Body language of Chauvin hearing
his guilty verdict in this video https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2402584/Jury-finds-Derek-Chauvin-guilty-killing-George-Floyd.html
The fear is clear in the tenseness of the lower eyelids and the way he is
raising his upper eyelids the rapid eye movement is him processing the verdict as
anyone would first in the emotional limbic brain and going over to the neocortex
to the logical thinking brain to decide how to respond. The rapid movement shows
his constant attempt to first feel fearful, understand what is being said, and
stay calm over and over again. But mixed with the fear are also nonverbal
indications of anger, see when his eyebrows lower slightly and are drawn
together along with the lower eyelid tension so we see him glaring. I had
enough baseline of his normal to detect his shift from fear to anger in these
few moments. I would say he did not expect his behavior to have reached this
judgment. Remember he had been reprimanded but not fired for similar behavior
(kneeling on someone) before this and anyone would be fearful of guilty
judgment.
Here’s the story about the moment he
spoke to the court and the video itself.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9474599/Derek-Chauvin-trial-Defense-set-call-final-witnesses.html
What is striking here is his very erect posture and bearing see how it seems
that there is an invisible rod through his back and up through his neck. This
is perfect professional posture and indicates he is very aware of his circumstances
and surroundings. Also, notice this way he is holding the microphone down away
from his face and his heart and instead over his torso with his fingers only
lightly holding it with the tips of his fingers extended. He may have been
coached to hold the mike in this relaxed unguarded way, but in any case, this
placement and grip make it appear he is not tense. You do see The tell of his anxiety
his clipped, tense, rapid replies. I coach people to be expert witnesses and to
testify before congress and while lawyers tend to coach clients to give short
responses, I coach them to breathe and give relaxed naturally voiced responses
that are credible. Of course, he is responding to questions about understanding
about not testifying but his paralanguage, that is voice tone, tempo, speaking
rate, high voice, etc. and his focus on looking at his lawyer in a way that
makes it look like he searching for approval that he is doing ok and making the
right choice make him sound scared. The
one "tell" that makes him look a bit smug is his chin placement. Chin placement
is a key place to read for someone's level of confidence. Confidence is shown when the
chin is held at the center. He holds his
neck arched out at one point and throughout holds his chin up above “the centerline” showing he feels superior. I think that is telling because it's very hard
to consciously control the chin placement when under stress, so it tends to go
to its natural baseline of that person's normal.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2399020/Video-Minneapolis-cop-Derek-Chauvin-invokes-Fifth-Amendment.html
The defence’s
closing statement, where Chauvin took off his mask for the first prolonged period
throughout the trial. We didn’t get to see much of him because the camera was
focused on his attorney and insight on why the defence would have him take the
mask off just for that section.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9488203/Derek-Chauvin-trial-Defense-argues-closing-statement-cops-actions-reasonable.html
https://twitter.com/CourtTV/status/1384559990665584640
I think the mask off was an attempt to
have the jury read him and potentially see him be emotional. The background of court
trials recently has been controversial in some legal trials they have delayed
going forward for fear their defendant won’t be seen on zoom or under a mask as
a human/innocent/real. It’s a big concern.
NOTE TAKING
Many of my clients, curious have asked me about his note-taking. It is standard practice for me to
coach my executive and politician clients to “take notes” in court cases, testimony,
debates and congressional hearing so they will stay focused and occupied, have
something to do with their hands as hands often go to “Self Comfort Cues” and
overall not be as nervous and NOT GIVE AS MANY TELLS” I give caveats to that advice
however saying it's important at times to show respect, caring, and concern partiality.
These caveats were not coached and or
shown by him. Because he was labeled as unfeeling and lacking emotion before
the trial it was a mistake for him to do it so often. Here the lack of emotion during
very painful testimony may have affected the jury’s impression of him
negatively. And you have that chin up and often shoulders back as he is taking
notes. He looks more natural and humane (that is humane, not human) when he is
relaxed down in his chair here. The constant
note-taking and the chin-up which can be seen even with a mask on may have been
the reason some people labeled him as looking unfeeling or even labeling him
as a sociopath. Every individual has their baseline normal behavior that I use
to do a read and we have a standard of normal nonverbal behavior for situations.
Because of the long horrific video, this was a trial that caused many people who
say the video feel horrific pain and sympathy for the victim so the baseline of
normal response for the defendant is expected to show a reflection of our normal
even knowing that he feels and considers himself innocent. I know that lawyers
may coach a client to show no emotion to make the victim look more guilty, but
again we saw the video of the victim's agony so that standard lawyerly advice about
how to comport yourself as the defendant in the courtroom could and in this
case did backfire.
In regards to his constant notetaking,
again there aren’t many videos of it because we only saw glimpses but having
watched the trial I can say he was writing on his legal pad constantly, no
matter who was on the witness stand or which attorney was speaking.
https://twitter.com/HLNTV/status/1382728587808215043
https://twitter.com/CourtTV/status/1382348828871958533
https://twitter.com/JuliaCourtTV/status/1384249332761731081
