County clerk Becky Hill resigns months after Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers accused her of tampering with jury in his trial

THE county clerk who was at the center of jury tampering claims during Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial has resigned.

An attorney for Rebecca Hill said her resignation is not about an investigation into the allegations against her but instead about allowing someone else to run.

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Hill, who was elected to serve as Colleton County’s clerk of court in 2020, announced the decision during a press conference on Monday outside the courthouse.

“After much reflection, I have decided it is best not to run again for reelection,” Hill told reporters.

“I will now be able to focus on being a wife, a mother, and grandmother to my two grandboys and will be spending time with the people that mean the most to me.”

The embattled county clerk has been at the center of controversy following the conviction of disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh in March 2023.

Murdaugh, who was convicted of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, and his attorneys accused Hill of jury tampering and swaying the trial’s outcome to obtain a book deal.

Hill released her book Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders five months after Murdaugh’s conviction.

JURY TAMPERING ALLEGATIONS

In January, Judge Jean Toal heard arguments from Murdaugh’s defense in their efforts to seek a retrial after their client’s double murder conviction.

Defense attorneys Dick Harpootlain and Jim Griffin accused Hill of persuading jurors to reach a quick verdict, saying she had “frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson.”

Harpootlain and Griffin argued in their filing last September that “Ms. Hill did these things to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. Hill betrayed her oath of office for money and fame.”

All 12 jurors testified in court in late January and were asked if Hill’s comments influenced their decision to convict.

One juror confessed that the county clerk’s statements to the jury impacted her decision to convict the disgraced lawyer, 55.

Two other jurors said they heard Hill make comments about the trial when Murdaugh took the stand but testified that her statements did not affect their decision to convict.

Nine other jurors denied hearing any comments from the county clerk.

The testimonies led Judge Toal to dismiss the defense’s efforts for a retrial, saying, “Hill’s fleeting and foolish comments” did not affect the verdict.

“I simply do not believe that our South Carolina Supreme Court requires a new trial in a very lengthy trial on the strengths of some fleeting and foolish comments by a publicity-seeking clerk of court,” the justice said.

Judge Toal determined that Hill was “not completely credible as a witness” and was “lured by the siren call of celebrity,” but her actions did not affect the jurors’ decision.

PLAGIARISM CLAIMS

Meanwhile, veteran Georgia journalist Niel Gordon, the co-author of Hill’s memoir, accused the South Carolina county clerk of lifting passages from the draft of a BBC News article.

Gordon said that Hill’s actions blindsided him after Colleton County officials made public over 2,000 messages from her government email account in December 2023.

Gordon said in a news release that Hill admitted to plagiarizing quotes, citing deadline pressures.

“As a veteran journalist myself, I cannot excuse her behavior, nor can I condone it,” he said.

“I can’t be associated with anything like plagiarism and will no longer partner with Becky Hill on any projects.

“I’d like to apologize to our readers and publicly to the BCC and the reporter.”

Hill accidentally obtained a lengthy excerpt from an unpublished BBC article about Murdaugh’s trial, according to Gordon.

The BBC reporter sent a copy of her piece to Hill after she mistook the county clerk’s email address with one of her editors, who is also named Rebecca.

“I have an editor named Rebecca, and I confused the addresses when I sent it,” the reporter told Hill.

The BBC journalist asked Hill to delete the draft, to which the county clerk replied, “I will do that, but what a well-written article. Really good!!!”

The following day, Hill allegedly forwarded a copy of the article to her personal email and the publisher of a local paper, describing it as “something a friend of mine is writing,” according to her released emails.

After skimming through the exchange, Gordon claims that Hill had lifted passages from the unpublished article and inserted them into an 11-page introduction she wrote for her book.

Hill’s attorney said at the time that she was “deeply remorseful” about the plagiarism.

“The pressures of developing additional content under tight time deadlines resulted in Ms. Hill taking material written by BBC reporter Holly Honderich and submitting it to her co-author Neil Gordon as if it were her own words,” they wrote in a statement.

“Ms. Hill accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate lapse in judgment and has personally reached out to Ms. Honderich to express her sincere apologies.”