Federal judge won’t make disgraced clerk pay Alex Murdaugh’s $600,000 in legal fees for 1st trial
COLUMBIA, S.C (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by Alex Murdaugh seeking $600,000 in legal fees by the former court clerk whose misconduct led his murder convictions to be overturned on appeal.
Murdaugh sued Becky Hill in May saying she violated his right to a fair trial in the deaths of his wife and son.
A jury found Murdaugh guilty, but the state Supreme Court overturned the convictions and life sentences earlier this year saying Hill’s comments to jurors suggested the once-prominent lawyer was guilty and his testimony in his own defense couldn’t be trusted.
The problem with Murdaugh’s legal reasoning is he would have had to spend the money anyway because it wasn’t Hill who investigated or pursued justice against him, Judge Richard Gergel wrote in his ruling Wednesday.
“Plaintiff’s claim contains a fatal flaw — the lack of a causal connection between the funds he expended for his defense in the first trial and Defendant’s misconduct. Defendant had no role in the initiation of criminal charges against Plaintiff,” Gergel wrote.
Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a notice to appeal about two hours later.
Murdaugh said in court papers he spent $600,000 from a retirement account to pay for his lawyers in his first trial and will need more money to pay them for his retrial next year in the case that has become a true crime sensation with a streaming miniseries, bestselling books and dozens of podcasts.
