What Alex Murdaugh's Blood Analyst Did in Photoshop

Alex Murdaugh's original conviction leaned heavily on one piece of physical evidence: a white T-shirt investigators said proved he was standing close enough to shoot Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. New defense filings ahead of his retrial argue that story was built on a report that didn't originally say what jurors were told it said. According to court documents, blood-spatter analyst Tom Bevel's first write-up concluded the marks on the shirt were transfer stains, consistent with someone touching a bloody scene, not spatter from a gunshot. Defense attorneys say that conclusion shifted only after Bevel adjusted the shirt's colors in Photoshop, and the state chose never to call him to the stand to explain the change. It's one piece of a broader challenge the defense is mounting alongside a push to have unknown male DNA, pulled from under Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails, sent to the forensic lab Othram for genealogy testing the same technology used to identify Bryan Kohberger. Attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin have also raised questions about first-responder accounts that reportedly don't match up, and tips the defense says were forwarded to SLED without any confirmation of follow-up. The retrial is set for April 5, 2027 in front of a judge who has already made clear she won't be granting continuances, while Attorney General Alan Wilson keeps the death penalty on the table. This episode walks through the Bevel report in detail, lays the timeline against the David Camm case the defense is citing, and asks the question prosecutors will have to answer: if the shirt evidence changed once, what else might not hold up under a second look. The next hearing is set for August 14, and the defense has signaled this shirt fight is only getting started. Judge for yourself. 
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