Juror removed from Murdaugh trial for talking about case with others

COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - A juror has been dismissed from the Murdaugh trial because she spoke with other people about the case.

Judge Clifton Newman started court Thursday by announcing a juror was being removed and will be replaced by an alternate. The judge said she had discussed the case with parties not associated with the case. The person who notified the court provided the names of the people with whom the juror allegedly spoke and those people provided affidavits about the contact with the juror. The contact did involve the juror offering her opinion on evidence received up to that point, he said.

The judge called the juror out from the jury room to notify her that she was being removed from the jury but thanked her for her service.

“I’m not suggesting that you intentionally did anything wrong, but that in order to preserve the integrity of the process and in fairness to all the parties involved, we’re going to replace you with one of the other jurors,” Newman told her.

The defense began closing arguments on Thursday morning, meaning the juror was not part of any jury deliberations yet.

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