Will SC Supreme Court’s Murdaugh ruling hurt Alan Wilson’s bid for governor?
When the state Supreme Court ruled Alex Murdaugh should get a new trial, Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is running for governor, began getting hits from those opposing him for the Republican nomination.
The high-profile case received international attention and Wilson was part of the team from his office to prosecute the trial in Colleton County. He was present in the courtroom, sitting at the prosecution’s desk alongside lead prosecutor Creighton Waters.
The conviction was a feather in the cap of the attorney general’s office. Preparing for the case was Wilson’s stated reason for not attending President Donald Trump’s State House rally in January 2023. Trump later praised Wilson for his office’s win in a “big case.”
But after the state Supreme court ruling overturning Murdaugh’s double homicide conviction, prosecutors took criticism for bungling the case.
The state Supreme Court pointed the blame at former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill who improperly spoke to jurors about the case during deliberations and said she denied “Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Wylie Shaw, an advisor for Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s campaign for governor, took a direct shot at Wilson on social media.
“This guy screwed up the most high-profile trial in South Carolina history and now he wants to be governor?” Shaw posted. “We can’t afford to give Alan a promotion, he can’t even do his current job.”
Much of the campaign has been over who will receive Trump’s endorsement in the race for the GOP nomination.
Chris Grant, a consultant for Evette’s campaign, used Wednesday’s ruling to point out a central tenant of the Evette campaign, that she stood with Trump when he came to the South Carolina State House in January 2023. She’s the only GOP candidate for governor who can make that claim.
Wilson has said he could not attend that event because he was preparing with his members of his office for the Murdaugh trial.
“For a creeper who blamed his failure to support Trump in 2023 on having to prepare for this trial, maybe this clown should have done a better job getting a conviction,” Grant posted.
Trump, however, has complimented Wilson on winning the case. In January 2024 shortly before the New Hampshire primary, when elected officials from South Carolina traveled to the Granite State, Trump gave Wilson a shout out.
“Attorney General Alan Wilson, just won a big case right away,” Trump said when introducing the attorney general.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace didn’t take a direct hit at Wilson, and also pointed at Hill in a post on X, while echoing her stance the state’s judicial system does not help victims.
“South Carolina managed to bungle the biggest murder trial in the state’s history - and allowed a courthouse clerk (to) blow the whole thing up. Impressive, in the worst possible way,” Mace posted. “Maggie and Paul Murdaugh deserved a conviction that would actually hold. This is what happens when no one is ever held accountable. South Carolina’s justice system is broken. Victims have no faith the criminals will ever go to jail - our state has given them no reason to.”
Wilson defended his office’s performance.
“People were murdered at the end of the day and if people want to make this a political issue that just shows their character or lack thereof,” Wilson told reporters Wednesday.
“Whether they’re at SLED, whether they’re in this office or the law enforcement agencies that we worked with, they did their jobs,” Wilson continued. “The Supreme Court even said that in its order that the state of South Carolina did its job right.”
He also shot back at those using the case to gain political points.
“(The state Supreme Court) placed this squarely on the shoulders of the former Colleton County clerk of Court. Anyone who says otherwise is purely playing politics with a very, very serious issue,” Wilson said.
The state Supreme Court in its ruling ordering a new trial, place the blame on Hill.
”Both the State and Murdaugh’s defense skillfully presented their cases to the jury as the trial court deftly presided over this complicated and high-profile matter. However, their efforts were in vain because Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill placed her fingers on the scales of justice,” the ruling said.
The state Supreme Court also said the attorney general’s office could have presented evidence of Murdaugh’s financial crimes “in a fraction” of the 12.5 hours prosecutors used. Whoever is the presiding judge will decide how much of Murdaugh’s financial crimes can be introduced at the retrial. The ruling added financial crime evidence, must be presented “efficiently without the lengthy presentation of inflammatory details with little to no probative value that was permitted in the first trial.”
