now we have reached out to becky hill.t returned any comment responding to the motion but the filing does include two sworn affidavits, one from a juror and one that was dismissed and again very serious allegations in here. defense attorneys say that initially the jurors did not want to speak with them. but that changed after becky hill's book was published last month. >> in the aftermath of the verdict, we had received information that we needed to look into what happened in the jury room. we started down that road and we met a zone of silence. when the clerk of court wrote her book, published her book, that zone of silence collapsed. and jurors were upset about that. the ones we talked with. and they were more than willing to come forward and tell us the things that we had sort of heard through a whisper campaign. >> now, again, we have reached out to becky hill for comment. south carolina attorney general alan wilson saying that the state is currently reviewing the defense's latest motion. the defense team also sent a l

the woman in question is becky hill. the clerk of court there in the county.ys allege that she tampered with the jury by advising him not to believe murdaugh's testimony and went out and wrote a book. in that book when she was reading the verdict in the front of the jury and nation she said i was mostly concerned about alex being found innocent when i knew in my heart he was guilty. so his attorneys are arguing it was out of bounds. is it? >> not just that. there is a lot that is in this statement that they put out yesterday that they claim becky hill did. we've only heard their side of this story. but they have two possibly three jurors who wrote sworn affidavit testimony saying that she said a number of things to them. don't let him fool you when he is up on that stand. watch his body language. she said we will wrap this up very quickly once we start deliberating. they say she wouldn't allow -- six smokers on the jury taking regular smoke breaks. don't let them go out until you are done deliberating. the most crazy story is this facebook-related removal of o

it was based on becky hill's book. she released a book of her inside story of this case.eally became kind of a character in this whole case and the narrative of it. so she released this book and it talked a lot about what happened behind the scenes. and that gave harpootlian and griffin an open door so they started going through that door based on things that she said, like this, for example. we all remember, laura, when they went to the scene of the crime right before they started deliberating. she says when all of us at the -- from the courthouse, law enforcement or the jury went to moselle, we had an epiphany and we shared our thoughts with our eyes. at that moment, any of us standing there knew, i knew and they knew that alex was guilty. okay. so she is talking about communication between the jurors. there is two jurors who say that -- who told harpootlian and griffin they knocked on every jurors' doors two of them indicated that she indicated to them don't be fooled by alec murdaugh, she also indicated to them according to their sworn testimony, look, this isn't goin

you know, he thought that becky hill was a friend of his.own her while he was practicing law. these revelations that the jury had sworn to, the jurors, completely called him off guard and frankly caught us off guard. >> martha: so part of that, the jurors that signed this affidavit saying that she was influencing them in a variety of ways and there's also specific things from the book, which are sort of -- raise a lot of questions as well. but she told judge newman that sled, the law enforcement arm, had gone to the house of this juror's ex-husband and verified that he had spoken to her and then he posted something about her knowing how she was going to rule in this, which led to her being taken off of the jury. did rebecca hill tell judge newman that specifically? >> martha, it's different than that. rebecca hill told the jurors that sled went out to visit her ex-husband and that the ex-husband confirmed that he had written this facebook post. none of that was true. none of it was true. we talked to the ex-husband. he had not been interview

her name is becky hill. and some of the allegations against her by the defense were laid out in their 65-page filing today. and they include that she instructed jurors not to be fooled by alex murdaugh's testimony or misled by evidence presented by his defense team. this is of course an allegation. also, that she had frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson in the bathroom in the jury room. also, that she asked jurors their opinions about their guilt or innocence of alex murdaugh. she told the jury foreperson that everything that murdaugh has said is lies. this is a big one here, anderson. the defense is alleging that she invented a story about a facebook post in order to have a juror removed, a juror who she thought was going to vote that alex murdaugh was not guilty. and sure enough, that juror was removed on the very last day of the trial. also, the defense is alleging that she pressured the jurors to actually come up with a very quick verdict, telling them that they were going to have to s

