00:00I'm not surprised that the conviction was overturned.
00:03Communicating with jurors is really the cardinal sin,
00:06and here Hill did more than that.
00:09She not only communicated with him,
00:11she commented on the evidence.
00:12She commented on the defendant's testimony.
00:16My name is Nima Rahmani.
00:17I'm a former federal prosecutor
00:19and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.
00:21Alex Murda is a disgraced South Carolina
00:24personal injury lawyer who not only stole millions
00:27of dollars from his clients, but also killed
00:30his wife and son to allegedly cover it up.
00:33He was convicted at his murder trial,
00:36and he pleaded guilty to the financial crimes.
00:39But today, the South Carolina Supreme Court
00:41unanimously overturned that conviction on two grounds.
00:45The first was that the court clerk, Becky Hill,
00:49engaged in inappropriate and unlawful communications
00:52with the jurors.
00:54On appeal, the defense argued that Becky Hill
00:56was trying to influence the jurors,
00:58and she had a financial motive to do so
01:00because she was writing a book about the case.
01:03And her intent to influence the jurors
01:06actually resulted in her being criminally prosecuted
01:10for those comments.
01:11By telling the jurors that she didn't believe
01:14Murdoch was credible and having those conversations,
01:17I was surprised the trial judge actually didn't order
01:20a new trial, and we had to go through this appeals process.
01:23The second reason the case was overturned was what we call 404B,
01:28or prior bad acts evidence.
01:30And we're seeing more appellate courts limit this type of evidence.
01:35So this is evidence of another crime or wrong that is brought into the case.
01:40Now here, the prosecution said, well, it was evidence of Murdoch's motive.
01:44That's why he killed his wife and son, to cover up his financial crimes.
01:48But the appellate court thought that it was too attenuated,
01:51and it was really brought in to dirty up the defendant.
01:54Murdoch is not going to be released because he's doing 40 years for the financial crimes.
01:59So he's not going to be a free man.
02:00He's going to die one way or another in South Carolina state prison.
02:04But he's always maintained that he might be a crook, but he's not a murderer.
02:09So he will get a new trial. And that trial may happen as early as this summer,
02:14depending on the court's calendar.
02:16So expect the state to retry Alec Murdoch.
02:19Not because it's going to result in any additional time.
02:23He's not a young man. And regardless of the murder conviction,
02:26because of the financial crimes, he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison.
02:29But because it's a murder case, and because there are two victims,
02:33I fully expect the state to move forward with a retrial.
02:36And this time, hopefully, they get it right.
02:38I think the prosecution strategy in the new trial is to be more narrow,
02:43really limit or even exclude a lot of the evidence of the financial crimes.
02:47They had a lot of people testify, including victims, accountants,
02:52in the murder trial to really establish that motive.
02:55But now that the South Carolina Supreme Court has made it clear that that was inappropriate,
03:00expect to see a more traditional murder case focused on the ballistics,
03:05the blood splatter, DNA, cell phone, cell site evidence, and not talking about how Alec Murdoch
03:13ripped off so many people and there were so many victims.
03:16From the defense side, I think the strategy will be the same.
03:20Murdoch insisted on taking the stand and he testified in his own defense.
03:24And knowing who he is and how many cases he has handled himself as a lawyer.
03:30I expect that same strategy.
03:32So I think the second trial, once again, will really come down to is Murdoch believable?
03:38I think the jurors will know at a minimum that he's a convicted felon and fraudster,
03:42even though they won't know the underlying details of those financial crimes.
03:47But the question is, is he going to be able to convince them that even though he's a fraudster, he's
03:51not a killer?
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