Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted (2026)

[bunniefuu]

[dogs barking]

[birds chirping]

[clattering]

- [dogs barking]

- [Craig] Ellie!

They got names,

but I don't know 'em.

[chuckles]

My daughter could tell you.

Well, I found out

I became a juror on this trial

when I got a letter in the mail

and opened it.

I let my mom look at it and she's, like,

"Oh, my God, you're going

to be on the Murdaugh trial."

[dramatic string music plays]

[newscaster 1] We begin with a tragedy

in the Lowcountry overnight.

Two people, a mother and son, are k*lled.

And now, investigators are looking

for answers about exactly what happened.

[newscaster 2] The victims,

part of the Murdaugh family,

a legal and political dynasty.

[newscaster 3] New developments today

in the Alex Murdaugh case.

We just learned authorities

took Alex Murdaugh into custody.

[newscaster 4] Alex Murdaugh, charged with

the double m*rder of his wife and son.

So much has happened.

This family is basically cursed.

[newscaster 5] m*rder mystery

that has gripped the nation.

Alex set up a hitman.

We learned some things this morning.

[newscaster 6]

More twists in the now growing legal case.

[newscaster 7]

Suspicion of stealing millions of dollars

of insurance settlement money.

[newscaster 8]

It's just part of this bizarre story.

Prosecutors said

that Murdaugh fatally shot both of them

in order to distract

from his own financial crimes.

This became a fascinating case

and a lot of twists and turns.

What has been dubbed

South Carolina's trial of the century.

Breaking news from South Carolina tonight,

where the verdict is in.

Alex Murdaugh is found guilty.

- Guilty.

- Guilty.

[Craig] I was convinced

without a reasonable doubt

that he was guilty,

so my verdict was guilty.

I thought this was behind us.

A stunning development

in one of South Carolina's

most high-profile m*rder cases.

Three years

after the verdict watched by millions,

Alex Murdaugh will get a new trial.

[newscaster 9]

This all centers around the actions

of the county clerk at the time,

a woman named Becky Hill.

[newscaster 10] The justices finding

shocking jury interference

by the court clerk, Becky Hill.

She was a friendly person.

Maybe she was too friendly.

She felt a little bit like the 13th juror.

They got a lot of explaining to do.

And we were all just trying

to get through all the lies.

[dramatic string music ends]

[pensive music plays]

[Bill] This is Walter Street

and if you look back this way,

you can see City Hall.

Of course, you see

the palmetto trees here.

Come to South Carolina,

you see a lot of palmettoes.

Probably our two largest employers

would be the school district

and the hospital.

We have a lot of agriculture here,

a lot of tourism here.

It's a very welcoming town.

The kind of place

where you would bring people in

and sit on the porch

and have a Coca-Cola,

a glass of iced tea and talk.

All of the things

that make a small town great.

[interviewer] Do you think people knew

of Murdaugh before all this?

[Bill] Well, the Murdaughs

did not go to school here.

They did not grow up here.

They were not part of this community.

But because the crime took place

just inside county lines,

we had the trial and all of that, so

But I think that's like saying,

"Do you know Joe Biden?"

You know, and everybody would say,

"Yes, of course I know Joe Biden,"

but most people don't really know him.

And there'd be the same thing

with the Murdaughs.

[pensive music continues]

[Joe] After nearly a 50-year career

in the law,

you run across some interesting people

and interesting cases.

Had some folks give me a snake.

I don't even remember why that would be.

I think it had something

to do with my personality.

And the ever-present hyena,

which my clients find quite entertaining.

I tell them that that's what happens

to you if you don't pay.

South Carolina is a small state.

So, we have a correspondingly

small number of lawyers.

And I had occasion to spend time

with Buster Murdaugh,

the grandfather of Alex Murdaugh.

He was the solicitor for that circuit.

I knew him fondly

because I was one of the prosecutors.

So, we drank liquor

and we went to conventions.

And once I went into private practice,

I was down there as a defense lawyer,

talking with my old friend, Buster.

They had a powerhouse law firm

that's recently been renamed.

It became the predominant law firm

in that part of this state.

So, I've grown up

as a lawyer with their family

and interacting with them,

and I knew Alex, or know Alex.

I went down to Colleton County,

thinking that this was a three-week trial.

And it lasted six weeks.

And I was there every moment of every day.

