The former South Carolina court clerk who administered the 2023 double-murder trial of attorney Alex Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to showing graphic crime-scene photos sealed as court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court.
Former Colleton county clerk of court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill was sentenced Monday to three years of probation. Hill pleaded guilty to four charges – obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it – as well as two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting her book through her public office.
Judge Heath Taylor told Hill her sentence would have been much harsher if prosecutors had found that she had tampered with the Murdaugh jury. She told the court that there’s “is no excuse for the mistakes I made. I’m ashamed of them and will carry that shame the rest of my life.”
As court clerk during the trial, which ended in Murdaugh’s conviction for both killings, Hill was charged with taking care of the jury, overseeing exhibits and helping the judge.
Hill’s book, Behind the Doors of Justice: the Murdaugh Murders, previously stirred controversy when she was accused of plagiarism by co-author Neil Gordon. Gordon claimed Hill may have plagiarized passages from a BBC article about the case.
In a foreword, author Rona Rich described how Hill ran the Colleton county court “with an iron fist deceptively wrapped in the softest silk”.
But more significant controversies that surrounded the trial have largely been resolved.
Last year, Murdaugh’s defense attorneys demanded a new trial on the basis that they had spoken to three jurors and collected sworn affidavits by two panelists alleging Hill had improper discussions that hastened their deliberations. The jury deliberated for only three hours after a six-week trial.
Murdaugh’s attorneys alleged that Hill improperly influenced the jury, telling its members to not trust Murdaugh’s testimony.
Hill was also accused of holding one-on-one conversations with the jury foreperson in a bathroom, giving reporters’ business cards to jurors, and pressuring them to return with a swift verdict by denying them smoking breaks.
Prosecutors investigated jury tampering allegations but concluded that while three jurors or alternates said Hill told stories that changed about how she may have tried to influence them, 11 said she did nothing wrong. The appeal was denied.
But the crime scene photos that Hill admitted to showing a reporter were later posted online, and metadata from those pictures matched a time where Hill’s courthouse keycard said she was inside the locked room where the photos were kept.
Hill also pleaded guilty to misconduct in office after she took nearly $10,000 meant for bonuses from federal money meant to improve child support collection and about $2,000 in money from the clerk of court’s office.
Officials said that Hill allowed a photo to be taken of Murdaugh in a holding cell to promote her book and used county money to buy dozens of lunches for her staff, prosecutors and a vendor.
Judge Taylor said Hill has been more humiliated than most people who come before him because of the attention heaped on the Murdaugh case.
“A lot of boats got swept up in the hoopla that was at that trial,” Taylor said. “A lot of folks probably made a lot of money, but you didn’t.”
