Attorneys react to Murdaugh retrial

“Alex Murdaugh is entitled to a new trial because he was deprived of a fair trial last time,” says Defense Attorney Jim Griffin, speaking to ABC News in New York.

The SC Supreme Court determined Murdaugh has the right to a re-trial following former Clerk of Court Becky Hill’s alleged jury tampering — in which she told jurors “Don’t be fooled” and “Watch him closely.”

Griffin maintains Murdaugh’s innocence saying, “One of the most significant pieces of cell phone data did not exist because sled mishandled Maggie’s cell phone, and by the time they were able to look at it all the data had been overwritten. That could’ve proven Alex’s innocence.”

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian saying he believes the re-trial will not be in Colleton County this time around.

“Well obviously they’ll be a change of venue, we’ll be doing it in another county. And obviously everybody has heard about it, read about it. I’m not sure I’d want a juror who was so unaware of what’s going on around them who hadn’t heard something about it,” says Harpootlian.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters spoke with ABC’s Good Morning America — confirming that their legal team has 90 days to file an appeal of the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, Waters reiterated Wednesday’s press conference in which he and Attorney General Alan Wilson explained that while that option remains open, they currently plan to seek a “speedy retrial” — which they hope begins by the end of this year.

“Frankly as we consider all this, probably our best bet is going to be to tee this thing up again. We’ll make that decision finally over the next few weeks,” says Waters.

“There will be very little surprises to the general public as this case gets retried again,” said Wilson on Wednesday.

Attorney Eric Bland — who represented Murdaugh’s financial victims– spoke with CNN — weighing in on how the second trial might go.

“The facts of the murders themselves, the circumstantial evidence is so strong, that I think there’s a high likelihood that he will be convicted again, but there is also a likelihood there could be a hung jury. No one forecasted a not guilty verdict, but there could be one or two jurors who say ‘You know what? I don’t like circumstantial evidence and I think there’s reasonable doubt,'” says Bland.

ABC Columbia’s Lee Williams spoke with Attorney Joe McCulloch — who represented Connor Cook following the boating incident with Paul Murdaugh that led to the death of Mallory Beach — about a retrial.

“Well I think the next theory that the prosecution will trod out is that this was some kind of temporary insanity on (Murdaugh’s) part, or something like that,” says McCulloch.

No matter the outcome, Murdaugh will remain behind bars — facing 40 years in prison for financial crimes.