MORNING HEADLINES | U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel of Charleston on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit by inmate Alex Murdaugh who wanted $600,000 in legal fees on a claim that a former county clerk’s misconduct violated his right to a fair trial.
Murdaugh, who will be retried next year on charges that he killed his wife and a son, sued former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill in May. The case involving Murdaugh, a former Hampton County lawyer, grabbed the nation’s continuing attention, spawning television shows, podcasts and books.
Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court overturned Murdaugh’s murder convictions and life sentences saying comments by Hill to jurors were inappropriate.
On Wednesday, Gergel ruled that Hill had no role in Murdaugh’s criminal charges, which made Murdaugh’s case against her moot.
“Plaintiff’s claim contains a fatal flaw — the lack of a causal connection between the funds he expended for his defense in the first trial and defendant’s misconduct,” Gergel wrote. “Defendant had no role in the initiation of criminal charges against plaintiff.”
Murdaugh’s lawyers on Wednesday appealed Gergel’s ruling.
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