Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted (2026) Movie Script
[dogs barking]
[birds chirping]
[clattering]
- [dogs barking]
- [Craig] Ellie!
They got names,
but I don't know 'em.
[chuckles]
My daughter could tell you.
Well, I found out
I became a juror on this trial
when I got a letter in the mail
and opened it.
I let my mom look at it and she's, like,
"Oh, my God, you're going
to be on the Murdaugh trial."
[dramatic string music plays]
[newscaster 1] We begin with a tragedy
in the Lowcountry overnight.
Two people, a mother and son, are killed.
And now, investigators are looking
for answers about exactly what happened.
[newscaster 2] The victims,
part of the Murdaugh family,
a legal and political dynasty.
[newscaster 3] New developments today
in the Alex Murdaugh case.
We just learned authorities
took Alex Murdaugh into custody.
[newscaster 4] Alex Murdaugh, charged with
the double murder of his wife and son.
So much has happened.
This family is basically cursed.
[newscaster 5] Murder mystery
that has gripped the nation.
Alex set up a hitman.
We learned some things this morning.
[newscaster 6]
More twists in the now growing legal case.
[newscaster 7]
Suspicion of stealing millions of dollars
of insurance settlement money.
[newscaster 8]
It's just part of this bizarre story.
Prosecutors said
that Murdaugh fatally shot both of them
in order to distract
from his own financial crimes.
This became a fascinating case
and a lot of twists and turns.
What has been dubbed
South Carolina's trial of the century.
Breaking news from South Carolina tonight,
where the verdict is in.
Alex Murdaugh is found guilty.
- Guilty.
- Guilty.
[Craig] I was convinced
without a reasonable doubt
that he was guilty,
so my verdict was guilty.
I thought this was behind us.
A stunning development
in one of South Carolina's
most high-profile murder cases.
Three years
after the verdict watched by millions,
Alex Murdaugh will get a new trial.
[newscaster 9]
This all centers around the actions
of the county clerk at the time,
a woman named Becky Hill.
[newscaster 10] The justices finding
shocking jury interference
by the court clerk, Becky Hill.
She was a friendly person.
Maybe she was too friendly.
She felt a little bit like the 13th juror.
They got a lot of explaining to do.
And we were all just trying
to get through all the lies.
[dramatic string music ends]
[pensive music plays]
[Bill] This is Walter Street
and if you look back this way,
you can see City Hall.
Of course, you see
the palmetto trees here.
Come to South Carolina,
you see a lot of palmettoes.
Probably our two largest employers
would be the school district
and the hospital.
We have a lot of agriculture here,
a lot of tourism here.
It's a very welcoming town.
The kind of place
where you would bring people in
and sit on the porch
and have a Coca-Cola,
a glass of iced tea and talk.
All of the things
that make a small town great.
[interviewer] Do you think people knew
of Murdaugh before all this?
[Bill] Well, the Murdaughs
did not go to school here.
They did not grow up here.
They were not part of this community.
But because the crime took place
just inside county lines,
we had the trial and all of that, so
But I think that's like saying,
"Do you know Joe Biden?"
You know, and everybody would say,
"Yes, of course I know Joe Biden,"
but most people don't really know him.
And there'd be the same thing
with the Murdaughs.
[pensive music continues]
[Joe] After nearly a 50-year career
in the law,
you run across some interesting people
and interesting cases.
Had some folks give me a snake.
I don't even remember why that would be.
I think it had something
to do with my personality.
And the ever-present hyena,
which my clients find quite entertaining.
I tell them that that's what happens
to you if you don't pay.
South Carolina is a small state.
So, we have a correspondingly
small number of lawyers.
And I had occasion to spend time
with Buster Murdaugh,
the grandfather of Alex Murdaugh.
He was the solicitor for that circuit.
I knew him fondly
because I was one of the prosecutors.
So, we drank liquor
and we went to conventions.
And once I went into private practice,
I was down there as a defense lawyer,
talking with my old friend, Buster.
They had a powerhouse law firm
that's recently been renamed.
It became the predominant law firm
in that part of this state.
So, I've grown up
as a lawyer with their family
and interacting with them,
and I knew Alex, or know Alex.
I went down to Colleton County,
thinking that this was a three-week trial.
And it lasted six weeks.
And I was there every moment of every day.
So, I contacted the clerk
of court, Becky Hill.
And she made arrangements
to save me a seat.
Becky Hill was the clerk of court,
and their job is to run the courthouse.
But most importantly,
once a trial begins,
to accommodate jurors
with meals and privacy
and to protect them
from any outside interference.
[sighs]
I don't have a lot to say
about Becky Hill.
I think Becky Hill
has said a lot for herself.
My name is Rebecca "Becky" Hill
and I am a native of Walterboro.
I love my county and I love my job.
Clerk, what do you have to tell?
[Myra] I met her during jury selection.
She was chipper and happy
and asked us to make a list
of drinks or anything, kind of pastries,
that we would want in the mornings,
and thought she was a friendly person.
Maybe she was too friendly.
Always tried to be extra helpful.
[Clifton] Your purpose as jurors
will be to decide the facts of this case.
Well, I thought it was
interesting and crazy
that somebody would actually
murder their wife and their son.
There's always two sides to a case,
so you got to see it through.
I was in that jury room daily,
longer than I would have been at work.
[Clifton] You cannot discuss the case
with family, friends, or anyone else.
