Visual Cues In People: What do they mean?

After watching the second episode of Making a Murderer I feel there are four characters that stood out to me in regard to the interviews they gave. I thought the visual cues they exuded were very telling in explaining how they were really feeling regarding the investigation into Avery's case and what actually happened. These people included Chief Deputy Eugene Kusche, District Attorney Mark Rohrer, Sargent Andrew Colborn, and Deputy Judy Dvorak. I feel like these individuals, who were front and center when talking about the Avery case that landed him unjustly in jail for eighteen years, through their posture, gestures, facial expressions and more allow us to see how visual cues can be telling when explaining what the individual is truly thinking and or feeling regarding the subject of interest or Avery in this case. In the post below I will elaborate further on what cues were given away by these individuals that caught my attention.

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To begin, Chief Deputy Eugene Kusche was involved with sketching the photo from the description Penny Beerntsen gave him regarding her attacker. Kusche was questioned about whether he had truly drawn the sketch from the description or used an earlier mugshot of Avery in an attempt to help convict him. I would describe him as very stand offish and very unemotional or driven by the conversation. Simply, it did not seem like he cared very much. This was exemplified by his lack of emotion when he answered question and then when he actually rolled his eyes at the questioner. He was so un-enthused and un-interested in the task at hand he was upset that he was being asked certain questions. This shows to me how he was an uninterested, self praising, and disrespectful human being who couldn't even care enough when the case he was being questioned about resulted in an injustice of the imprisonment of an individual for eighteen years for a crime he did not commit.

Further, District Attorney Mark Rohrer was noticeably disgruntled during his interview. He looked nervous when he was answering questions. This was defined by his face getting red, his slow responses, the way he was sweating, and how he was fidgeting with his hands. He could not remain still and the amount of color change in his face and the sweat involved paint a picture describing a man that feels guilty to me.

Moving on, Sergeant Andrew Colborn was the officer that received the call regarding Gregory Allen's recent arrest in Brown County and his confession that he had committed a assault in Avery's to and that the wrong man was arrested for it. The issue here was it seemed that the issue was not documented for eight years following it, so he was questioned about what he knew on the subject. The biggest thing I noticed with Colborn was that he was sitting very drawn into himself with his hands very close to his body. This to me shows that he is nervous. He was very wide eyed and trying to be as still as possible I thought. So, I feel like his stiffness and his wide eyed state explicate a person who is nervous and may be feeling that they are in the wrong in accordance to this case. He looked guilty from the start and the stiffness to me just shows someone trying to hard to hide their true feelings, which I feel are explicated through his wide eyes and nervous aura.

Finally, Deputy Judy Dvorak was also interviewed about the case. I really disliked how she was consistently answering the questions. She seemed to constantly answer the questions with large pauses and even tried to say that since it was a long time ago the information they say happened in evidence presented may not have been discussed the way it is being described. So, she was using the gap between the events and the questioning to help protect herself from her younger self and, on top of that, she did not seem to know the answers to the questions very quickly. She took very long for each question and I think this is an indication of someone trying to lye possibly. Overall, it was her deflective persona and lack of fluid question answering that I feel made her suspicious in regard to her questioning.

To conclude, I understand that there was many years that had passed between the event in question, Avery's unjust arrest and imprisonment, and questioning that occurred. So, this could explain the nervousness and the lack of fluid question answering. Yet, I feel that since this is a big case, in-regard to the injustice it created, the people being interviewed would remember their parts in the situation. So, I feel that the standoffish attitudes, unemotional responses, red faces, sweaty foreheads, fidgety hands, stiffness, wide eyed looks, lack of fluid question answering, and deflection tactics are more a result of lying and deceit that the individuals being interviewed feel are necessary to defend themselves.