The South Carolina Supreme Court heard Alex Murdaugh's double murder appeal today — and the justices came prepared to challenge the state. Across ninety minutes of oral arguments covering jury tampering and evidentiary errors, the bench directed its hardest questions at prosecutor Creighton Waters and gave the defense room to build its case. The jury tampering track opened with Justice James asking whether the court could consider the egg juror's affidavit — testimony Justice Toal excluded during the 2024 hearing. Chief Justice Kittredge escalated, noting that Toal's order failed to address the specific allegation that Becky Hill told jurors not to be fooled by Murdaugh's testimony. He described the corroboration between juror accounts and independent witnesses as "striking." Hill is now a convicted perjurer — guilty of perjury, obstruction, and misconduct in charges that weren't part of the record when Toal ruled. Justice Few went straight at Waters: how do you call someone "not completely credible" when her guilty plea is proof she lied under oath? Dick Harpootlian framed the central argument: Justice Toal asked the wrong question. She evaluated whether Hill changed the verdict. The constitutional standard is whether she compromised the right to an impartial jury. Harpootlian argued those are fundamentally different inquiries — and the wrong one was applied. That legal standard dispute may be the fulcrum of the entire appeal.

On evidence, Chief Justice Kittredge told Waters that Rule 404(b) is a rule of exclusion, not inclusion, and that the trial court left the gate wide open. He said he couldn't identify a single piece of financial evidence the trial judge excluded. He pressed on why emotionally charged testimony from victims of Murdaugh's financial crimes — people who lost life savings — was placed before a murder jury. Waters attempted to compare the case to the movie Fargo. Justice Few shut the analogy down. Jim Griffin argued what the state's case looks like without the financial testimony: no eyewitnesses, no murder weapons, and no biological transfer evidence despite a close-range shotgun blast. If the court rules the 404(b) evidence was improperly admitted, the trial record fundamentally changes. Criminal defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis provides a full breakdown of the hearing — the specific exchanges that revealed the justices' thinking, the moments Waters struggled to hold ground, and the body language from the bench that tells its own story. He analyzes the three possible outcomes: conviction affirmed, new trial on jury tampering, or new trial on evidentiary grounds. He explains which outcome today's hearing most clearly pointed toward, what the timeline looks like, and whether Murdaugh retains a viable federal Sixth Amendment claim regardless of the state court's ruling. The court took the case under advisement. A decision is expected within sixty days. What happened in that courtroom today suggests this conviction is no longer the certainty it once appeared to be.

#AlexMurdaugh #MurdaughAppeal #BeckyHill #SouthCarolinaSupremeCourt #CreightonWaters #DickHarpootlian #EricFaddis #JimGriffin #JuryTampering #HiddenKillers

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The South Carolina Supreme Court just heard Alex Murdaugh's appeal—and the prosecution faced a gauntlet of skeptical questions.

February 11, 2026 marked the most significant moment in the Murdaugh case since the 2023 conviction. All five justices convened in Columbia to hear oral arguments on two core issues: whether former Clerk of Court Becky Hill's comments to jurors constituted jury tampering, and whether the trial itself was compromised by improper evidence.

Chief Justice John Kittredge didn't hold back. He called Hill a "rogue clerk" and questioned why the trial court allowed such expansive testimony about Murdaugh's financial crimes. "I couldn't find any example of financial crime evidence that was excluded," he said. "The granular detail... is arguably problematic."

Prosecutor Creighton Waters defended the state's approach, arguing jurors needed to understand the "slow burn" of Murdaugh's financial collapse to comprehend his motive. He even referenced the movie "Fargo" to illustrate desperation—prompting Justice John Few to cut him off: "I haven't seen 'Fargo'—get to the point."

Defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian, Jim Griffin, and Phillip Barber argued Hill's statements—including telling jurors to "watch his body language" and not be "fooled"—violated Murdaugh's Sixth Amendment rights. They also challenged cell phone trajectory evidence, a blue raincoat with gunshot residue never linked to Murdaugh, and the volume of financial testimony as unfairly prejudicial.

Waters maintained the evidence was "overwhelming" and Hill's comments "fleeting." But multiple justices questioned the logical connection between financial crimes and murder.

The court will now deliberate privately. There's no deadline for a ruling. If the conviction is upheld, Murdaugh's team has signaled federal appeals are next. This episode breaks down everything from the hearing.

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#AlexMurdaugh #MurdaughSupremeCourt #MurdaughAppeal #BeckyHill #DickHarpootlian #JimGriffin #CreightonWaters #MurdaughCase #SouthCarolina #MurdaughTrial

Former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis provides complete legal analysis of two major cases — the Alex Murdaugh Supreme Court oral arguments and the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigation.

The Murdaugh hearing produced aggressive questioning from the bench, with justices pressing the state on Becky Hill's perjury conviction, the jury tampering standard Toal applied, and the unchecked admission of financial crime evidence under Rule 404(b). Chief Justice Kittredge called the corroboration of tampering allegations "striking." Justice Few challenged the state's ability to defend Hill's credibility. Griffin argued there's no direct evidence — no eyewitnesses, no weapons, no biological transfer. Faddis weighs the three possible outcomes and explains why a federal appeal may follow regardless.

In the Guthrie case, Faddis breaks down eleven days of documented investigative failures by the Pima County Sheriff's Department — the premature crime scene release, the grounded thermal imaging aircraft, the ten-day gap on footage the FBI ultimately recovered, and the family's decision to communicate with alleged kidnappers through Instagram. On the prosecution side, the forty-one-minute pacemaker window anchors the forensic timeline, but the path from timeline to defendant remains unclear. Faddis identifies what needs to happen next for both cases.

#AlexMurdaugh #NancyGuthrie #MurdaughSupremeCourt #EricFaddis #BeckyHillPerjury #GuthrieKidnapping #SheriffNanos #Rule404b #MurdaughCase #TrueCrimeAnalysis

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