[Myra] You could see people
in the audience that you knew.
You see people from news media.
You see politicians,
and you're just like, "Holy shit."
[reporter 1] Did the weapon
used to kill Maggie Murdaugh
belong to her family?
[reporter 2] The gun used to kill Maggie
still has not been recovered,
nor has Paul Murdaugh's rifle.
Seeing all the pictures
and all the evidence,
it's not something
anybody would really want to go through.
[Myra] I can still close my eyes
and see those pictures.
It's horrendous.
[reporter 3] Tonight,
Alex Murdaugh's alibi
potentially destroyed
by his son's own video.
Before the Snapchat video,
I wasn't sure if he did it or not.
[reporter 4] Prosecutors revealing
a 58-second cell phone video,
directly contradicting
Alex Murdaugh's story.
[Craig] That puts him
in the place of the murder.
I pretty much knew it was him.
[indistinct chatter]
If you listen to the video,
they were laughing, they were joking.
It gave me a little bit of pause.
[indistinct chatter over video recording]
How is this video proof
that he killed them?
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporter 5]
This coverage is wall-to-wall.
[reporter 6] They haven't seen
this much media attention in the area
since the filming
of Forrest Gump back in 1994.
[Bill] The world came to Walterboro.
We had media here from everywhere.
During the trial, this whole area
was covered with people.
And as the trial progressed,
the line got longer and longer.
And as people
were watching it on television,
they started coming here
from all over the place.
And if you can see
this cleared area over there,
a lot of the news media was lined up.
They had tents,
15, 20 satellite trucks here.
We had food trucks.
We had porta potties.
We have someone here that rents those,
and they're really nice.
They're called Taj Ma-Stalls.
And so, we had
some Taj Ma-Stalls over there.
- [siren wails]
- [indistinct chatter]
Up until we got into the issue
with the clerk of court
we walked away
feeling really good about what we'd done
and that we had done a good job.
So we were proud.
And what do those two records indicate?
[Myra] During the trial, I was undecided.
I really didn't have
a "He's guilty, he's not guilty."
I had a lot of questions.
And if I'm gonna convict a man of murder,
I need a little bit more
than thoughts and theories.
I mean, there's just a lot of "ifs."
[Clifton] Mr. Murdaugh,
if you'll come forward
and stand in front of me,
and Madam Clerk, if you can swear him in.
[Myra] The day that Alex
was gonna take the stand,
Becky came through the courtroom,
and she was excited.
You could see it in her face.
[Clifton] Have you made a decision
as to whether you're gonna testify?
I am going to testify. I want to testify.
She said, "Oh, my God, y'all,
this is gonna be an epic day."
"Alex is gonna take the stand."
She told us that
we were all gonna be famous.
And she said,
"But I want y'all to listen carefully."
"You need to pay very close attention
to Alex's body movement, his motions."
"And you know, don't be fooled
by what the defense says."
"You're gonna hear a lot of things."
And when she said that,
I just kind of questioned to myself,
"Did she just tell me
that they're gonna lie?"
Good morning.
[Joe] Unheard of.
That is so inappropriate. It's
I mean, it's even hard for me to conceive
that anybody could think
that that was not gonna be
a problem for them.
[Mr. Griffin] Mr. Murdaugh
on June 7th
2021, did you take this gun,
or any gun like it,
and fire it into your wife, Maggie,
causing her death?
Mr. Griffin, I didn't shoot
my wife or my son anytime.
Ever.
[reporter 6] Now, to breaking news
in the Murdaugh murder trial.
[reporter 7] After six weeks
in this Colleton County courtroom,
jurors are weighing the fate
of disbarred attorney, Alex Murdaugh.
[reporter 8] Jury's prepared to work
through the weekend.
[reporter 9] I'd be stunned
if they came back
with a verdict within a day,
because this is a complicated case.
[pensive music continues]
[Myra] The day of deliberation,
I had a phone call conversation
with Becky.
She asked me, "Well, have you made up
your mind about the verdict?"
And I said, "No."
I wanted to hear,
you know, everything to the end
before I, you know, started to deliberate.
And she asked me what made me think
that he was innocent.
And I said, "Well,
there's no murder weapons, you know."
"There's-- Guns are still missing."
And she told me that I needed
to put them out of my head.
They would never be seen again.
I can't honestly say
how I would have voted.
That was the morning I was dismissed.
First off this morning,
we have to deal with the issue involving
the removal of a juror.
They said there was an anonymous email
from the public that stated
that I was speaking about the trial
outside of court.
- [interviewer] And were you?
- No.
I spoke to nobody about the trial.
Thank you for your service. I'm not
suggesting that you intentionally did
anything wrong,
but that in order to preserve
the integrity of the process,
and in fairness
to all the parties involved,
we're going to replace you
with one of the other jurors.
Have you brought everything
that you have?
Have you left some stuff in there?
What do you have in there?
- [Myra] A dozen eggs.
- Say that again.
- [Myra] A dozen eggs.
- "A dozen eggs"?
[Myra] Yeah.
When I was dismissed from court,
I was known as juror 785,
or more publicly as the "Egg Juror."
[Clifton]
Three-five-four will become part of the
That was an extraordinary thing to happen,
to excuse a juror
an hour before the case
would otherwise have been handed
to she and the other 11 jurors
that had sat there
listening to the entire trial.
