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I watched this 48 Hours episode with great anticipation, because while I heard of the case, I hadn’t seen testimony of the key players to form an opinion. I also didn’t know all the details of the case.

Read moreUnfortunately, I have bad news for all of you who are looking for my thoughts. The short segment of Damien on the stand wasn’t sufficient for me to make any determinations. Damien was asked if he took part in a satanic killing, or something to that effect, to which he said no. That question was not reliable–a killer could honestly answer “no” even if he did kill, but not satanically.

Worse, all the interview segments of Damien in the present, while they are suggestive that he is honest, has little value to me. Essentially, if he is guilty, which I have no opinion on at this time, the stakes of the lie are gone, because he is paying the ultimate price already. So hence if he continues to lie, there is no stress in doing so anymore. There are actually only benefits, which causes little to no clues to leak.

Please hear me: I am not saying I believe Damien is guilty or innocent from what I have seen on this 48 Hours episode. Clearly, the evidence is supportive that he is, and I am very happy to see 48 Hours bring out this case to the public. I think there is sufficient doubt that this case needs to be looked at again. I just personally want to see the suspects talk at key times, when the stakes of the crimes were still high.

High stakes in a lie are the pressure points that burst the tomato, so-to-speak. They are so important. They are critical in most cases. It brings me back to a memory I have. I once watched a person on the stand defend their murderous behavior. Their lies leaks like a sieve. There was no doubt of their involvement. However, when this person was interviewed from prison a fair amount of time later after being convicted, if I didn’t pay attention to the facts that the high stakes were gone, I would have absolutely believe them! It was earth-shattering for me, and it demonstrated without a shadow of a doubt that high stakes are essential in deception detection. It’s a chilling reality for me, and it should be a caution to everyone who attempts to decipher deception.

Without high stakes in action, it a big road block in trying to help free the wrongly convicted. With that, we are left to go back and look at footage before or during the trial only. If no footage exists, it’s horrifying, but thankfully, with Damien footage exists.

Damien could very well be innocent. I need to get my hands on the movie “Paradise Lost”, and see if there is sufficient footage of him talking about the crime on the stand. I need to see footage before or during the trial, where I know the time of when things were recorded. Can you help me get this? Would someone donate a copy to me? Can it be downloaded online somewhere?

I know many of you are going to ask me about Terry Hobbs as well, and he is in a similar situation. The fact that his DNA is on the ligature is definitely noteworthy. It’s captures my attention, and needs to be considered –100%. But his interview is not of great value for me, either. If we speculate (pure speculation) that he is the murderer, he has had more than 16 years to gain the confidence he has gotten away with this. With that, he may feel that the stakes of his lie aren’t nearly as high, because if they had evidence, they would have hung him already, but they obviously don’t. Plus, there is currently someone else charged with the murder, and they can’t charge two people. This takes the high stakes of his lie and drops them off dramatically. So with Terry Hobbs, I also need to see footage of him back then, and taking about the key elements of this case, which may or may not exist. If Hobbs was facing a jury now, that might change things, but he isn’t, at this time.

This is precisely why I don’t review old cases. Time has an affect on all of us. We feel less guilt and remorse after decades of time. Our emotions fade, and so do the high stakes. The stakes of an old actions are not nearly as high as they once were, and we must be very cautious of this when we look for the truth. Old cases must be approached from a very different standpoint that current ones.