IlluMyFi

{{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Authorities in South Carolina have opened two separate investigations into Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, who was accused of tampering with the jury in the high-profile double murder trial of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh. One investigation involves Ms Hill's alleged interactions with the jury during the trial in early 2023, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) spokesperson, who confirmed the investigations to The State on Tuesday. The second investigation has to do with allegations that Ms Hill used her elected position for personal gain. After six weeks of harrowing testimony back in March 2023, the jury took just three hours to convict Murdaugh in the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul. It was Ms Hill who read the verdict. Over the last few months, Ms Hill has been thrust into the spotlight after Murdaugh made a series of bombshell accusations about her conduct at his trial. Two ethics complaints were filed against Ms Hill alleging that she had misused her position as clerk of court. One of the complaints alleged that she had improperly allowed a documentary crew to film in the courthouse and had misappropriated a donation, The State reported. In September, Murdaugh defence attorneys Jim Griffin and Dick Harpootlian filed a motion requesting a new trial while accusing Ms Hill of tampering with the jury in order to secure a guilty verdict. The motion was filed a month after her memoir of the trial, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, was published, further escalating accusations that she was driven by fame and a desire to secure a book deal. The team also accused the court clerk of telling jurors not to trust Murdaugh when he testified in his own defence, having private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressuring jurors to come to a quick verdict. The request filed by Murdaugh's lawyers in September also accused Ms Hill of giving jury members business cards from reporters during the trial. After the verdict, she traveled to New York City with three of the jurors to do interviews. Ms Hill has denied the allegations. In a sworn statement filed in November, the state branded the allegations as "a sweeping conspiratorial theory" and said that "not every inappropriate comment made by a member of court staff to a juror rises to the level of constitutional error". In November, Ms Hill's son, Jeffrey Colton "Colt" Hill, 34, was arrested on a felony warrant following allegations that he illegally recorded conversations during his work for Colleton County, according to FITS News. Mr Hill, who works in the county administration's technology department, was accused of recording conversations involving deputy county administrator Meagan Utsey. The local outlet reported earlier that month that the SLED had launched an investigation into the claims. Mr Hill works as the technology director for Colleton County - the same administration where his mother Becky Hill is employed as the court clerk. It is unclear if there is any link between the arrest of Mr Hill and his mother - or the high-profile Murdaugh case.

Sentiment

Bearish/Bullish

13.01.24 11:34

by independent.co.uk

Ed Davey facing general election challenge from former Post Office worker

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will be challenged in his constituency at the general election by a former Post Office worker who is demanding justice for all those affected by the Horizon scandal. Yvonne Tracey, who spent three decades at the Post Office, said Sir Ed, who served as postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012, can't be allowed to stand again "unchallenged" in his southwest London seat of Kingston and Surbiton, where she lives. Sir Davey, who has faced calls to resign over the hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses who were wrongly held responsible for accounting errors created by faulty software, earlier this week said he "deeply regretted" not getting to the bottom of the scandal but refused to apologise. Conservative ministers have accused Mr Davey, who said he had been lied to repeatedly on an "industrial scale" by the Post Office, of not asking the right questions. Ms Tracey, a 68-year-old grandmother, told Sky News those affected by the scandal are "still not hearing the truth", adding that the recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which brought the affairs back into the public spotlight, made her "very sad" and "very angry". Sir Ed initially refused to meet sub-postmaster Alan Bates, whom the ITV drama is named after, saying in a short letter that it "wouldn't serve any purpose". He met Mr Bates later and he was the first minister on public record to do so. A sub-postmaster who ran a post office in Sir Ed's constituency lost his home, his business and attempted to take his own life on more than one occasion after being caught up in the scandal, Ms Tracey, who waselected to Kingston Council in 2022 and represents the local residents' group, said. "He tried three times to get in touch with Sir Ed and every time he was turned away, refused or ignored," she added. The Liberal Democrats said the sub-postmaster lived outside Sir Ed's constituency and parliamentary convention meant he was therefore unable to get involved in the case. On Wednesday prime minister Rishi Sunak announced new legislation to exonerate wrongly convicted Post Office branch managers after one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history. The prime minister also said there would be a new upfront payment of £75,000 for some of those affected. Mr Sunak said a new law would be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are "swiftly exonerated and compensated''. He told the Commons: "This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history. "People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation."