But the specialty that interested him the most was undercover operations. ![]() Over the years, Shuy worked on cases involving trademarks, perjury, defamation and contract disputes. Words can be misused, misunderstood, or taken out of context. Courts rely on statements, conversations, confessions and contracts that are open to interpretation and analysis. They were told to pronounce the word "shibboleth." Those who began with "sib" (the Ephraimite dialect) instead of "shib" (the Gilead dialect) were killed.Īs that story illustrates, words matter. In their retreat, surviving Ephraimites were identified with a simple test. The Ephraimites invaded Gilead but were defeated. Still, he points to a much earlier form of his work in an Old Testament story. He is now regarded as a founding figure in a thriving field. What field could have more serious real life consequences than the search for justice? Having a linguistics expert testify in court was a novel concept at the time of Davis' trial, but Shuy opened the door. He'd been looking for a way to apply his knowledge of linguistics to "real life concepts" – and the law was a perfect fit. The Davis case came at the right time for Professor Shuy. "It's odd how accidental meetings can lead to shifts in academic focuses." "My experience in this case traveled quickly through the law community and my phone began to ring," Shuy says. He was the only witness the defense needed. Shuy cleared things up for him, the juror said. One juror told the press that he didn't trust the state witnesses but he did wonder about those tapes. "I opined that this was somewhat surprising if murder for hire was Davis' actual agenda." He also noted the "odd pacing, timing, and the intonation," of Davis' words and found that sometimes there were "simultaneous conversations about two different topics."Ĭullen Davis was acquitted again. "One of the things I noticed was that Davis never initiated any of the topics about killing. After listening repeatedly to the tapes in Davis's case (there were recorded phone calls in addition to the sting), Shuy's opinion was that they were not as incriminating as they first seemed. While it may seem that English speaking jurors would need no help comprehending a conversation in their native tongue, Shuy believed otherwise. They help jurors slog through difficult testimony – regarding topics like chemistry, for example. Normally, trial witnesses limit their testimony to what they saw and heard. "It was quite frightening but exciting." Haynes – who just died in April 2017 – was known for being innovative in the courtroom. "I had never heard anyone talking about murder before," he says. ![]() When Shuy described himself as "sociolinguist who analyzes tape recordings of the way people talk," he says, his seatmate's "eyes lit up." Shuy was soon conferring with Haynes and his team. He learned about the case on an airplane, while seated next to a Texas attorney who knew that his fellow attorney – Richard Haynes - had a problem with undercover tapes. It was Shuy's first time testifying as an expert and, as far as he knows, it was the first time any linguistics expert has testified in America. Enter expert witness Roger Shuy, a highly respected professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. ![]() A retrial was already underway when the enterprising attorneys came up with a new plan of attack: instead of going after the technical integrity of the tapes, they would discredit the words themselves. The jury saw the sting and deadlocked – eight to four in favor of conviction. At trial, Haynes tried – but failed – to have the incriminating tapes thrown out on technical grounds (the audio and video had been recorded separately and later synched up by the police). The man tells Davis he "got the judge dead" and Davis forks over $25,000. The key evidence was a secret recording of Davis meeting with the man he allegedly asked to arrange the hit. ![]() Their multimillionaire client was in trouble again – this time charged with soliciting the murder of a judge. One year later, Cullen Davis' lawyers faced a daunting new challenge.
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