surprising motion filed by alex murdaugh's defense attorneys accuses the county clerk of court becky hill of jury tampering. and now the legal team is demanding a new trial and a federal investigation. >> the clerk of court had improper pry vault communications with the jurors >> reporter: hill did not respond to nbc news' request for comment. in court documents filed today, murdaugh's attorneys claim that hill had frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson. told jurors not to be fooled by murdaugh's testimony. asked juries for their opinio about murdaugh's guilt or innocence pressured them to reach a quick verdict. and invested a story about a facebook post to remove a juro she believed leaned in favor of the defense. murdaugh's attorneys saying alex still maintains his innocence. what has he shared with you with this latest motion >> well, i can't talk with you about attorney-client privilege information. i can tell you when i shared with him the affidavits, he is a lawyer he was astonished. he was shaking he was in disbelief. >> reporter: months after the trial ended, hill

surprising motion filed by alex murdaugh's defense attorneys accusing the county clerk of court becky hills of jury tampering and now they are demanding a new trial and federal investigation. >> the clerk of court had improper private communications with the jurors. >> reporter: hill it nodid not respond to nbc news' request pour comment they said she told jurors not to be fooled by murdaugh's testimony, asked for this opinions about his guilt or innocence and invented a story about a facebook post to remove a juror she believed leaned in favor of the defense murdaugh's attorney saying alex still maintains his innocence. what has he shared with you about this latest motion >> i can't talk about attorney-client privilege. but when i shared with him the affidavits, he's a lawyer, he was astonished he was shaking he was in disbelief. >> reporter: months after the trial ended, hill published a tell-all book, even writing about visiting the murder scene. some of us from either the courthouse or the law enforcement had an epiphany. we know that alex is guilty. >> she's trying to make money off of

they accused court clerk becky hill of extensive, deliberate and self-interested jury tampering, sayingdvised jurors not to believe murdoch's testimony and also pressured the jury to reach a quick guilty verdict, all to secure herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. will hill recently published the book behind the doors of justice. the murdoch murders. >> i knew it wasn't going to take long for them to come to a decision about a verdict. >> today is the deadline for the attorney general's office to respond to the jury tampering claims. if his lawyers prove jury tampering, state law requires murdoch to get a new trial. >> nasa has released a highly anticipated report on ufos after a year long independent study and believers may be disappointed. scientists found no evidence that any of the ufos documented had extra terrestrial origins. but looking forward, nasa has now appointed a ufo research director, saying further study will require new scientific techniques like artificial intelligence and advanced satellites. >> the truth is out th

this could have very far-reaching consequences for miss becky, as you mentioned, becky hill. rring to her as miss becky. she could face charges state and federally. there are tons of defenses in prison who would love another shot to have their conviction looked at. so this could open pandora's box of other legal issues if she was the court clerk on some other cases even if it's baseless. this is interesting and when i read it, i hate to say it because it makes me sound like such a nerd. my adrenalin was almost rushing when i read it i was so taken aback by how serious the charges are. aishah: i want to play a quick clip of buster, with martha mccallum in an exclusive sit-down. he was telling her, i felt something was wrong during the trial. watch. >> i do not believe it was fair. >> why? >> i was there for six weeks studying it and i think it was a tilted table from the beginning and i think unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. aishah: so, let's say he does get another trial, which like you said, doesn't sound like it's going t

. >> i want to thank the clerk of court becky hill and her entire time. >> reporter: the defense's motionlleges sh asked jurors for their opinions, pressured them to make a quick verdict. >> jury tampering by a clerk of the court would be something very rare and very dramatic. >> reporter: shortly after the trial, three of the jurors appearing on "today" telling savannah and craig they didn't believe murdaugh's testimony was genuine. >> he knows when to turn it on and off. i think we were able to read right through that >> reporter: the book called "behind the doors of justice: the murdaugh murders." nbc news reached out to hill for comment but have not heard back. she told court tv they were untrue in march, murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and son in 2021, and he received two consecutive life sentences according to his lawyers, he still maintains his innocence. now, we reached out to those three jurors who appeared on "today." two declined to comment. one we have not yet heard back from meanwhile, we should also note the attorney general of south carolina has reviewed thi

