Convicted Murder Speaks: What do his words reveal?

To get up to date on this story, read about it on Wikipedia.

Here is an interesting video where you can hear a convicted killer, Bradley Murdoch, talk about the crime he is convicted of.  He claims innocence, yet his words are very telling.

Listen to Murdoch speak.  He says, “…a lot of my close immediate friends know that I sort of didn’t do it.”

He sort of didn’t do it?

How is that possible?

He either did it or he didn’t, but when people use hedge words like “sort of” in the middle of a definitive statement, it is a clue that they are subconsciously hedging.  They can’t quite commit to say something that is not true, and hence the clue leaks out without their knowledge.  Our brain is interesting this way, isn’t it?

Murdoch also talks about the surviving victim, Johanne Lees, in an attempt to discredit her. He says, “There’s things, um, that she sort of totally got wrong.” 

Hmmm…He could say there are things that she totally got wrong, but why add sort of?  It shows a lack of conviction in his own statement again!

Please note that I believe to call someone dishonest, you need at least three solid clues.  The use of hedge words would be one clue.

There are many clues to deception including emotional clues and leakages in the form of micro expressions, factual leakage or inconsistencies, behavioral clues, and cognitive clues.