So, everyone wondered
what in the world was going on.
[Craig] We walked into deliberations
and everybody was excited.
You know, we took an initial vote
and nine of us said guilty.
Two of us said not guilty,
and one of us were undecided.
So, we gotta deliberate some more.
We had to look at more evidence.
We looked at the guns.
We looked at the Snapchat video.
- [woman 1] Come here, Bubba!
- [woman 2] Catch, quick.
[Craig] Everybody was shocked.
And I think they really could
hear it better in the jury room,
so they could actually pay attention
a little better.
And I think the Snapchat video swayed
their vote.
In the term of 2022, July,
the state versus
Richard Alexander Murdaugh, defendant,
indictment for murder, guilty verdict,
signed by the forelady, 3-2-23.
[reporter 10]
How could you kill your wife and son?
[reporter 11]
What do you think of the verdict, Alex?
- [reporter 12] Why did you lie?
- [newscaster 11] There is breaking news.
Alex Murdaugh is found guilty
of murdering his wife and 22-year-old son.
[newscaster 12]
Good evening, we begin with breaking news.
After just about three hours
of deliberation
[newscaster 13] Three hours.
Three hours to find disgraced lawyer,
Alex Murdaugh, guilty.
Today's verdict proves that no one,
no matter who you are in society,
is above the law.
Thank you.
[Joe] Shortly after the jury verdict,
public interest went from,
you know, 70 to 200.
There are so many loose ends
with this one.
I still actually think that
there was not enough to convict him.
I hope he rots in jail.
Anyone else feel like your entire life
is revolved around
the Murdaugh trial right now?
After trial, I got contacted
by a whole slew of people.
I got in with Dr. Phil.
We've been analyzing
the body language from Alex Murdaugh.
[Craig] And Good Morning America.
[newscaster 14]
Juror Craig Moyer breaking his silence.
Joining us now are jurors James McDowell,
Gwen Generette, and Amie Williams.
Good morning to all of you.
By the way, guess who's spoken out?
OJ Simpson even weighed in.
I went to the Murdaugh auction,
and this is what I bought.
One lady paid so much money for a vacuum
that was, like, still full of dirt
from their home.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, it just went, "Boom."
[pensive music ends]
[Myra] After the trial,
it kind of blew up with
what happened,
and everybody had, you know
they wanted to do a story,
and I just didn't want any part of it.
[pensive music plays]
[Myra] It got me to a point
that I had to go see the counselor
who helped me to deal with
some of the social media posts
that had been put out about me.
Stupid comments that I don't even know
where they would come up with this stuff.
But it was kind of hilarious.
I read so much about myself
I didn't even know who I was.
She wanted to reclaim her life
and her privacy.
So, my first responsibility for her
and ultimately
for the second juror, Juror Z
was to get the press off of their back.
And then, as we talked,
I learned more about
what had gone on backstage.
And it caused me great concern,
and I knew
uh, that
the defense lawyers
were talking about interviewing jurors.
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh
are demanding a new trial
and a federal investigation,
citing allegations
that a court clerk
engaged in jury tampering.
They then filed a motion for a new trial
based upon jury tampering.
And that led to an extraordinary hearing.
[Jean] Please be seated.
Juror Z, did you hear Ms. Becky Hill
make any comment about this case
before your verdict?
- [Juror Z] Yes, ma'am.
- What did Ms. Hill say?
[Juror Z] To watch his actions.
[Jean] To watch his actions.
What else?
- [Juror Z] To watch him closely.
- [Jean] To watch him closely.
Was your verdict
influenced in any way
by the communications
of the clerk of court in this case?
[Juror Z] Yes, ma'am.
She made it seem like
he was already guilty.
Thank you, Your Honor.
The state calls Rebecca Hill.
[clears throat]
[lawyer] Did you
interact with any juror
in an attempt to influence their view
of the facts in the State v Murdaugh case?
No.
At any time, did you tell the jury
"not to be fooled"
by evidence presented
by Mr. Murdaugh's attorneys?
I did not.
At any time did you instruct the jury
to watch him closely
and look at his actions?
I did not.
At any time did you instruct the jury
or tell the jury to look at his movements?
No.
Anything along those lines
that was meant to influence
- the jurors against Mr. Murdaugh?
- No.
[dramatic music plays]
[Myra] I wish she would come out
and tell the truth and say why.
I wish more than anything
that she would tell the truth.
Among the reasons that have
been posited out there are the--
She did it all because she has
some problem with the Murdaughs.
Another theory is that this was all
about the book she was writing,
that she figured the only ending
that would sell books is a conviction.
[tense music plays]
[Neil] So, this is trialwatchers.com,
and we try to celebrate true crime fans
from all over the country.
And we decided to focus
on the Murdaugh trial.
[Melissa] I first heard the name Becky
when I was standing
in line at the courthouse.
Well, she said, I want to write a book.
And I said, "I should connect you
with my husband. He's a former newscaster.
She had already had the title
of the book in mind.
She already knew
what she wanted the focus to be,
which is to take somebody,
kind of, behind the curtain
during what was known
as the trial of the century.
They wanted autographs from us.
They wanted autographs from the bailiffs.
Becky and I probably communicated
every other day.
We would do a Zoom call.
I'd be laying back with my neck pillow
like I'm on an airplane or something,
and I would ask her
a number of different questions,
gather all the information, and then
I would basically do a rough draft.