. >> rebecca hill, becky hill has not responded to cnn's request for comment and she is the clerk atter of all of these allegations, obviously, but what happens now? what could this mean for murdaugh's life sentence that he's currently in? >> there are a bunch of steps that have to go forward before we get any clarity on where this is going to go. first, the evidentiary hearing we spoke about, the judge would be able -- there would be questions to the jurors and cross-examinations and it would be like a mini trial in order to dig into the allegations and if it is confirmed that these statements were made or any aspect of this relating to communications with the jury or god forbid actually circumventing the process by getting a juror removed and if that ends up being true then the next step is to overturn the verdict. if it is overturned, there is a new drill and it's called de novo, and from scratch. >> that would be a lot for the prosecutors and the defense to go back over this again never mind the community and the family. if this turns out to be true that this clerk had some kind

>> reporter: you know, boris, they say that the clerk of court rebecca becky hill was motivated by yetlevision appearances. they filed that motion for a new trial here in columbia today, with a 65-page motion that includes bombshell allegations against the clerk of court there. just to redo a bit of this, they claim that, quote, the clerk of court tampered with the jury by advising them not to believe murdaugh's testimony and other evidence presented by the defense. pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror that she believed to be favorable to the defense. now, again, these are just allegations at this point. we have reached out to miss hill. she has not given us comment yet in response to this motion. but look, the filing does contain two sworn affidavits from people who served on the jury and copies of a book that rebecca hill did publish about the murdaugh double murder trial this year. some of the jurors in the affidavits said things like hill instructed the jurors

walter burrow was considered to be like mayberry, and if walterboro's mayberry becky hill would be mucht ever watch mayberry growing up around the reruns, the point of the matter is, i've never heard her raise her voice. i've never heard her pressure anyone. i don't think it's in her dna. certain people are just very reserved, very measured with their thoughts. that's how i would describe becky to a tee. so, i find that extremely hard to believe, just from the time that i spent with her. and i don't know too much, again, about the smoke situation that you brought up. but the way the court system works, with becky having so much overarching responsibility and all those areas that i described earlier, the chief bailiff really, his one role, was to carefully watch the jurors. and make sure that they were in the correct place at the correct time. so -- >> i do want you to, i want you just before you go here, you wrote this book with her. one of the allegations is that the whole point of her trying to get a quick verdict is that she wanted the notoriety that came with this book. that's also

. >> dana and bill, gordon says becky hill is a woman of faith who prays regularly with her staff.uring the trial she noticed the jury praying each day and he asked her if she had ever prayed with the jury. she said no, that would create a potential conflict of interest. back to you guys. >> dana: thank you for the update. >> bill: jonathan turley is here on this. good morning. this is jim griffin saying we never put him on the stand had we known any of this. that's the claim he makes. watch. >> there has been a lot said talked about whether alex should have taken the stand. i can assure you, i can assure you when we considered what factors and what we should and should not do and considered whether he should take the stand, we never considered the likelihood as reported to us by the jurors that the clerk of court would go into the sanctity of the jury room before he testified and tell the jurors don't be fooled by his testimony. watch out for his body language. >> bill: i don't know if this is revision or not, professor. because as i recall, murdaugh was the one who wanted to take