So, I contacted the clerk

of court, Becky Hill.

And she made arrangements

to save me a seat.

Becky Hill was the clerk of court,

and their job is to run the courthouse.

But most importantly,

once a trial begins,

to accommodate jurors

with meals and privacy

and to protect them

from any outside interference.

[sighs]

I don't have a lot to say

about Becky Hill.

I think Becky Hill

has said a lot for herself.

My name is Rebecca "Becky" Hill

and I am a native of Walterboro.

I love my county and I love my job.

Clerk, what do you have to tell?

[Myra] I met her during jury selection.

She was chipper and happy

and asked us to make a list

of drinks or anything, kind of pastries,

that we would want in the mornings,

and thought she was a friendly person.

Maybe she was too friendly.

Always tried to be extra helpful.

[Clifton] Your purpose as jurors

will be to decide the facts of this case.

Well, I thought it was

interesting and crazy

that somebody would actually

m*rder their wife and their son.

There's always two sides to a case,

so you got to see it through.

I was in that jury room daily,

longer than I would have been at work.

[Clifton] You cannot discuss the case

with family, friends, or anyone else.

[Myra] You could see people

in the audience that you knew.

You see people from news media.

You see politicians,

and you're just like, "Holy sh*t."

[reporter 1] Did the weapon

used to k*ll Maggie Murdaugh

belong to her family?

[reporter 2] The g*n used to k*ll Maggie

still has not been recovered,

nor has Paul Murdaugh's r*fle.

Seeing all the pictures

and all the evidence,

it's not something

anybody would really want to go through.

[Myra] I can still close my eyes

and see those pictures.

It's horrendous.

[reporter 3] Tonight,

Alex Murdaugh's alibi

potentially destroyed

by his son's own video.

Before the Snapchat video,

I wasn't sure if he did it or not.

[reporter 4] Prosecutors revealing

a 58-second cell phone video,

directly contradicting

Alex Murdaugh's story.

[Craig] That puts him

in the place of the m*rder.

I pretty much knew it was him.

[indistinct chatter]

If you listen to the video,

they were laughing, they were joking.

It gave me a little bit of pause.

[indistinct chatter over video recording]

How is this video proof

that he k*lled them?

[camera shutters clicking]

[reporter 5]

This coverage is wall-to-wall.

[reporter 6] They haven't seen

this much media attention in the area

since the filming

of Forrest Gump back in 1994.

[Bill] The world came to Walterboro.

We had media here from everywhere.

During the trial, this whole area

was covered with people.

And as the trial progressed,

the line got longer and longer.

And as people

were watching it on television,

they started coming here

from all over the place.

And if you can see

this cleared area over there,

a lot of the news media was lined up.

They had tents,

15, 20 satellite trucks here.

We had food trucks.

We had porta potties.

We have someone here that rents those,

and they're really nice.

They're called Taj Ma-Stalls.

And so, we had

some Taj Ma-Stalls over there.

- [siren wails]

- [indistinct chatter]

Up until we got into the issue

with the clerk of court

we walked away

feeling really good about what we'd done

and that we had done a good job.

So we were proud.

And what do those two records indicate?

[Myra] During the trial, I was undecided.

I really didn't have

a "He's guilty, he's not guilty."

I had a lot of questions.

And if I'm gonna convict a man of m*rder,

I need a little bit more

than thoughts and theories.

I mean, there's just a lot of "ifs."

[Clifton] Mr. Murdaugh,

if you'll come forward

and stand in front of me,

and Madam Clerk, if you can swear him in.

[Myra] The day that Alex

was gonna take the stand,

Becky came through the courtroom,

and she was excited.

You could see it in her face.

[Clifton] Have you made a decision

as to whether you're gonna testify?

I am going to testify. I want to testify.

She said, "Oh, my God, y'all,

this is gonna be an epic day."

"Alex is gonna take the stand."

She told us that

we were all gonna be famous.

And she said,

"But I want y'all to listen carefully."

"You need to pay very close attention

to Alex's body movement, his motions."

"And you know, don't be fooled

by what the defense says."

"You're gonna hear a lot of things."

And when she said that,

I just kind of questioned to myself,

"Did she just tell me

that they're gonna lie?"

Good morning.

[Joe] Unheard of.

That is so inappropriate. It's

I mean, it's even hard for me to conceive

that anybody could think

that that was not gonna be

a problem for them.

