Alex Murdaugh Testimony

Anthony J. Iantosca, BCFE
IAFEI

Published by Anthony Iantosca, BCFE
For the International Academy of Forensic Examiners and Investigators.

Nonverbal Communication/Forensic Linguistic Analysis
Deception Detection
Alex Murdaugh

Alex Murdaugh testified in his own defense yesterday in the murders of his wife and son. I was able to view some of his testimony when he took the stand. Since I have been writing articles on Nonverbal Communication on my Academy page on Facebook, I thought this would be a good educational article on deception when combining both Nonverbal Communication and Forensic Linguistic Analysis together.

When a person is attempting to be truthful but is being deceptive  there will be "leakage" in their words and actions. These are little slips of their thoughts, feelings, words and actions that are incongruent with the picture they are trying to portray/project. An example of "leakage" is:

When you see someone who is attempting to show you how happy they are to see you but they give you a fake smile "no eye involvement" and "no eyebrow flash." This person is being deceptive and is not your friend.    

The "leakage" I detected in Mr. Murdaugh testimony yesterday were the following.

When he was answering a direct question on the events that took place the day of the murders

Mr. Murdaugh was stating "no" while moving his head up and down in a "yes" head movement. This shows a lack of congruency between his words and his actions

The change in tone in his voice, he was crying and emotionally upset his voice was cracking and distraught but changed very quickly back to a normal voice in between his statement. This tells me his emotions and crying was not authentic. It came across as practiced and contrived.

His consistent use of the "rogatory" hand position when explaining himself, he is begging to be believed rather than demanding to be believed. This Nonverbal "tell" tells me he is not Limbic committed to his statements.

From a Linguistic standpoint, his consistent use of "expanded contractions" the shortest sentence is the best sentence, many times he would use "I did not, or I would not" instead of stating "I didn't or wouldn't."

When answering a question he would add a great deal of irrelevant/information to his answer. People believe the more they talk the more honest they are being and you will believe them. He falls short of answering a direct question with factual information.

The use of the word "intentionally" when he stated "I would not intentionally hurt anyone ever." This is not stating "I wouldn't hurt anyone" or "I didn't hurt anyone."  People have great intentions but those intentions can change very quickly depending on the circumstances.

lying as to his whereabouts at the time of the murders and using word salad and  irrelevant/information to explain the lie away.     

Do I believe Mr. Murdaugh was being honest and truthful in his testimony yesterday. No I don't.

 I wanted to explain in a little more detail the use of the word "Would" and "Expanded Contractions." 

 The word "would" can be used in past events to cover a "General Statement" but should always cause a little suspicion when found in a "Specific Event" statement.
The  word "would" at times is used to make hypotheses or when we imagine a situation.

 Generalized Statement:

For example: Every year we "would" go to grandma's house for Easter, every night the cashers "would" come into the office and lay the days money/receipts on the desk.

 Specific Event Statement:

 The investigator want to know what happened at the specific time of the murder, rape, assault, robbery, etc.  

"That "would be" when I put the money in the safe."

In that statement "would be" is not stating "I put the money in the safe."

Maybe sometimes he did, maybe sometimes he didn't put all the money in the safe.

 "Did you sell drugs to John?"

"I would never sell drugs"

I didn't ask you "would" you sell drugs, I asked you did you sell drugs to John. He never answered the direct question with a direct answer.

 I heard the same language with Mr. Murdaugh during his testimony about the murders of his wife and son.

 "I would never do anything intentionally to hurt either one of them," he said in his testimony.

 This was a "Specific Event" that happened in the past. Also his use of "qualifiers" which weaken the statement.

 Contractions vs Expanded Contractions:

The shortest sentence is the best sentence. Research over the years has shown when people are lying they stop using Contractions. People are lazy in their language usage, look a texting and all the short cuts people use to convey a message. Contractions saying "I didn't" instead of "I did not."

Research and analysis of thousands of interviews over the years with criminal suspects has shown they will use Expanded Contractions. Other studies have shown that deceptive people show an over 100% increase use of Expanded Contractions. The use of Expanded Contractions should "flag" you and to look for other deceptive markers in their written or oral statement. Mr. Murdaugh used many Expanded Contractions in his testimony. He also admitted to lying and being deceptive.