. >> i want to thank the colleton county court of clerk becky hill and her entire team and staff.e tonight -- >> reporter: murdaugh's lawyers say after her book was released this summer they interviewed several jurors who expressed concerns about hill's behavior. hill has not yet responded to the allegations. >> talking about a clerk of the court talking to jurors about the case? the question is gonna be, is it true? did she do this? and does the court believe it's enough to grant a new trial. >> reporter: becky's co-author said she followed all the guidelines. >> becky will answer any of these allegations truthfully, point by point. she welcomes the tune to do so. >> reporter: and the attorney general has ten days to respond to this motion and says his office is reviewing it. south carolina law requires a new trial if jury tampering is proven for cases that end in a conviction. so lot of eyes on this. >> thanks, erielle. we are joined now by alex murdaugh's attorneys. thank you both for joining us. you said yesterday you first heard these allegations through a whisper campaign. w

according to the filing, the clerk of the court, rebecca becky hill, allegedly tampered with the juryurdaugh's testimony. there are also alleging that she pressured the jury to reach a quick guilty verdict and claims that she misrepresented information to the judge in order to remove a juror. now, murdaugh's attorneys claim that hill did all of these things. why? to secure herself a book deal, they say. quote, in media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. unquote. her book is called behind the doors of justice, the murdaugh murders and it was published in late july. now, lawyers are also citing that in the motion, along with at least three sworn affidavits including one from a juror and another from a dismissed juror. now, earlier today, murdaugh's attorneys explained how they say that book i just mentioned led to this new filing. >> in the aftermath of the verdict we had received information that we needed to look into what happened in the jury room. we started down that road and we met's own of silence. when the clerk of court wrote her book, published her b

attorneys ten days to refile showing evidence that the jury was tampered with by the court clerk becky hill, we need to investigate. we need to figure out if the allegations are true. >> reporter: murdaugh's attorneys say hill advised jurors not to believe his testimony and also pressured the jury to reach a quick, guilty verdict. all, they say, to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. >> guilty. >> guilty. >> guilty. >> reporter: hill went on to publish a book called "behind the doors of justice: the murdaugh murders." >> we had gotten, you know, some indication from folks in the courtroom that there was something untoward that had happened in the jury room. >> reporter: the attorney general also raising questions about some of the allegations made by murdaugh's team saying there are significant factual disputes. attorney eric bland, who represents four of the jurors, telling abc news his clients spoke with investigators on thursday. >> i think they made a decision to vote alex guilty based on their own intelligence and their

that's standard to say that a state actor like becky hill actually tampered with jurors and they have sworn affidavits to that effect? shocking. the crux of the entire defense was that alex murdaugh took the stand. many defense attorneys will say that is the most critical question when defending someone, especially someone charged with murdering family members or anybody. will you want to take the stand? it's you're right. but it's dangerous if you do. he takes the stand. he testified. then you have someone that basically says that he can't be believed. you have two jurors saying that? it's unbelievably shocking and really is, if it is to be proven, obviously there's steps here, preliminary -- there will have to be a preliminary investigation to any validity here. if there is, it goes to the very essence of the case, the essence of this man professing that he did not kill his wife or his son. if he is, he gets a new trial. >> martha: this is a clip from my discussion with buster murdaugh. this is a few months -- i did not interview rebecca hill. she was interviewed by one of the other

. >> now, becky hill's co-author, neil gordon describes the clerk of court as conscience and religiousand prayed daily, so did the jury. >> did you ever pray with the jury? goodness, you are not allowed, no legal entity can pray with the jury whatsoever, it could create a conflict of interest. that should tell you something right there. >> gordon insists there was no advance book deal. he says it was self-published with both he and clerk hill putting up $30,000 of their own money. gillian. >> gillian: jonathan serrie in atlanta this hour, thank you. trace. >> trace: virginia governor glenn youngkin fighting for parents but some schools are ignoring a key policy on gender. how the state is encouraging parents to fight back. owners. are you applying for a car loan? the monthly payments can be expensive. with an affordable home loan from newday, you can pay cash and own the car or truck of your dreams. this was no bear. it was like a bearsquatch! dad. what's a bearsquatch? it's a cross between a bear and a sass... it's made up. he's usually sleeping. he'll never sleep again. ♪ every day,

and ana, we should also note that we have once again made calls to becky hill. a response from her. ana. >> thank you so much, kathy park. >>> next here on "ana cabrera report," a post-labor day heat wave forcing schools to close right at the start of the year. when could this break? >>> and later, day two of the impeachment trial of texas attorney general ken paxton, on the witness stand, the former ally who turned him in to the fbi. who turned him in to the fbi. the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. and it could strike at any time. think you're not at risk? wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis takes you off course. put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily p

