Murdaugh asks state high court to boot judge
2 new bombshell motions go over heads of local circuit court
With a double murder conviction at his back and 100 more criminal charges ahead, disgraced South Carolina attorney Richard “Alex” Murdaugh has cast serious jury tampering allegations at a key court official -- and now his legal team is going after the circuit judge that sentenced him to two life terms.
On Wednesday, attorneys for Murdaugh, convicted March 2 in Colleton County General Sessions Court in the June 2021 murders of his wife and son, lobbed two bombshell motions over the heads of the local circuit court and into the hands of the S.C. Supreme Court Wednesday.
One motion is a “petition for a writ of prohibition” essentially asking the higher court to prohibit Judge Clifton Newman, who oversaw Murdaugh’s six-week trial in Walterboro and sentenced him, from adjudicating Murdaugh’s pending motion for a new murder trial and from presiding over future trials involving Murdaugh.
On Oct. 27, Murdaugh’s legal team, Richard Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, filed a motion in state court for a new trial based on allegations of improper conduct and jury tampering by Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, who has denied the allegations.
The second Nov. 1 motion asks the Supreme Court to “stay all trial court proceedings” involving Judge Newman and Murdaugh’s cases. If approved, this would basically serve as a temporary injunction on all of Murdaugh’s state charges until the higher court rules on petition for the writ of prohibition.
Murdaugh is currently scheduled to begin facing trial for some of his financial crimes in Beaufort County General Sessions on Nov. 27. Judge Newman is currently the presiding judge for this case, and all of the cases involving Murdaugh’s crimes and those of his accomplices.
Why does Alex Murdaugh want Judge Clifton Newman gone?
According to the 265-page writ of prohibition, Murdaugh’s defense team makes several allegations involving Judge Newman.
● Newman has “personal knowledge” about Clerk of Court Becky Hill’s conduct which could be disputed at an evidentiary hearing on the motion for a new trial.
● After the jury returned its verdict, Judge Newman made numerous statements that Murdaugh’s team feels are in violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct and “require his disqualification from presiding over future proceedings,” contend Murdaugh’s attorneys. Those statements include:
● Congratulating the jury for returning the correct verdict: Newman “applauded” the jury for considering the evidence that could “only lead to one conclusion.”
● Statements at sentencing that are evidence of personal bias.
● Statements in public interviews after the trial, including an interview on a nationally broadcast news program, “The Today Show,” as well as during a lecture at the Cleveland State College of Law, in which Newman stated his personal opinion regarding “Murdaugh’s guilt, legal issues on appeal, and strategic choices by Mr. Murdaugh’s counsel during trial.”
“Mr. Murdaugh’s right to have his cause heard by an impartial judge will be violated if Judge Newman proceeds to hear his motion for a new trial,” Murdaugh’s lawyers argue.
Harpootlian and Griffin further argue that the Code of Judicial Conduct requires that Judge Newman recuse himself from presiding over Murdaugh’s hearing and future trials.
The lengthy petition not only argues that Judge Newman’s conduct was improper, as well as Hill’s, but argues in depth that evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes should not have been entered into his murder trial, and that Murdaugh did not murder his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.
Attached to these filings to the state Supreme Court were exhibits previously attached to Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial, as well as scores of pages of court transcript excerpts, transcripts from “The Today Show,” and a letter from a legal expert and law scholar, Gregory B. Adams, which supports Murdaugh’s position.
It is unclear how long it will take for the S.C. Supreme Court to rule on these filings.
The S.C. Attorney General’s Office has yet to respond to these motions, but likely will.
As of this writing, no hearing has been set for Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial.
Continue to follow Michael DeWitt’s coverage of the Murdaugh crime saga, and follow him on Twitter at @mmdewittjr