[Mr. Griffin] Mr. Murdaugh

on June 7th

2021, did you take this g*n,

or any g*n like it,

and fire it into your wife, Maggie,

causing her death?

Mr. Griffin, I didn't sh**t

my wife or my son anytime.

Ever.

[reporter 6] Now, to breaking news

in the Murdaugh m*rder trial.

[reporter 7] After six weeks

in this Colleton County courtroom,

jurors are weighing the fate

of disbarred attorney, Alex Murdaugh.

[reporter 8] Jury's prepared to work

through the weekend.

[reporter 9] I'd be stunned

if they came back

with a verdict within a day,

because this is a complicated case.

[pensive music continues]

[Myra] The day of deliberation,

I had a phone call conversation

with Becky.

She asked me, "Well, have you made up

your mind about the verdict?"

And I said, "No."

I wanted to hear,

you know, everything to the end

before I, you know, started to deliberate.

And she asked me what made me think

that he was innocent.

And I said, "Well,

there's no m*rder weapons, you know."

"There's-- g*ns are still missing."

And she told me that I needed

to put them out of my head.

They would never be seen again.

I can't honestly say

how I would have voted.

That was the morning I was dismissed.

First off this morning,

we have to deal with the issue involving

the removal of a juror.

They said there was an anonymous email

from the public that stated

that I was speaking about the trial

outside of court.

- [interviewer] And were you?

- No.

I spoke to nobody about the trial.

Thank you for your service. I'm not

suggesting that you intentionally did

anything wrong,

but that in order to preserve

the integrity of the process,

and in fairness

to all the parties involved,

we're going to replace you

with one of the other jurors.

Have you brought everything

that you have?

Have you left some stuff in there?

What do you have in there?

- [Myra] A dozen eggs.

- Say that again.

- [Myra] A dozen eggs.

- "A dozen eggs"?

[Myra] Yeah.

When I was dismissed from court,

I was known as juror 785,

or more publicly as the "Egg Juror."

[Clifton]

Three-five-four will become part of the

That was an extraordinary thing to happen,

to excuse a juror

an hour before the case

would otherwise have been handed

to she and the other 11 jurors

that had sat there

listening to the entire trial.

So, everyone wondered

what in the world was going on.

[Craig] We walked into deliberations

and everybody was excited.

You know, we took an initial vote

and nine of us said guilty.

Two of us said not guilty,

and one of us were undecided.

So, we gotta deliberate some more.

We had to look at more evidence.

We looked at the g*ns.

We looked at the Snapchat video.

- [woman 1] Come here, Bubba!

- [woman 2] Catch, quick.

[Craig] Everybody was shocked.

And I think they really could

hear it better in the jury room,

so they could actually pay attention

a little better.

And I think the Snapchat video swayed

their vote.

In the term of 2022, July,

the state versus

Richard Alexander Murdaugh, defendant,

indictment for m*rder, guilty verdict,

signed by the forelady, 3-2-23.

[reporter 10]

How could you k*ll your wife and son?

[reporter 11]

What do you think of the verdict, Alex?

- [reporter 12] Why did you lie?

- [newscaster 11] There is breaking news.

Alex Murdaugh is found guilty

of murdering his wife and 22-year-old son.

[newscaster 12]

Good evening, we begin with breaking news.

After just about three hours

of deliberation

[newscaster 13] Three hours.

Three hours to find disgraced lawyer,

Alex Murdaugh, guilty.

Today's verdict proves that no one,

no matter who you are in society,

is above the law.

Thank you.

[Joe] Shortly after the jury verdict,

public interest went from,

you know, 70 to 200.

There are so many loose ends

with this one.

I still actually think that

there was not enough to convict him.

I hope he rots in jail.

Anyone else feel like your entire life

is revolved around

the Murdaugh trial right now?

After trial, I got contacted

by a whole slew of people.

I got in with Dr. Phil.

We've been analyzing

the body language from Alex Murdaugh.

[Craig] And Good Morning America.

[newscaster 14]

Juror Craig Moyer breaking his silence.

Joining us now are jurors James McDowell,

Gwen Generette, and Amie Williams.

Good morning to all of you.

By the way, guess who's spoken out?

OJ Simpson even weighed in.

I went to the Murdaugh auction,

and this is what I bought.

One lady paid so much money for a vacuum

that was, like, still full of dirt

from their home.

