Alex Murdaugh faces uphill battle for new murder trial as judge limits permissible evidence

abcnews.go.com:

Alex Murdaugh faces a steep uphill battle in his push for a new murder trial

Alex Murdaugh faces a steep uphill battle in his push for a new murder trial after a state judge on Tuesday limited witness questioning and set a high burden of proof surrounding accusations that the court clerk tampered with the jury during last year's sensational proceedings.

Even if Murdaugh’s lawyers prove that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill told jurors not to believe his testimony and pressured them into reaching a guilty verdict, they must also demonstrate that doing so prejudiced them against Murdaugh, former South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal ruled.

Toal also said she will not ask about other wide-ranging accusations of wrongdoing against Hill, including that the elected official misused public funds and plagiarized parts of her new book on the Murdaugh saga. Toal took over the request for a new trial after the judge overseeing the case, Clifton Newman, recused himself late last year.

Hill has sworn that she did not ask jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt and never suggested that he committed the murders. State police are investigating the jury tampering and misuse of office allegations against Hill but have not charged her with any crimes. Her attorneys did acknowledge last month, however, that she had submitted a BBC reporter’s writing to her co-author “as if it were her own words.”

Evidentiary hearings beginning Jan. 29 will include Hill and the deliberating jurors. The judge will not seek testimony from Newman. She also expressed doubt that she would admit thousands of Hill's emails as exhibits.

“I’m very, very reluctant to turn this hearing about juror contact into a wholesale exploration about every piece of