Just an hour after Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife and one of his sons, the court clerk who had read the verdicts to the world was standing on the courthouse balcony with her dog, beaming as the South Carolina attorney general singled her out for praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call her Becky-Boo, that\u2019s her nickname,\u201d said Alan Wilson, the attorney general, whose office led the prosecution, calling up to her from his news conference.<\/p>\n
Three years later, the court clerk, Becky Hill, was singled out by South Carolina\u2019s top court as it tossed out<\/a> the conviction of Mr. Murdaugh, the scion of a family of lawyers in a rural corner of the state.<\/p>\n Calling it \u201cshocking jury interference,\u201d the South Carolina Supreme Court laid out in a unanimous opinion on Wednesday how Ms. Hill had told jurors not to let Mr. Murdaugh\u2019s arguments \u201cconvince you,\u201d and how she had wanted a guilty verdict because she believed it would help her sell more copies of a book about the trial \u2014 maybe even enough to buy a lake house. The justices quoted a lower-court ruling that found that Ms. Hill had been \u201cattracted by the siren call of celebrity.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the Murdaugh trial had drawn huge attention, riveting an international audience and putting the small towns of South Carolina\u2019s Lowcountry region and their longstanding structures of power and clout under a spotlight. As the sudden reversal sank in on Wednesday, residents reeled at the prospect of another trial, another airing of painful events, another turn in the spotlight for the region.<\/p>\n The reversal of Mr. Murdaugh\u2019s conviction was in some ways a \u201chuge irony\u201d that undercut the legend of the Murdaugh family\u2019s influence, said Joe McCulloch, a lawyer in Columbia, the state capital.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody in the community, coming into this trial, believed that this jury was going to be fixed,\u201d Mr. McCulloch said. But they thought it would be fixed in favor of Mr. Murdaugh, he said, not against him.<\/p>\n At Hurricanes Sports Cafe in Hampton, S.C., the town where Mr. Murdaugh\u2019s family built its legal dynasty, the restaurant\u2019s father-son owners said the court\u2019s decision was surprising.<\/p>\n \u201cHow are they going to find a jury that\u2019s not biased?\u201d said Rodney Jarrel, the father, who knew Mr. Murdaugh when the two were growing up in Hampton.<\/p>\n The son, Austin, recalled the trial\u2019s circuslike atmosphere, with food trucks crowding around the courthouse in Walterboro, a 40-minute drive away.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was crazy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Others residents appeared to be tired of the case. Several declined to discuss it.<\/p>\n While Mr. Murdaugh will be tried again, he remains in prison on decades-long state and federal sentences for financial crimes. He pleaded guilty to those charges but has always maintained that he did not kill his wife or son. Attorney General Wilson, who is now running in the Republican primary for governor, said he intended to quickly retry the murder case.<\/p>\n At Ms. Hill\u2019s home on Wednesday shortly after the court\u2019s opinion was released, a man declined to open the door and said from behind it that Ms. Hill did not want to comment. A lawyer who has represented her has not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Ms. Hill, now in her late 50s, was elected the Colleton County clerk of court in 2020. When Mr. Murdaugh went on trial in January 2023 \u2014 accused of killing his wife, Maggie, 52, and their younger son, Paul, 22 \u2014 it was Ms. Hill who managed jury logistics and responded to inquiries from reporters.<\/p>\n After Mr. Murdaugh was found guilty, Ms. Hill made no secret of her views. She wrote on social media that she was the chief prosecutor\u2019s \u201cbiggest fan in Colleton County,\u201d and wrote in her book that she had been worried Mr. Murdaugh would be wrongly acquitted.<\/p>\n Six months after the verdict, Mr. Murdaugh\u2019s lawyers filed a motion for a new trial, accusing Ms. Hill of having tampered with the jury. Not long after that, her co-author discovered that Ms. Hill\u2019s preface contained passages that were similar to those in a BBC article. Ms. Hill, through her lawyers, apologized for the plagiarism and said they would stop selling more copies.<\/p>\n She became the subject of multiple ethics complaints, including allegations that she had allowed a photographer special access, such as the opportunity to take a picture of Mr. Murdaugh in a holding cell; that she had misused thousands of dollars in county money; and that she had given herself bonuses from federal funds intended to improve the collection of child support, according to news reports. She resigned from office in March 2024.<\/p>\n In May 2025, she was arrested. She pleaded guilty<\/a> to obstruction of justice and perjury, related to her allowing reporters to view sealed trial exhibits and then lying about it; and to two counts of misconduct in office, including taking bonuses and using her office to promote the book.<\/p>\n