if all that was true, he would be unlikely to have dripped much blood onto the floor; his shirts would have soaked it up.

Furthermore, the bloody marks on the floor are part of a pattern that continues past Mays's right arm, where it seems to join where is the major “swipe trail” that runs along the back wall. And, finally, where is the smeared blood that would have transferred from the cuffs to the white floor "as he is pushing back"?  There are no marks anywhere near the body that were identified as "transfer stains" from bloody fabric.

Frye's explanation is no explanation at all.

"That is my theory only," he qualified it during his deposition. "Can't say that positively."

But some explanation is necessary.  If the state's hypothesis is to have any validity, it must credibly address the question of the blood on Mays's shoes and cuffs.  It does not.

However, a credible, feasible explanation exists.  In the police photo of Charlie Mays's body, the contrast between the bloody cuffs and the pristine white floor immediately around them is striking.  And there is only one way for this to have happened.

Dry blood would not have left any marks on the floor.  Dry blood on the soles of Mays's shoes would have left no prints.

But that blood would have needed at least fifteen to twenty minutes to dry.  In that case Charlie Mays would certainly not be an innocent victim.

Could it have happened?  Professor MacDonell admitted that the "swipe trail" that led to (or from) Mr. Edwards's body could actually be wiped-up footprints.  Let's assume that Mays crouched beside Perry Edwards's body and tracked his blood along the back wall, and then decided to wipe up the prints with Curtis Dunaway's raincoat. (Somebody obviously used the coat for some purpose, and then disposed of it.)  He wouldn't have wanted to track back across the floor; it is reasonable to believe that he removed his sneakers and walked in stocking feet, wiping up the tracks.  Meanwhile the blood dried on Mays's cuffs and sneakers.

However it occurred, the hypothesis that that blood was dry when Mays died is the most likely explanation for the absence of bloody footprints and transferred blood under Mays's cuffs.  It is also a hypothesis that leaves no room for Tommy Ziegler's guilt.

THE NOLANS

In one way, in its obvious appearance, this is an extremely complex and confusing case.  The evidence is massive, complex, ambiguous.

In another sense, though, it is actually quite simple.  The case is a choice between Tommy Zeigler and Edward Williams.  Their accounts of Christmas Eve