Like, do they recognize you
as the person that read the verdict?
Oh, yeah.
They'll say, "You're the one
who read the verdict." Yeah. Yeah.
[both laughing]
So we ended up publishing it
in a span of about four months.
Becky Hill had a front row seat
every single day during that trial.
There will be a book tour
that I'm going to be on,
and that's coming up in the next 14 days,
so stay tuned for where I'll be.
A book event got set up,
and there was a line around the building.
And every morning, Alex would walk in
and say, "Good morning, Miss Becky."
[Neil] We sold 250 books
within three hours
and she autographed every single one
and talked to people.
She was one of them. That's her people.
That's why we feel like she just
really naturally got caught up.
There were things along the way,
looking back
um, that maybe
were oversharing sometimes
and it gave me a pause.
Everybody that we've encountered
is 100 percent that he's guilty.
Really?
So we haven't met anybody
who thinks he didn't do it.
[Neil] At the crime scene,
when all the jurors and Becky
and all the attorneys went out there
and actually walked around
and she explained how eerie it was.
[Becky] There were several
of us women all together,
and we walked over
to where Maggie would have been laying.
We all looked at one another
and spoke very softly.
This is where she was.
This was her final moments.
What must she have been thinking
to see her son with his head blown off,
because she had to have seen that
before it turned on her,
and then knowing who had done that.
Becky wrote, "As a clerk of court,
we're supposed to be Switzerland."
But as we were riding back
on the way to the courthouse,
when there were a few court officials
in the vehicle,
they actually discussed
what they witnessed.
"And as a regular person," she said,
"we all felt Alex was guilty."
- [Melissa] And that's what she told us.
- Yeah. And that's in the book. Yeah.
She was the clerk of court,
but I almost got the impression
that she felt a little bit
like the 13th juror
and that she was listening
to the testimony
and she was kind of making up her own mind
as she went along.
[birds chirping]
[indistinct chatter]
[pensive music plays]
- [photographer] Bill.
- [Bill] How you doing, buddy?
Okay.
Today, we filed a lawsuit on behalf
of Richard Alexander Murdaugh Senior
versus Rebecca Hill.
With the South Carolina
Supreme Court's ruling,
it has been adjudged
that she deprived him
of a right to a fair trial.
We have a lot of questions
that we would like answered.
Was she a lone wolf?
I'll tell you this removal
of the egg lady juror is very suspicious.
The way she was targeted, it just
it's very curious.
And we hope
to get to the bottom of that.
[Alan] The defense's job
is to muddy the waters,
to throw out
a thousand conspiracy theories
and get people thinking
about everything else
except about the facts of the case.
I was involved in the Murdaugh trial
as the state Attorney General.
I believe we did it right the first time.
It was not our fault
this thing was reversed.
The Supreme Court themselves says
this falls solely
on the shoulders of one person.
That was the Colleton County
Clerk of Court, Becky Hill.
Obviously none of us knew about it.
When we became aware, I sent that case
to an independent prosecutor
who came to the conclusion
that Ms. Hill's conduct was inappropriate,
but it was harmless error
as it related to the conviction.
But the Supreme Court
went in another direction,
and we're going to act accordingly.
[Richard] Over the weekend,
we learned that the Attorney General
has announced he's considering
the death penalty in this case.
He's probably talking
to his political consultants
who thought that was a good soundbite
for his governor's campaign.
And then we've seen this process
since the beginning of this case
where Alan Wilson plays politics
as opposed to playing prosecutor.
They got a lot of explaining to do.
Yes, I am a candidate for governor,
but my role as the attorney general
is to set the stage for the next trial.
The Supreme Court
reversing a case like this
is obviously going to affect
everyone's trial strategies
because it's a movie
we've all seen before.
It's like the jump scares,
you know when they're coming.
And if we're starting over
at ground zero, um,
then we're going to consider
and evaluate everything.
People believe this
that if you have money and power,
you have one justice system.
If you don't have money and power,
you have a different justice system.
People said
there's no way someone like that
will be convicted in South Carolina.
We did that the first trial,
and I believe we'll do that
on the second trial.
[pensive music ends]
[ominous music plays]
[Bill] One thing I was thinking about
is how many victims there are
in all of this.
It's not just Alex's family.
There were so many
other people who were impacted.
[Myra] My husband got worried about me
because I was starting to break down.
And I could talk to him,
but it wasn't the same
as getting somebody
that actually could break it down
and explain it to me how to get past it.
- [interviewer] Do you need a moment?
- I'm good.
It was a lot.
[ominous music continues]
I feel very relieved that I have nothing
to do with the second trial.
[ominous music ends]
I don't know. I think they're blowing it
all out of proportion
is what they're doing.
I don't remember anybody
talking about tampering
or influencing anybody or anything.
There was times
I wish I never was involved in this.
I'm like, "Oh, Lord,
they're still talking about it."
[newscaster 15] The saga continues
[newscaster 16] A second chance to face
[newscaster 17]
But they'll get a brand-new jury.
Now, this will not be the same jury
[newscaster 18] Will disgraced attorney
Alex Murdaugh be acquitted
of murdering his wife
and son in a retrial?
I would blame, I guess, Murdaugh.
I mean
Nobody else to blame except for him.
Especially if he's guilty,
which I sincerely believe he is,
but we'll see.
