Alex Murdaugh trial

The first of the five dramatic 2023 trials I highlighted for you, dear reader, as this year began is now well underway: Alex Murdaugh is on trial for a double murder and related crimes.

As as true of many criminal trials, this one began with testimony from the police crime-scene investigators: the types whose jobs are glamorized in the CSI shows. The real-world ones make it seem less than glamorous. Indeed, the word used in wire services dispatches for the testimony of agent Melinda Worley, of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, has been "tedious."

At one point while testifying, Worley removed the sneakers of one of the victims, Paul Murdaugh, from a box and showed them to the jury. They were unremarkable New Balance shoes. This is all a matter of making a case -- I presume that eventually someone will testify that tread marks at the scene were distinctively New Balance.

But it is presumably not necessary to rely on sneakers to show that Paul Murdaugh was at the scene of his own death. Perhaps the jury needs to know those tracks were his in order not to end up with the suspicion that they were his atackers' prints, supporting a defense theory that "some other guy did it."

The punny thought occurs to me that it would be great if the state could find a way to rename Worley's employer so as to use the acronym SLED instead of SCLED. I envision headlines like "Matters SLED Downhill for the Defense in Murdaugh Trial."

But Southcarolina likely won't oblige.

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