The South Carolina Supreme Court threw out Alex Murdaugh's murder conviction Wednesday, ruling that court clerk Becky Hill improperly influenced jurors during the high-profile trial. Hill allegedly made comments about Murdaugh's testimony and expressed desire for a guilty verdict to boost book sales about the case.

Murdaugh was found guilty in 2023 of killing his wife Maggie and son Paul, but the state's highest court found Hill had "placed her fingers on the scales of justice." Several jurors later testified Hill warned them to watch Murdaugh's body language and not be fooled by his defense.

Hill pleaded guilty in 2025 to obstruction of justice and perjury related to allowing reporters access to sealed exhibits. She resigned from her clerk position in 2024 amid multiple ethics complaints. Murdaugh remains imprisoned on federal financial crimes charges while awaiting retrial.

The reversal forces South Carolina prosecutors to retry one of the decade's most-watched murder cases, reopening painful wounds in the Lowcountry community that first gained national attention through the circus-like atmosphere surrounding the original trial.