Alex Murdaugh denied new murder trial after jury tampering allegations

even more breaking news into us now , this from south carolina , where a judge has just denied alec murdoch a new trial .

this is something that we had been watching in a hearing that had been going on .

you are taking a live look now at court , where the judge has just said now that murdoch will not get that new trial after some allegations by murdoch's attorneys of impropriety , essentially , by the court clerk .

this is after a bombshell acknowledgement today from one of the jurors in murdoch's initial trial , saying , essentially , that she was influenced by that court clerk in finding murdoch guilty , of course .

that trial , the verdict , sending murdoch to prison for life and the murders of his wife and son .

listen to this .

to me , it felt like ...

she made it seem like he was already guilty .

did that affect your finding of guilty in this case ?

yes , ma'am .

obviously , the court has ordered that the jurors names and faces be kept secret .

that's why i didn't hear that juror as she was speaking .

but here's the reason why her acknowledgement is so significant .

because again , murdoch's attorneys had said the clerk tampered with the jury .

they say she was saying things like watch him closely , watch his actions .

she is denying doing anything inappropriate .

listen , i usually give a little pep talk to the jurors .

it's sometimes hard sitting a long time , but my usual and i do remember saying , pay attention .

it's a big day today .

it was not for one side or the other .

i want to bring in now our kathy park who is covering this from south carolina as well as our nbc news legal expert angela senadela .

okay so kathy the question had been would this acknowledgement by the juror that the court clerk she says influenced her decision making would it be enough to get murdoch a new trial ?

it turns out in the last five minutes , the answer from this judge is no .

explain it .

yeah , absolutely , hallie .

so certainly a long day in court today .

got underway just before 10 o'clock this morning , and we are told that court has adjourned after a denial for a new trial for alec murdoch .

but as you mentioned earlier , there were a total of 11 jurors who were brought into the courtroom today .

and the judge was very explicit in her question .

and she wanted to know if becky hill , the quarter clerk had any sort of communication with the juror .

and if so , did they sway the jurors decision and coming down with a guilty verdict ?

but the twist going into this , we kind of knew this was jurors 6 30 and that goes back to the affidavit that was filed .

fall of last year , which essentially prompted or help prompt this retrial this evidentiary hearing , but in that affidavit jury 6 30 jurors 6 30 said look , becky hill told members of the jury to look closely at murdoch and said other comments along those lines and questioned his credibility before he took the stand .

and therefore his defense team , his lawyers argued that becky hill was accused of jury tampering .

and of course , a judge said , no , it didn't race to that bar .

and you know , going back to that juror , which was in question from the start this morning , we were going and kind of comparing notes .

it contradicted what she initially said from that affidavit and what she said under oath today .

in court .

you played it out .

she said that she was swayed by becky hill .

but when you go back to the affidavit , it didn't match up .

she said she was pressured to vote guilty because of members of the jury .

also we heard from becky hill earlier this afternoon .

she took the stand and she was questioned by both sides .

she was cross examined and the defense .

they were really grilling her about her motivation .

they said , you know , she was seeking fame and money .

she had a book that was published , so she was going after that .

and if she wanted a guilty verdict and not necessarily mistrial to help with book sales , so those were those were some of the highlights from court today .

but ultimately , once again , hallie , the judge denied .

the motion for a new trial , which means the appeals process will now move forward because everything was kind of on pause because the conviction was trying to be you know they wanted to move forward with an appeal but it looks like now that this has adjourned now the appeals process for that conviction , that double conviction can now push ahead .

thanks for watching .

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