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The South Carolina court clerk who oversaw the trial of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh and is at the center of a jury tampering claim is being accused of plagiarism by the co-author of her book.
Colleton County Court of Clerk Rebecca Hill lifted passages in the beginning of her book, “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders,” from a draft of a BBC News article, co-author and journalist Neil Gordon said in a statement Tuesday.
He added that he was “blindsided” by the actions, and that the book is now ceasing publication.
Gordon said he discovered the duplicated writing while reviewing emails of Hill’s made public by Colleton County officials last week in response to news outlets’ public records request. The emails were taken from Hill’s county account and dated from January to early December.
In an email exchange in February between Hill and a BBC News reporter, the journalist had “shared a long excerpt from an upcoming article about the Alex Murdaugh trial,” according to Gordon. He then noticed the article, which was eventually published March 3, was similar to a 12-page passage in the book’s preface.
In one Feb. 20 email from the reporter to Hill, an attached text includes: “To know South Carolina’s Lowcountry is to know the Murdaugh family name. For 86 unbroken years, 1920 to 2006, a Murdaugh presided as the chief prosecutor for South Carolina’s Fourteenth Judicial Circuit. It was the longest such stretch of family control in United States history.”
Hill’s book, which was published in July, includes a section: “To know South Carolina’s Lowcountry is to know the Murdaugh family name. For eighty-six unbroken years, from 1920 to 2006, a Murdaugh presided as the chief prosecutor for South Carolina’s Fourteenth Judicial Circuit. It was the longest such stretch of family control in United States history.”
Gordon said that when he confronted Hill about the similarities, she admitted to it, citing deadline pressures.
“As a veteran journalist myself, I cannot excuse her behavior, nor can I condone it,” Gordon said.
“I can’t be associated with anything like plagiarism and will no longer partner with Becky Hill on any projects,” Gordon said. “I’d like to apologize to our readers, and publicly to the BBC and the reporter.”
Hill’s book is billed as an account “through the eyes” of an insider in the high-profile murder trial that brought national attention to South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
“Becky Hill is deeply remorseful regarding an allegation of plagiarism that has recently surfaced,” according to a statement from Hill’s attorneys, Justin Bamberg and Will Lewis
“The pressures of developing additional content under tight time deadlines resulted in Ms. Hill taking material written by BBC reporter Holly Honderich and submitting it to her co-author Neil Gordon as if it were her own words. Ms. Hill accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate lapse in judgment and has personally reached out to Ms. Honderich to express her sincere apologies.”
The BBC could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Local news outlets reported on Hill’s emails last week in the wake of the jury tampering allegations lodged against her in September by Murdaugh’s legal team.
Murdaugh, a former personal injury lawyer and the son of a powerful legal family in the Lowcountry, is serving two consecutive life sentences for the fatal shootings of his wife, Margaret, and their younger son, Paul, in June 2021. Mudaugh, 55, has maintained his innocence and lawyers said they would appeal his case.
Hill’s emails include her telling a French journalist that she was already interested in writing a book three months before Murdaugh’s trial had even started.
“If you’re interested in a partnership, let me know!” Hill wrote, according to The State.
The actions of Hill, an elected official serving her first term, have been under scrutiny since she was accused of tampering with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense at his February trial; pressuring jurors to reach a quick guilty verdict; and “misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense.”
Hill’s emails that were made public don’t explicitly suggest she sought to tamper with the jury, The State reported.
With Hill’s conduct at trial being called into question, a new judge — former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal — was tapped this month to take over legal actions involving Murdaugh’s appeal after the trial’s judge, Clifton Newman, agreed to step down. Newman will retire at the end of this year.
But in an affidavit filed in November in response to the allegations, Hill defended her actions.
“I did not tell the jury ‘not to be fooled’ by evidence presented by Mr. Murdaugh’s attorneys,” she said. “I did not instruct the jury to ‘watch him closely.’ I did not instruct the jury to ‘look at his actions.’ I did not instruct the jury to ‘look at his movements.'”
State prosecutors said in a court filing that they found other jurors to contradict the claims made by Murdaugh’s defense.
No hearing date over the jury tampering allegations has been set.
Regardless of what happens with his murder appeal, Murdaugh will remain in prison: Last month, he was given a 27-year sentence after pleading guilty to 22 counts of financial crimes against his clients; it will run at the same time as his federal sentence for similar financial crimes that he pleaded guilty to in September.
A member of Hill’s family is facing legal issues as well. Her son, Jeff Hill, was arrested in November for allegations related to wiretapping in July. Prosecutors have not said explicitly how he allegedly misused his position while working as the Colleton County Information Technology director. He was released on bond with a court appearance scheduled for January.