[rifle fires]
[upbeat music plays]
[upbeat music ends]
[birds chirping]
[clattering]
- [dogs barking]
- [Craig] Ellie!
They got names,
but I don't know 'em.
[chuckles]
My daughter could tell you.
Well, I found out
I became a juror on this trial
when I got a letter in the mail
and opened it.
I let my mom look at it and she's, like,
"Oh, my God, you're going
to be on the Murdaugh trial."
[dramatic string music plays]
[newscaster 1] We begin with a tragedy
in the Lowcountry overnight.
Two people, a mother and son, are killed.
And now, investigators are looking
for answers about exactly what happened.
[newscaster 2] The victims,
part of the Murdaugh family,
a legal and political dynasty.
[newscaster 3] New developments today
in the Alex Murdaugh case.
We just learned authorities
took Alex Murdaugh into custody.
[newscaster 4] Alex Murdaugh, charged with
the double murder of his wife and son.
So much has happened.
This family is basically cursed.
[newscaster 5] Murder mystery
that has gripped the nation.
Alex set up a hitman.
We learned some things this morning.
[newscaster 6]
More twists in the now growing legal case.
[newscaster 7]
Suspicion of stealing millions of dollars
of insurance settlement money.
[newscaster 8]
It's just part of this bizarre story.
Prosecutors said
that Murdaugh fatally shot both of them
in order to distract
from his own financial crimes.
This became a fascinating case
and a lot of twists and turns.
What has been dubbed
South Carolina's trial of the century.
Breaking news from South Carolina tonight,
where the verdict is in.
Alex Murdaugh is found guilty.
- Guilty.
- Guilty.
[Craig] I was convinced
without a reasonable doubt
that he was guilty,
so my verdict was guilty.
I thought this was behind us.
A stunning development
in one of South Carolina's
most high-profile murder cases.
Three years
after the verdict watched by millions,
Alex Murdaugh will get a new trial.
[newscaster 9]
This all centers around the actions
of the county clerk at the time,
a woman named Becky Hill.
[newscaster 10] The justices finding
shocking jury interference
by the court clerk, Becky Hill.
She was a friendly person.
Maybe she was too friendly.
She felt a little bit like the 13th juror.
They got a lot of explaining to do.
And we were all just trying
to get through all the lies.
[dramatic string music ends]
[pensive music plays]
[Bill] This is Walter Street
and if you look back this way,
you can see City Hall.
Of course, you see
the palmetto trees here.
Come to South Carolina,
you see a lot of palmettoes.
Probably our two largest employers
would be the school district
and the hospital.
We have a lot of agriculture here,
a lot of tourism here.
It's a very welcoming town.
The kind of place
where you would bring people in
and sit on the porch
and have a Coca-Cola,
a glass of iced tea and talk.
All of the things
that make a small town great.
[interviewer] Do you think people knew
of Murdaugh before all this?
[Bill] Well, the Murdaughs
did not go to school here.
They did not grow up here.
They were not part of this community.
But because the crime took place
just inside county lines,
we had the trial and all of that, so
But I think that's like saying,
"Do you know Joe Biden?"
You know, and everybody would say,
"Yes, of course I know Joe Biden,"
but most people don't really know him.
And there'd be the same thing
with the Murdaughs.
[pensive music continues]
[Joe] After nearly a 50-year career
in the law,
you run across some interesting people
and interesting cases.
Had some folks give me a snake.
I don't even remember why that would be.
I think it had something
to do with my personality.
And the ever-present hyena,
which my clients find quite entertaining.
I tell them that that's what happens
to you if you don't pay.
South Carolina is a small state.
So, we have a correspondingly
small number of lawyers.
And I had occasion to spend time
with Buster Murdaugh,
the grandfather of Alex Murdaugh.
He was the solicitor for that circuit.
I knew him fondly
because I was one of the prosecutors.
So, we drank liquor
and we went to conventions.
And once I went into private practice,
I was down there as a defense lawyer,
talking with my old friend, Buster.
They had a powerhouse law firm
that's recently been renamed.
It became the predominant law firm
in that part of this state.
So, I've grown up
as a lawyer with their family
and interacting with them,
and I knew Alex, or know Alex.
I went down to Colleton County,
thinking that this was a three-week trial.
And it lasted six weeks.
And I was there every moment of every day.
So, I contacted the clerk
of court, Becky Hill.
And she made arrangements
to save me a seat.
Becky Hill was the clerk of court,
and their job is to run the courthouse.
But most importantly,
once a trial begins,
to accommodate jurors
with meals and privacy
and to protect them
from any outside interference.
[sighs]
I don't have a lot to say
about Becky Hill.
I think Becky Hill
has said a lot for herself.
My name is Rebecca "Becky" Hill
and I am a native of Walterboro.
I love my county and I love my job.
Clerk, what do you have to tell?
[Myra] I met her during jury selection.
She was chipper and happy
and asked us to make a list
of drinks or anything, kind of pastries,
that we would want in the mornings,
and thought she was a friendly person.
Maybe she was too friendly.
Always tried to be extra helpful.
[Clifton] Your purpose as jurors
will be to decide the facts of this case.
Well, I thought it was
interesting and crazy
that somebody would actually
murder their wife and their son.
There's always two sides to a case,
so you got to see it through.
I was in that jury room daily,
longer than I would have been at work.
[Clifton] You cannot discuss the case
with family, friends, or anyone else.
