Embattled Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill has announced her resignation amid an ongoing investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
At a press conference on the steps of the county courthouse on March 25, the Republican clerk of court announced the decision not to run for re-election and said her resignation is effective immediately.
“I will now be able to focus on being a wife, a mother and a grandmother to my two grand-boys, and will be spending time with the people who mean the most to me,” Hill said.
Hill came to national attention when it was alleged that she was secretly co-writing a book on convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh’s trial while the trial was underway and before the jury rendered a verdict; Hill was also accused of making comments to jurors that could be construed as jury tampering.
When the book, “Behind the Doors of Justice, The Murdaugh Murders,” co-written by local journalist Neil Gordon, was released, it was determined that Hill had lifted and copied from the work of BBC reporter Holly Honerich for the preface of the book.
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Judge Jean Toal ruled earlier that Hill’s comments to jurors, while inappropriate, did not sway the jury to convict Murdaugh; however, authorities are still investigating whether Hill used her position as clerk of court for self-enrichment.
Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life terms, plus 26 years for the June 2021 double murder of his son Paul and wife Maggie.
Gordon, publisher of The Augusta Business Daily, says that he was interviewed by agents of SLED this past Friday.
“In their questioning of me, they were honing in on how many different times Becky did book signings, interviews, and speaking engagements during the workday,” Gordon says.
According to Gordon, his former colleague has been portrayed as a villain in the national press; but in reality, he says she was simply naive and became somewhat star struck after having such a prominent role in what South Carolinians call “the trial of the century.”
“I really don’t think there was anything malicious there. You have to remember, she has lived in that small town all her life, she’s not someone who has traveled widely, and I think she got in over her head by being surrounded by all of the attention,” Gordon said.
Hill had only been on the job, according to Gordon, for six months when the crimes occurred and said that she was “learning on the job.”
Gordon says he plans to donate $2,500 of his royalties from the book to charity.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