. >> reporter: murdaugh's legal team is accusing the court clerk becky hill of extensive deliberate andlieve murdaugh's testimony and also pressured the jury to reach a quick guilty verdict, all to secure herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial. hill, who did recently publish a book called behind the doors of justice, the murdaugh murders, sat down revealing insight into deliberations. >> i knew it wasn't going to take long for them to come to a decision about a verdict. >> reporter: that 12-person jury returning a guilty verdict. >> guilty, guilty, guilty. >> reporter: the ag's office now up against the clock, telling abc news they plan to file a response to murdaugh's attorneys' claims today, asking state law enforcement to investigate. attorney eric bland, who represents four of the jurors, telling abc news his clients spoke with investigators thursday. >> at the end of the day i believe at least ten of these jurors are going to look into judge newman's eyes or whoever the presiding judge is and tell them, i voted my conscience, i wa

claimed his guilty verdicts for killing his wife and son should be thrown out, alleging court clerk becky hillmony and pressured the jury to reach a quick guilty verdict. hill seen discussing the case in a new season of the netflix series. erd murders, a southern scandal. >> i had a feeling it was not going to take our jury long to make a decision in this case. call it women's intuition. >> reporter: also making headlines, curtis eddie smith who murdaugh allegedly hired to kill him, now claiming the disgraced lawyer admitted responsibility for the murders. >> i said, why do you want me to shoot you? 'cause they're gonna be able to prove that was responsible for maggie and paul. >> reporter: murdaugh's team saying they have no comment on the claims. smith now out on bond facing charges for money laundering, forgery, as well as drug trafficking and possession. and this is not the end of all of murdaugh's legal troubles. he still has other state charges on those financial crimes that he's facing, so much more still to come. >> ever evolving. all right, eva, thank you for staying on top of this fr

a surprising motion filed by alex murdaugh's defense attorneys accuses a county clerk of court becky hill of jury tampering and now the legal team is demanding a new trial and federal investigation. >> the clerk of court had improper private communications with the jurors. >> reporter: hill did not respond to nbc news' request for comment. murdaugh's attorneys claim hill had frequent private conversations with a jury foreperson, told jurors not to be fooled by murdaugh's testimony, asked jurors for their opinions about murdaugh's guilt or innocence. pressured them to reach a quick verdict and invented a story about a facebook post to remove a juror she believed leaned in favor of the defense. murdaugh's attorney saying alex still maintains his innocence. >> what has he shared with you? >> i can't talk about attorney/client privilege information. i can tell you that when i shared with him the affidavits, he's a lawyer, he was astonished. he was shaking. he was in disbelief. >> reporter: months after the trial ended hill published a tell all book even writing about visiting the murder scene

becky. i'm standing in front of the russell senate office building on capitol hill. to mark zuckerberg, all arriving here for the a.i. insight forum. this is something that's a little bit different from what they do normally on capitol hill. it's not a typical hearing that you have seen in the past. we're going to see the top tech ceos meeting with a group of four senators, two democrats and two republicans, behind closed doors here, so not available on c-span, not available on cnbc. they're talking a.i. policy, trying to get some sense of how to guide potential a.i. legislation up on capitol hill in the years to come or so, depending on how quickly they can pull this off. we'll see some of the biggest names here, but there's some controversy around this because it's not going through regular order on capitol hill. it's not an open committee process. other senators are invited to attend, but they're not allowed to necessarily participate in all this. the public won't see it. and some people have called this the mother of all lobbying meetings up on capitol hill, but