Oh, my gosh.

I mean, it just went, "Boom."

[pensive music ends]

[Myra] After the trial,

it kind of blew up with

what happened,

and everybody had, you know

they wanted to do a story,

and I just didn't want any part of it.

[pensive music plays]

[Myra] It got me to a point

that I had to go see the counselor

who helped me to deal with

some of the social media posts

that had been put out about me.

Stupid comments that I don't even know

where they would come up with this stuff.

But it was kind of hilarious.

I read so much about myself

I didn't even know who I was.

She wanted to reclaim her life

and her privacy.

So, my first responsibility for her

and ultimately

for the second juror, Juror Z

was to get the press off of their back.

And then, as we talked,

I learned more about

what had gone on backstage.

And it caused me great concern,

and I knew

uh, that

the defense lawyers

were talking about interviewing jurors.

Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh

are demanding a new trial

and a federal investigation,

citing allegations

that a court clerk

engaged in jury tampering.

They then filed a motion for a new trial

based upon jury tampering.

And that led to an extraordinary hearing.

[Jean] Please be seated.

Juror Z, did you hear Ms. Becky Hill

make any comment about this case

before your verdict?

- [Juror Z] Yes, ma'am.

- What did Ms. Hill say?

[Juror Z] To watch his actions.

[Jean] To watch his actions.

What else?

- [Juror Z] To watch him closely.

- [Jean] To watch him closely.

Was your verdict

influenced in any way

by the communications

of the clerk of court in this case?

[Juror Z] Yes, ma'am.

She made it seem like

he was already guilty.

Thank you, Your Honor.

The state calls Rebecca Hill.

[clears throat]

[lawyer] Did you

interact with any juror

in an attempt to influence their view

of the facts in the State v Murdaugh case?

No.

At any time, did you tell the jury

"not to be fooled"

by evidence presented

by Mr. Murdaugh's attorneys?

I did not.

At any time did you instruct the jury

to watch him closely

and look at his actions?

I did not.

At any time did you instruct the jury

or tell the jury to look at his movements?

No.

Anything along those lines

that was meant to influence

- the jurors against Mr. Murdaugh?

- No.

[dramatic music plays]

[Myra] I wish she would come out

and tell the truth and say why.

I wish more than anything

that she would tell the truth.

Among the reasons that have

been posited out there are the--

She did it all because she has

some problem with the Murdaughs.

Another theory is that this was all

about the book she was writing,

that she figured the only ending

that would sell books is a conviction.

[tense music plays]

[Neil] So, this is trialwatchers.com,

and we try to celebrate true crime fans

from all over the country.

And we decided to focus

on the Murdaugh trial.

[Melissa] I first heard the name Becky

when I was standing

in line at the courthouse.

Well, she said, I want to write a book.

And I said, "I should connect you

with my husband. He's a former newscaster.

She had already had the title

of the book in mind.

She already knew

what she wanted the focus to be,

which is to take somebody,

kind of, behind the curtain

during what was known

as the trial of the century.

They wanted autographs from us.

They wanted autographs from the bailiffs.

Becky and I probably communicated

every other day.

We would do a Zoom call.

I'd be laying back with my neck pillow

like I'm on an airplane or something,

and I would ask her

a number of different questions,

gather all the information, and then

I would basically do a rough draft.

Like, do they recognize you

as the person that read the verdict?

Oh, yeah.

They'll say, "You're the one

who read the verdict." Yeah. Yeah.

[both laughing]

So we ended up publishing it

in a span of about four months.

Becky Hill had a front row seat

every single day during that trial.

There will be a book tour

that I'm going to be on,

and that's coming up in the next 14 days,

so stay tuned for where I'll be.

A book event got set up,

and there was a line around the building.

And every morning, Alex would walk in

and say, "Good morning, Miss Becky."

[Neil] We sold 250 books

within three hours

and she autographed every single one

and talked to people.

She was one of them. That's her people.

That's why we feel like she just

really naturally got caught up.

There were things along the way,

looking back

um, that maybe

were oversharing sometimes

and it gave me a pause.

Everybody that we've encountered

is 100 percent that he's guilty.

Really?

So we haven't met anybody

who thinks he didn't do it.

[Neil] At the crime scene,

when all the jurors and Becky

and all the attorneys went out there

and actually walked around

and she explained how eerie it was.

