.”
If Hill, “had not engaged in her communications with jurors and had performed her clerk of court duties properly, (Murdaugh) would have still needed to expend the funds necessary to pay for his defense,” Gergel wrote.
Gergel explained that Hill had no role in bringing criminal charges against Murdaugh and played no part in his prosecution.
Murdaugh “liquidated his retirement account ($600,000) to fund his defense, which was necessary without regard to the misconduct of (Hill). Simply stated, (Hill’s) misconduct was not a proximate cause of (Murdaugh’s) need to fund his defense costs, and there is no credible allegation that ‘but for’ (Hill’s) actions, (Murdaugh) would not have found it necessary to fund his defense costs in the first trial,” Gergel wrote.
Hill’s attorneys were Charles Turner, Jr., G. Troy Thames, J. Nathan Ozmint and Bowman Taylor.
“We are obviously very pleased for our client Ms. Hill that the Court agreed with our legal position in reaching its decision in granting our Motion to Dismiss. However, since the case is not formally concluded, we cannot comment further at this time,” said Greenville attorney Turner in an email to The State newspaper.
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In a memo filed in June in Hill’s defense, her attorneys argued that Murdaugh had to show that his losses were caused by Hill’s actions.
“Such cannot be the case here, where the entirety of the economic damages claimed by the Plaintiff would have been spent on his criminal defense regardless of any actions taken by this Defendant,” Hill’s attorneys argued.
Murdaugh is currently in state prison serving a 27-year state sentence for embezzling funds. When that sentence finishes, he will be transferred to federal prison, where he will finish out a 40-year sentence for fraud, money laundering and other crimes.
He is not expected to be released until he is in his mid-80s or 90s. In all, Murdaugh is estimated to have stolen more than $10 million from clients and his law firm.
In March 2023, a Colleton County jury convicted Murdaugh of the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at the family 1,700-acre estate in a rural part of the county.
In May, the state Supreme Court unanimously overturned, 5-0, Murdaugh’s double-murder conviction, citing Hill’s jury tampering as the reason. The five justices held that Hill’s jury tampering violated Murdaugh’s constitutional right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.
Prosecutors are seeking a new murder trial, which state Judge Debra McCaslin has tentatively set for April 5 at a location to be determined.
Murdaugh’s case and all of its tangled elements of fraud, murder, power and dynasty is one of South Carolina’s most newsworthy cases in modern state history. It has for five years attracted national attention and spawned numerous newspaper articles, television shows, books and podcasts.
Read more Becky Hill wins as judge dismisses Alex Murdaugh’s lawsuit against her
This is a breaking news story and may be updated.