Lawyers for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh are asking South Carolina’s highest court to remove the judge who presided over his murder trial from the next stages of his legal odyssey.
In court filings, Murdaugh’s attorneys tried to block Judge Clifton Newman from hearing the disbarred attorney’s request for a new trial after he was convicted of shooting his wife and son.
They also want the Supreme Court to dismiss Newman from an upcoming case in which Murdaugh is being prosecuted for a series of financial crimes that prosecutors say he committed as his life spiraled out of control in the years leading up to the killings.
While Murdaugh’s attorneys do not accuse Newman of acting improperly during the murder trial, they cite his comments during the sentencing and in public interviews with police. Today Toon And Cleveland State University after the verdict as proof that he can no longer be considered impartial.
Lawyers for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh are asking South Carolina’s highest court to dismiss the judge who presided over the murder trial from his bid for a new trial
Murdaugh’s lawyers cite Newman’s comments during the sentencing and in public interviews with the Today Show (above) and Cleveland State University
A spokesperson for attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin told DailyMail.com that they would have no further comment beyond the filings themselves. Newman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wednesday’s request was part of Murdaugh’s appeal of the guilty verdicts and life sentence from his trial last spring.
His attorneys have accused Colleton County Clerk-elect Rebecca Hill of jury tampering in the murder trial by asking jurors their opinions on his guilt or innocence before the trial was over, suggesting she thought he was guilty and put pressure on them to reach a judgement. fast.
The defense wants Newman excluded from deciding whether there will be a full hearing into Hill’s actions, saying the judge could likely be a witness because of his interactions with Hill.
They also said Newman indicated in remarks at the sentencing and in several post-trial interviews that he believed Murdaugh was guilty. The defense argues that this could prevent him from honestly deciding whether the murder trial was unfair.
After the jury returned a guilty verdict within hours, Newman made lengthy remarks before handing down his sentence of two life sentences.
Among other things, he wondered aloud whether the ghosts of Murdaugh’s wife and son haunted him at night.
These comments came after the jury’s verdict, and judges are typically given space to express their opinions on the case while explaining their sentencing decision to an offender.
Newman also appeared on the Today Show and in a taped interview at the law school of Cleveland State University, his alma mater, where he discussed the case at length.
After the jury returned a guilty verdict within hours, Newman made lengthy remarks before handing down his sentence of two life sentences.
Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill, pictured with Judge Clifton Newman, is accused by Murdaugh’s defense team of influencing the jury as they seek a new trial.
Maggie and Paul Murdaugh (together center) were shot near the kennels on the Moselle family property, in Islandton, South Carolina, on June 7, 2021.
While they emphasize that they are not suggesting the judge acted improperly when he presided over the trial, defense attorneys Harpootlian and Griffin argued in their motion that Newman is a material witness to Hill’s actions in court.
Newman, or a judge who replaces him, will have to decide whether there will be a full hearing on the defense’s allegations.
That hearing would allow defense attorneys to force the other jurors, witnesses and possibly even Newman to testify under oath.
The defense could also obtain phone records, emails and text messages. Defense attorneys have suggested that jurors had been sending group texts.
Murdaugh is serving life without parole in the shooting that killed his wife and youngest son at their home in 2021. Investigators said 52-year-old Maggie was shot four or five times with a shotgun and 22-year-old Paul was hit twice with a shotgun. .
Even if his conviction is overturned, Murdaugh will likely remain in prison.
He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal charges that he stole millions of dollars from clients and his family law firm, which will likely mean years or decades behind bars. That process will begin later this month.
In an earlier court filing, his attorneys summarized how they believe Hill tampered with the jury in the murder trial.
“She asked jurors for their opinions on Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence. She instructed them not to believe the evidence in Mr. Murdaugh’s defense, including his own testimony. She lied to the judge to remove a juror she thought would vote not guilty. And she pressured jurors to reach a quick guilty verdict so she could benefit,” they wrote.
Prosecutors say not all jurors agree with the defense’s claim. Although prosecutors have not responded to the request to fire the judge, they have written a letter to Newman saying they do not believe he should resign.
They say it would be too expensive and costly to brief another judge on the many details of the trial.
Murdaugh’s lawyers also give the same reasons for wanting to remove Newman from a lawsuit based on dozens of allegations that Murdaugh stole money from clients and his law firm: They say his comments show he has already made up his mind.
They cite Newman’s comment to the jury after the guilty verdicts about “all the evidence pointing to only one conclusion, and that is the conclusion you have all come to.”
In the speech at his alma mater, Newman said Murdaugh “committed an unforgivable, unimaginable crime and there is no way he can sleep peacefully.”
Newman’s age means he must retire as a judge at the end of the year, and Murdaugh’s lawyers suggest that’s why he spoke so much afterward, thinking it would be years before the appeals were heard. But the accusation against Hill required an immediate hearing, they said.
And while they believe Newman’s comments violated court rules, Murdaugh’s lawyers say they don’t want him punished.
The defense is asking the state Supreme Court to suspend any trials or hearings on Murdaugh’s case until it decides whether Newman should be impeached.