A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Alexander Murdaugh seeking to recover $600,000 in legal expenses from the county clerk accused of interfering with the jury in his murder trial.
U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel ruled that Murdaugh lacked standing to sue Rebecca “Becky” Hill because her alleged misconduct did not cause him to incur the costs of defending himself. Murdaugh would have needed to pay for his defense regardless of Hill’s actions because she did not initiate the murder charges or prosecution, Gergel wrote.
“Simply stated, Defendant’s misconduct was not a proximate cause of Plaintiff’s need to fund his defense costs,” the order said.
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The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning Murdaugh could seek to file another claim if he can present a legally sufficient theory.
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Murdaugh sued Hill under a federal civil rights law, alleging that her communications with jurors violated his rights under the Sixth and 14th Amendments. He said he liquidated his 401K account before trial and spent $600,000 on his defense.
Following the dismissal, Murdaugh’s defense team filed an appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Read the judge’s ruling:
On May 18, Murdaugh filed his 17-page civil lawsuit against Hill.
“The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Becky Hill accountable for what she did,” Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, previously said in a news conference. “She has not been held to account at all for her conduct.”
The lawsuit comes after the state’s Supreme Court ruled on May 13 that Hill’s actions triggered the legal presumption that the jury had been improperly influenced and that prosecutors failed to prove the verdict was unaffected.
“As noted at the outset,” the justices wrote, “Hill’s shocking jury interference” forced the court to reverse the conviction and order a new trial.
The unraveling began publicly in October 2023 when Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a motion for a new trial accusing Hill of jury tampering.
By January 2024, jurors were testifying under oath about Hill’s comments and behavior.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Murdaugh’s attorneys and Hill’s attorney for comment.
