SC AG Alan Wilson on SC Redistricting; Murdaugh trial

What this episode covers

00:00 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:24 you 00:28 for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties. 00:59 share his grace on thee. 01:13 and marika is back yes sir and we are back joining us right now is attorney general alan wilson who is having a very busy day attorney general welcome to the program hope you're doing well pay sir how you do it you would you have been there at the uh... in columbia uh did you testify today about redistricting 01:43 No, they actually had the new executive director of the state election commission test. okay. As to the, you know, how they would be able to implement this map if it were passed with the new election timelines. I was there ready to testify if they needed, obviously we're preparing for the legal defense. Right. maps are passed, but I was there more of a passive as a, you know, kind of more in a passive role just to kind of observe. But I was prepared to testify if they needed me to, but unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective. 02:12 My son is graduating high school this afternoon. uh And so I'm heading home now to see him. Here you go. now we do hear that some people are ready to file lawsuits over this redistricting, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we fully expect lawsuits to be filed one way or the other. let's go back and talk about this. Dick Harpudlian, Jim Davis, press conference the other day, they made a lot of allegations. I want to start off by asking, 02:39 Are they able to say things that you're not? Yes. They can say anything they want. there's a canon of ethics that prosecutors have to follow where we have to be careful. And honestly, that's the way it's supposed to be. I'm not going to complain about it because I actually support it. But the defense can go out there and have press conferences and say anything that they want. can say law enforcement's horrible and then do their job. And they can do everything they want to muddy the waters. 03:08 At end of the day, the burden is on the state to uh credibly try its case in an ethical way. And there are lot of rules that govern what we can and can't do. And that's to protect people, uh innocent people too. So that's why those rules are there. So how, I mean, was it a bit of a gut punch when the Supreme Court came out and said that, or basically overturned this case? I mean, look, we knew that there was a chance, obviously, 03:37 Our office has always taken the position that with Becky Hill that is the Colleton County Clerk of Court who made inappropriate comments to one or two jurors, uh unbeknownst to me or anyone on my team or anyone else for that matter, that she made these comments. And when we learned about it about two years ago, obviously it was of concern. But we looked at the totality of the circumstances and our office has always made the argument and asserted that the error 04:07 of her talking to the jurors while inappropriate and wrong was a harmless error and should not cost the conviction of Alex Murdoch. And the post trial judge who was former chief justice, Jean Toll, had a post trial hearing where she put all jurors and alternate jurors on the stand, cross examined them on the open record in a full court, came to the same conclusions that while Becky Hill was wrong and what she did was inappropriate, that this was a harmless error and she agreed with the state. 04:35 our position on that. But unfortunately, the defense appealed to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court found that Becky Hill's conduct impeded Alex Murdoz' right to a fair and impartial trial. so here we are back at ground zero. So I wouldn't call it a gut punch. I was obviously disappointed, but it wasn't totally unexpected. Harpudlian also talked about new evidence that's out there. And I know there's a lot of things you're no ...

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