Murdaugh Murder Bombshell: Disgraced Attorney Alex Granted New Trial For Brutal Slayings of Wife and Son After Claim 'Court Clerk Tampered with Jury'
A new murder trial has been ordered for Alex Murdaugh.
May 13 2026, Published 10:52 a.m. ET
Disgraced attorney and convicted killer, Alex Murdaugh, will be re-tried for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, RadarOnline.com can report.
The South Carolina Supreme Court agreed with attorneys for the 57-year-old who argued former Colleton County Clerk Rebecca Hill tampered with the jurors during the original March 2023 trial.
Back to Square One
Alex was convicted of the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
Murdaugh's trial now essentially goes back to square one, as the double murder case now heads back to a lower court for a re-trial.
It'll be up to the S.C. Attorney General’s Office to decide whether to prosecute.
During the trial, Hill reportedly told jurors "not to be fooled" by Murdaugh's own emotional testimony in hopes that he would be convicted to help her make money from her self-published book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders.
The jury did come back with a guilty verdict, and Murdaugh was handed two consecutive life sentences for fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, at their home on June 7, 2021.
County Clerk Faced Numerous Accusations
Murdaugh's conviction was overturned after a county clerk 'tampered' with jurors.
The corrupt clerk faced a flurry of accusations before she resigned in March 2024, including misconduct in office, obstruction of justice and perjury. She also allegedly showed sealed crime scene photos to members of the press and lied under oath in a hearing.
Additionally, Hill was charged with taking more than $11,000 in bonuses and using her public office to promote the book. Murdaugh's attorneys claimed the would-be crime author tried to influence jurors, and was heard by another employee rationalizing, "The best way to sell books was a guilty verdict. A guilty verdict would be better for the sale of books."
Hill’s book was later pulled from publication after she reportedly admitted to plagiarizing part of it.
Long Legal Process
The case now heads back to a lower court for re-trial.
Early last year, former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal ruled Hill did tamper with the jury, but said there was insufficient evidence for a new trial.
Toal said she couldn’t overturn the verdict "on the strength of some fleeting and foolish comments by a publicity-seeking clerk of court" because they didn’t persuade the jurors’ minds.
However, Murdaugh’s lawyers pushed back, arguing: "The legal principle of major importance is whether it is presumptively prejudicial for a state official to secretly advocate for a guilty verdict through ex parte contacts with jurors during trial, or whether a defendant, having proven the contacts occurred, must also somehow prove the verdict would have been different at a hypothetical trial in which the surreptitious advocacy did not occur."
Murdaugh's Alleged Crimes
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Murdaugh was arrested in 2021 for the shooting deaths.
Murdaugh was once a prestigious attorney at his family-run law firm. But that changed on June 7, 2021, when he was accused of fatally shooting his wife and son with an AR-style rifle on the sprawling grounds of their hunting estate. He claimed he stumbled upon their bodies upon returning home from a visit to his mother.
Dialing 9-1-1 at 10:07 p.m., Murdaugh's frantic plea was chilling: "I need the police and an ambulance immediately. My wife and child were just shot badly."
However, a cellphone video taken by his son on the night of the murders confirmed Alex was at the crime scene. According to prosecutors, the disgraced former attorney killed his wife and son at around 8:49 p.m. and then attempted to create an alibi by calling Maggie's phone and sending a text message.
Despite maintaining his innocence, prosecutors painted a portrait of a desperate man who allegedly murdered his family to cover up a decade of financial deceit and drug addiction.