[Myra] You could see people
in the audience that you knew.
You see people from news media.
You see politicians,
and you're just like, "Holy shit."
[reporter 1] Did the weapon
used to kill Maggie Murdaugh
belong to her family?
[reporter 2] The gun used to kill Maggie
still has not been recovered,
nor has Paul Murdaugh's rifle.
Seeing all the pictures
and all the evidence,
it's not something
anybody would really want to go through.
[Myra] I can still close my eyes
and see those pictures.
It's horrendous.
[reporter 3] Tonight,
Alex Murdaugh's alibi
potentially destroyed
by his son's own video.
Before the Snapchat video,
I wasn't sure if he did it or not.
[reporter 4] Prosecutors revealing
a 58-second cell phone video,
directly contradicting
Alex Murdaugh's story.
[Craig] That puts him
in the place of the murder.
I pretty much knew it was him.
[indistinct chatter]
If you listen to the video,
they were laughing, they were joking.
It gave me a little bit of pause.
[indistinct chatter over video recording]
How is this video proof
that he killed them?
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporter 5]
This coverage is wall-to-wall.
[reporter 6] They haven't seen
this much media attention in the area
since the filming
of Forrest Gump back in 1994.
[Bill] The world came to Walterboro.
We had media here from everywhere.
During the trial, this whole area
was covered with people.
And as the trial progressed,
the line got longer and longer.
And as people
were watching it on television,
they started coming here
from all over the place.
And if you can see
this cleared area over there,
a lot of the news media was lined up.
They had tents,
15, 20 satellite trucks here.
We had food trucks.
We had porta potties.
We have someone here that rents those,
and they're really nice.
They're called Taj Ma-Stalls.
And so, we had
some Taj Ma-Stalls over there.
- [siren wails]
- [indistinct chatter]
Up until we got into the issue
with the clerk of court
we walked away
feeling really good about what we'd done
and that we had done a good job.
So we were proud.
And what do those two records indicate?
[Myra] During the trial, I was undecided.
I really didn't have
a "He's guilty, he's not guilty."
I had a lot of questions.
And if I'm gonna convict a man of murder,
I need a little bit more
than thoughts and theories.
I mean, there's just a lot of "ifs."
[Clifton] Mr. Murdaugh,
if you'll come forward
and stand in front of me,
and Madam Clerk, if you can swear him in.
[Myra] The day that Alex
was gonna take the stand,
Becky came through the courtroom,
and she was excited.
You could see it in her face.
[Clifton] Have you made a decision
as to whether you're gonna testify?
I am going to testify. I want to testify.
She said, "Oh, my God, y'all,
this is gonna be an epic day."
"Alex is gonna take the stand."
She told us that
we were all gonna be famous.
And she said,
"But I want y'all to listen carefully."
"You need to pay very close attention
to Alex's body movement, his motions."
"And you know, don't be fooled
by what the defense says."
"You're gonna hear a lot of things."
And when she said that,
I just kind of questioned to myself,
"Did she just tell me
that they're gonna lie?"
Good morning.
[Joe] Unheard of.
That is so inappropriate. It's
I mean, it's even hard for me to conceive
that anybody could think
that that was not gonna be
a problem for them.
[Mr. Griffin] Mr. Murdaugh
on June 7th
2021, did you take this gun,
or any gun like it,
and fire it into your wife, Maggie,
causing her death?
Mr. Griffin, I didn't shoot
my wife or my son anytime.
Ever.
[reporter 6] Now, to breaking news
in the Murdaugh murder trial.
[reporter 7] After six weeks
in this Colleton County courtroom,
jurors are weighing the fate
of disbarred attorney, Alex Murdaugh.
[reporter 8] Jury's prepared to work
through the weekend.
[reporter 9] I'd be stunned
if they came back
with a verdict within a day,
because this is a complicated case.
[pensive music continues]
[Myra] The day of deliberation,
I had a phone call conversation
with Becky.
She asked me, "Well, have you made up
your mind about the verdict?"
And I said, "No."
I wanted to hear,
you know, everything to the end
before I, you know, started to deliberate.
And she asked me what made me think
that he was innocent.
And I said, "Well,
there's no murder weapons, you know."
"There's-- Guns are still missing."
And she told me that I needed
to put them out of my head.
They would never be seen again.
I can't honestly say
how I would have voted.
That was the morning I was dismissed.
First off this morning,
we have to deal with the issue involving
the removal of a juror.
They said there was an anonymous email
from the public that stated
that I was speaking about the trial
outside of court.
- [interviewer] And were you?
- No.
I spoke to nobody about the trial.
Thank you for your service. I'm not
suggesting that you intentionally did
anything wrong,
but that in order to preserve
the integrity of the process,
and in fairness
to all the parties involved,
we're going to replace you
with one of the other jurors.
Have you brought everything
that you have?
Have you left some stuff in there?
What do you have in there?
- [Myra] A dozen eggs.
- Say that again.
- [Myra] A dozen eggs.
- "A dozen eggs"?
[Myra] Yeah.
When I was dismissed from court,
I was known as juror 785,
or more publicly as the "Egg Juror."
[Clifton]
Three-five-four will become part of the
That was an extraordinary thing to happen,
to excuse a juror
an hour before the case
would otherwise have been handed
to she and the other 11 jurors
that had sat there
listening to the entire trial.
So, everyone wondered
what in the world was going on.
