Becky Hill co-author accuses her of plagiarism, sales of Alex Murdaugh trial book halted

The co-author of a now-controversial nonfiction book on the 2023 double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh has accused embattled co-author and Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of plagiarism and has halted sales of the book, "Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders."

In a Dec. 26 media statement, co-author and journalist Neil Gordon announced that "The co-authors of the book Behind the Doors of Justice have made the difficult decision to unpublish the book and cease sales after revelations co-author Becky Hill plagiarized a portion of the book without co-author Neil Gordon’s knowledge."

In the statement, Gordon says he discovered the alleged plagiarism while reviewing thousands of pages of Hill’s e-mails released to reporters through the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.

Gordon says he found an e-mail exchange between Hill and a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reporter in which the foreign journalist reportedly shared a long excerpt from an upcoming article about the Alex Murdaugh trial with Hill.

When Gordon compared the article’s text to a 12-page book passage in the Preface of Behind the Doors of Justice — supposedly written by Hill — he "realized she’d lifted the article’s text and made it her own," states Gordon's media statement.

“When I confronted Becky about this, she admitted she plagiarized the passage due to deadline pressures,” stated Gordon in the release from Tuesday.  “As a veteran journalist myself, I cannot excuse her behavior, nor can I condone it.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Hill's attorneys, Justin Bamber and Will Lewis, issued the following statement:

"Becky Hill is deeply remorseful regarding an allegation of plagiarism that has recently surfaced from her new book, Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders. The pressures of developing additional content under tight time deadlines resulted in Ms. Hill taking material written by BBC reporter Holly Honderich and submitting it to her co-author Neil Gordon as if it were her own words. Ms. Hill accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate lapse in judgment and has personally reached out to Ms. Honderich to express her sincere apologies. The self-published book is only available online through Amazon and Audible and the decision has been made to unpublish the book for the foreseeable future until next steps for the book have been identified. Ms. Hill has great respect for the tireless work journalists do every day and sincerely regrets using Ms. Honderich's words as her own."

After discovering the alleged plagiarism, Gordon says he immediately notified the BBC reporter about Hill’s actions, and he’s been told the media outlet’s attorneys are investigating.

“This has blindsided me,” Gordon said. “Journalism has been my life’s work; my credibility and integrity are paramount to everything I do. I can’t be associated with anything like plagiarism and will no longer partner with Becky Hill on any projects. I’d like to apologize to our readers, and publicly to the BBC and the reporter."

Gordon is the publisher of AugustaBusinessDaily.com in Augusta, Georgia.

The subject of this book was Alex Murdaugh, a now internationally infamous and disbarred Hampton attorney from a legacy Lowcountry legal family who was accused of more than 100 financial crimes before being convicted on March 2 of the June 7, 2021, murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul.

Hill, who is still serving as the Colleton County Clerk of Court, oversaw the operations of the courthouse and the six-week murder trial in Walterboro. She swore in witnesses, ensured the jurors had what they needed, and also read the jury's guilty verdicts for the court record on national television.

While Murdaugh has pleaded guilty to financial crimes, he staunchly denies having a hand in the killings.

These are not the first allegations against Hill concerning her book and the Murdaugh trial.

In September, Hill was accused of jury tampering by Murdaugh's attorneys, who demanded a hearing to seek a retrial. That hearing has not been held yet, but Hill has denied those allegations even as the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the S.C. Attorney General's Office investigate the claims.

In December, she was accused of ethics violations and possible public corruption while in office before the S.C. Ethics Commission and the S.C. Attorney General's Office is now investigating those claims as well.

Throughout these allegations, before today's statement, Gordon had steadfastly defended Hill, even speaking out on Court TV and other national media outlets.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Co-author accuses Becky Hill of plagiarism, Alex Murdaugh book halted