A company using artificial intelligence to analyze DNA in criminal cases may analyze DNA found under Alex Murdaugh's wife's fingernails under a request from Murdaugh's lawyers. Othram, based in The Woodlands, Texas, tested DNA in the Idaho murders case against Bryan Kohberger, and the company will try to test DNA found under one of Maggie Murdaugh's left fingernail after prosecutors say her husband murdered her and their 22-year-old son, Paul, by shooting them. Murdaugh's lawyers discussed the DNA at his first court appearance today (Monday, June 29) since the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his 2023 convictions and life sentence in May because of the court clerk's improper comments to jurors about the defense. Murdaugh's second trial is scheduled to begin on April 5, 2027. Murdaugh’s lawyer Jim Griffin said on Monday that he’s asking for testing that “didn’t really exist in 2021.” “In 2021, this genetic genealogy was just on the ground floor. In 2026 we are light years ahead, ahead,” Griffin said. Griffin said Othram “cleared 200 cold cases on behalf of law enforcement around the United States” in 2024. Griffin said the company can work with DNA samples smaller than what can be processed by the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. “CODIS has 20 data points” while Otham “has half a million data points that they analyze,” Griffin said. Griffin disputed prosecutor Creighton Waters’ description of the issue as a “red herring.” “The DNA sample number 70 that we're asking to be tested, it positively was not Alex Murdaugh’s,” Griffin said. But initial testing said it’s very likely a male’s DNA. “Mr. Waters said there's no evidence of struggle, but there was a shell casing under Maggie Murdaugh's body from the gun that killed her,” Griffin said. “That shell casing and that gun had to be in very close proximity. Maggie Murdaugh's cell phone was missing from the crime scene. Was DNA transferred at that point in time? And so we don't think it's a red herring. We think it's very important.” Judge Debra McCaslin said she wants to know “how long it's going to take to analyze what it is that you're asking for.” “I’d also like to know if there's even a viable sample that they can get, and we will discuss this at our next pretrial,” she said. The next pretrial conference is scheduled for August 14. #law #crime #court - @meghannmcuniff