[Craig] We walked into deliberations
and everybody was excited.
You know, we took an initial vote
and nine of us said guilty.
Two of us said not guilty,
and one of us were undecided.
So, we gotta deliberate some more.
We had to look at more evidence.
We looked at the guns.
We looked at the Snapchat video.
- [woman 1] Come here, Bubba!
- [woman 2] Catch, quick.
[Craig] Everybody was shocked.
And I think they really could
hear it better in the jury room,
so they could actually pay attention
a little better.
And I think the Snapchat video swayed
their vote.
In the term of 2022, July,
the state versus
Richard Alexander Murdaugh, defendant,
indictment for murder, guilty verdict,
signed by the forelady, 3-2-23.
[reporter 10]
How could you kill your wife and son?
[reporter 11]
What do you think of the verdict, Alex?
- [reporter 12] Why did you lie?
- [newscaster 11] There is breaking news.
Alex Murdaugh is found guilty
of murdering his wife and 22-year-old son.
[newscaster 12]
Good evening, we begin with breaking news.
After just about three hours
of deliberation
[newscaster 13] Three hours.
Three hours to find disgraced lawyer,
Alex Murdaugh, guilty.
Today's verdict proves that no one,
no matter who you are in society,
is above the law.
Thank you.
[Joe] Shortly after the jury verdict,
public interest went from,
you know, 70 to 200.
There are so many loose ends
with this one.
I still actually think that
there was not enough to convict him.
I hope he rots in jail.
Anyone else feel like your entire life
is revolved around
the Murdaugh trial right now?
After trial, I got contacted
by a whole slew of people.
I got in with Dr. Phil.
We've been analyzing
the body language from Alex Murdaugh.
[Craig] And Good Morning America.
[newscaster 14]
Juror Craig Moyer breaking his silence.
Joining us now are jurors James McDowell,
Gwen Generette, and Amie Williams.
Good morning to all of you.
By the way, guess who's spoken out?
OJ Simpson even weighed in.
I went to the Murdaugh auction,
and this is what I bought.
One lady paid so much money for a vacuum
that was, like, still full of dirt
from their home.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, it just went, "Boom."
[pensive music ends]
[Myra] After the trial,
it kind of blew up with
what happened,
and everybody had, you know
they wanted to do a story,
and I just didn't want any part of it.
[pensive music plays]
[Myra] It got me to a point
that I had to go see the counselor
who helped me to deal with
some of the social media posts
that had been put out about me.
Stupid comments that I don't even know
where they would come up with this stuff.
But it was kind of hilarious.
I read so much about myself
I didn't even know who I was.
She wanted to reclaim her life
and her privacy.
So, my first responsibility for her
and ultimately
for the second juror, Juror Z
was to get the press off of their back.
And then, as we talked,
I learned more about
what had gone on backstage.
And it caused me great concern,
and I knew
uh, that
the defense lawyers
were talking about interviewing jurors.
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh
are demanding a new trial
and a federal investigation,
citing allegations
that a court clerk
engaged in jury tampering.
They then filed a motion for a new trial
based upon jury tampering.
And that led to an extraordinary hearing.
[Jean] Please be seated.
Juror Z, did you hear Ms. Becky Hill
make any comment about this case
before your verdict?
- [Juror Z] Yes, ma'am.
- What did Ms. Hill say?
[Juror Z] To watch his actions.
[Jean] To watch his actions.
What else?
- [Juror Z] To watch him closely.
- [Jean] To watch him closely.
Was your verdict
influenced in any way
by the communications
of the clerk of court in this case?
[Juror Z] Yes, ma'am.
She made it seem like
he was already guilty.
Thank you, Your Honor.
The state calls Rebecca Hill.
[clears throat]
[lawyer] Did you
interact with any juror
in an attempt to influence their view
of the facts in the State v Murdaugh case?
No.
At any time, did you tell the jury
"not to be fooled"
by evidence presented
by Mr. Murdaugh's attorneys?
I did not.
At any time did you instruct the jury
to watch him closely
and look at his actions?
I did not.
At any time did you instruct the jury
or tell the jury to look at his movements?
No.
Anything along those lines
that was meant to influence
- the jurors against Mr. Murdaugh?
- No.
[dramatic music plays]
[Myra] I wish she would come out
and tell the truth and say why.
I wish more than anything
that she would tell the truth.
Among the reasons that have
been posited out there are the--
She did it all because she has
some problem with the Murdaughs.
Another theory is that this was all
about the book she was writing,
that she figured the only ending
that would sell books is a conviction.
[tense music plays]
[Neil] So, this is trialwatchers.com,
and we try to celebrate true crime fans
from all over the country.
And we decided to focus
on the Murdaugh trial.
[Melissa] I first heard the name Becky
when I was standing
in line at the courthouse.
Well, she said, I want to write a book.
And I said, "I should connect you
with my husband. He's a former newscaster.
She had already had the title
of the book in mind.
She already knew
what she wanted the focus to be,
which is to take somebody,
kind of, behind the curtain
during what was known
as the trial of the century.
They wanted autographs from us.
They wanted autographs from the bailiffs.
Becky and I probably communicated
every other day.
We would do a Zoom call.
I'd be laying back with my neck pillow
like I'm on an airplane or something,
and I would ask her
a number of different questions,
gather all the information, and then
I would basically do a rough draft.