[Becky] There were several

of us women all together,

and we walked over

to where Maggie would have been laying.

We all looked at one another

and spoke very softly.

This is where she was.

This was her final moments.

What must she have been thinking

to see her son with his head blown off,

because she had to have seen that

before it turned on her,

and then knowing who had done that.

Becky wrote, "As a clerk of court,

we're supposed to be Switzerland."

But as we were riding back

on the way to the courthouse,

when there were a few court officials

in the vehicle,

they actually discussed

what they witnessed.

"And as a regular person," she said,

"we all felt Alex was guilty."

- [Melissa] And that's what she told us.

- Yeah. And that's in the book. Yeah.

She was the clerk of court,

but I almost got the impression

that she felt a little bit

like the 13th juror

and that she was listening

to the testimony

and she was kind of making up her own mind

as she went along.

[birds chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[pensive music plays]

- [photographer] Bill.

- [Bill] How you doing, buddy?

Okay.

Today, we filed a lawsuit on behalf

of Richard Alexander Murdaugh Senior

versus Rebecca Hill.

With the South Carolina

Supreme Court's ruling,

it has been adjudged

that she deprived him

of a right to a fair trial.

We have a lot of questions

that we would like answered.

Was she a lone wolf?

I'll tell you this removal

of the egg lady juror is very suspicious.

The way she was targeted, it just

it's very curious.

And we hope

to get to the bottom of that.

[Alan] The defense's job

is to muddy the waters,

to throw out

a thousand conspiracy theories

and get people thinking

about everything else

except about the facts of the case.

I was involved in the Murdaugh trial

as the state Attorney General.

I believe we did it right the first time.

It was not our fault

this thing was reversed.

The Supreme Court themselves says

this falls solely

on the shoulders of one person.

That was the Colleton County

Clerk of Court, Becky Hill.

Obviously none of us knew about it.

When we became aware, I sent that case

to an independent prosecutor

who came to the conclusion

that Ms. Hill's conduct was inappropriate,

but it was harmless error

as it related to the conviction.

But the Supreme Court

went in another direction,

and we're going to act accordingly.

[Richard] Over the weekend,

we learned that the Attorney General

has announced he's considering

the death penalty in this case.

He's probably talking

to his political consultants

who thought that was a good soundbite

for his governor's campaign.

And then we've seen this process

since the beginning of this case

where Alan Wilson plays politics

as opposed to playing prosecutor.

They got a lot of explaining to do.

Yes, I am a candidate for governor,

but my role as the attorney general

is to set the stage for the next trial.

The Supreme Court

reversing a case like this

is obviously going to affect

everyone's trial strategies

because it's a movie

we've all seen before.

It's like the jump scares,

you know when they're coming.

And if we're starting over

at ground zero, um,

then we're going to consider

and evaluate everything.

People believe this

that if you have money and power,

you have one justice system.

If you don't have money and power,

you have a different justice system.

People said

there's no way someone like that

will be convicted in South Carolina.

We did that the first trial,

and I believe we'll do that

on the second trial.

[pensive music ends]

[ominous music plays]

[Bill] One thing I was thinking about

is how many victims there are

in all of this.

It's not just Alex's family.

There were so many

other people who were impacted.

[Myra] My husband got worried about me

because I was starting to break down.

And I could talk to him,

but it wasn't the same

as getting somebody

that actually could break it down

and explain it to me how to get past it.

- [interviewer] Do you need a moment?

- I'm good.

It was a lot.

[ominous music continues]

I feel very relieved that I have nothing

to do with the second trial.

[ominous music ends]

I don't know. I think they're blowing it

all out of proportion

is what they're doing.

I don't remember anybody

talking about tampering

or influencing anybody or anything.

There was times

I wish I never was involved in this.

I'm like, "Oh, Lord,

they're still talking about it."

[newscaster 15] The saga continues

[newscaster 16] A second chance to face

[newscaster 17]

But they'll get a brand-new jury.

Now, this will not be the same jury

[newscaster 18] Will disgraced attorney

Alex Murdaugh be acquitted

of murdering his wife

and son in a retrial?

I would blame, I guess, Murdaugh.

I mean

Nobody else to blame except for him.

Especially if he's guilty,

which I sincerely believe he is,

but we'll see.

[r*fle fires]

[upbeat music plays]

[upbeat music ends]