A federal judge has dismissed Alex Murdaugh’s lawsuit seeking $600,000 in legal fees from former court clerk Becky Hill, whose alleged misconduct led to his murder convictions being overturned on appeal.

Murdaugh sued Hill in May, claiming she violated his right to a fair trial in the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul.

Prosecutors said Murdaugh killed Maggie and Paul believing their deaths would generate sympathy and give him time to address mounting financial problems. At the time, his alleged financial crimes were close to being exposed by his law firm and the family of a teenager who had filed a wrongful death lawsuit after Paul crashed a boat while intoxicated.

A jury had convicted him and sentenced him to life in prison, but the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the convictions earlier this year, ruling that Hill’s comments to jurors improperly influenced the verdict and undermined Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial.

In dismissing the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said Murdaugh’s argument was flawed because he would have had to spend the money anyway, noting that Hill did not investigate or prosecute the case against him.

“Plaintiff’s claim contains a fatal flaw — the lack of a causal connection between the funds he expended for his defense in the first trial and Defendant’s misconduct. Defendant had no role in the initiation of criminal charges against Plaintiff,” Gergel wrote.

Murdaugh said in court papers he spent $600,000 from a retirement account to pay for his lawyers in his first trial and will need more money to pay them for his retrial next year in the case that has become a true crime sensation with a streaming miniseries, bestselling books and dozens of podcasts.

Even with his murder convictions overturned, the 58-year-old remains in prison serving sentences for separate financial crimes after admitting to stealing millions of dollars from clients and his former law firm. He pleaded guilty to financial offenses involving about $12 million but has continued to deny murdering Maggie and Paul, whose bodies were found at the family’s property in 2021.

His retrial on the murder charges has been scheduled for April 5, 2027.

Investigators said Murdaugh was addicted to opioids and his complex schemes to steal money from clients and his family’s law firm were starting to unravel so he killed his wife and son to divert attention and buy time to find a way out of his problems.