Like, do they recognize you
as the person that read the verdict?
Oh, yeah.
They'll say, "You're the one
who read the verdict." Yeah. Yeah.
[both laughing]
So we ended up publishing it
in a span of about four months.
Becky Hill had a front row seat
every single day during that trial.
There will be a book tour
that I'm going to be on,
and that's coming up in the next 14 days,
so stay tuned for where I'll be.
A book event got set up,
and there was a line around the building.
And every morning, Alex would walk in
and say, "Good morning, Miss Becky."
[Neil] We sold 250 books
within three hours
and she autographed every single one
and talked to people.
She was one of them. That's her people.
That's why we feel like she just
really naturally got caught up.
There were things along the way,
looking back
um, that maybe
were oversharing sometimes
and it gave me a pause.
Everybody that we've encountered
is 100 percent that he's guilty.
Really?
So we haven't met anybody
who thinks he didn't do it.
[Neil] At the crime scene,
when all the jurors and Becky
and all the attorneys went out there
and actually walked around
and she explained how eerie it was.
[Becky] There were several
of us women all together,
and we walked over
to where Maggie would have been laying.
We all looked at one another
and spoke very softly.
This is where she was.
This was her final moments.
What must she have been thinking
to see her son with his head blown off,
because she had to have seen that
before it turned on her,
and then knowing who had done that.
Becky wrote, "As a clerk of court,
we're supposed to be Switzerland."
But as we were riding back
on the way to the courthouse,
when there were a few court officials
in the vehicle,
they actually discussed
what they witnessed.
"And as a regular person," she said,
"we all felt Alex was guilty."
- [Melissa] And that's what she told us.
- Yeah. And that's in the book. Yeah.
She was the clerk of court,
but I almost got the impression
that she felt a little bit
like the 13th juror
and that she was listening
to the testimony
and she was kind of making up her own mind
as she went along.
[birds chirping]
[indistinct chatter]
[pensive music plays]
- [photographer] Bill.
- [Bill] How you doing, buddy?
Okay.
Today, we filed a lawsuit on behalf
of Richard Alexander Murdaugh Senior
versus Rebecca Hill.
With the South Carolina
Supreme Court's ruling,
it has been adjudged
that she deprived him
of a right to a fair trial.
We have a lot of questions
that we would like answered.
Was she a lone wolf?
I'll tell you this removal
of the egg lady juror is very suspicious.
The way she was targeted, it just
it's very curious.
And we hope
to get to the bottom of that.
[Alan] The defense's job
is to muddy the waters,
to throw out
a thousand conspiracy theories
and get people thinking
about everything else
except about the facts of the case.
I was involved in the Murdaugh trial
as the state Attorney General.
I believe we did it right the first time.
It was not our fault
this thing was reversed.
The Supreme Court themselves says
this falls solely
on the shoulders of one person.
That was the Colleton County
Clerk of Court, Becky Hill.
Obviously none of us knew about it.
When we became aware, I sent that case
to an independent prosecutor
who came to the conclusion
that Ms. Hill's conduct was inappropriate,
but it was harmless error
as it related to the conviction.
But the Supreme Court
went in another direction,
and we're going to act accordingly.
[Richard] Over the weekend,
we learned that the Attorney General
has announced he's considering
the death penalty in this case.
He's probably talking
to his political consultants
who thought that was a good soundbite
for his governor's campaign.
And then we've seen this process
since the beginning of this case
where Alan Wilson plays politics
as opposed to playing prosecutor.
They got a lot of explaining to do.
Yes, I am a candidate for governor,
but my role as the attorney general
is to set the stage for the next trial.
The Supreme Court
reversing a case like this
is obviously going to affect
everyone's trial strategies
because it's a movie
we've all seen before.
It's like the jump scares,
you know when they're coming.
And if we're starting over
at ground zero, um,
then we're going to consider
and evaluate everything.
People believe this
that if you have money and power,
you have one justice system.
If you don't have money and power,
you have a different justice system.
People said
there's no way someone like that
will be convicted in South Carolina.
We did that the first trial,
and I believe we'll do that
on the second trial.
[pensive music ends]
[ominous music plays]
[Bill] One thing I was thinking about
is how many victims there are
in all of this.
It's not just Alex's family.
There were so many
other people who were impacted.
[Myra] My husband got worried about me
because I was starting to break down.
And I could talk to him,
but it wasn't the same
as getting somebody
that actually could break it down
and explain it to me how to get past it.
- [interviewer] Do you need a moment?
- I'm good.
It was a lot.
[ominous music continues]
I feel very relieved that I have nothing
to do with the second trial.
[ominous music ends]
I don't know. I think they're blowing it
all out of proportion
is what they're doing.
I don't remember anybody
talking about tampering
or influencing anybody or anything.
There was times
I wish I never was involved in this.
I'm like, "Oh, Lord,
they're still talking about it."
[newscaster 15] The saga continues
[newscaster 16] A second chance to face
[newscaster 17]
But they'll get a brand-new jury.
Now, this will not be the same jury
[newscaster 18] Will disgraced attorney
Alex Murdaugh be acquitted
of murdering his wife
and son in a retrial?
I would blame, I guess, Murdaugh.
I mean
Nobody else to blame except for him.
Especially if he's guilty,
which I sincerely believe he is,
but we'll see.
[rifle fires]
[upbeat music plays]
[upbeat music ends]