On February 28, 1999, nineteen days after his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee’s body was found in a shallow grave in Leakin Park, Adnan Syed was arrested for first degree murder. Adnan was only seventeen. “On February 25, 2000 Adnan was found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery.”(Wikipedia Par.5) Adnan has been in jail ever since that day.
In 2014 ,the podcast, Serial became a big hit after Sarah Koenig try’s to figure out what happened the day of January 13, 1999, the day Hae went missing. So what did happen that day? As I listened to Serial’s first and last podcast in season one, it becomes evident that no one truly knows that happened that day, except for Hae and her murderer. It is also clear someone is lying, whether it be Jay or Adnan. To be able to convict Adnan on the little evidence put against him, is unhinged. After learning about the case, I feel the same as Koenig, “as a juror I vote to acquit Adnan Syed” (Koenig Ep. 12) stating, “that’s what the law requires of jurors.” (Koenig Ep.12) because of such little evidence that was provided in the case. I also feel the exact same when she says, “If you asked me to to swear Adnan Syed is innocent, I couldn’t do it.” (Koenig Ep.12) followed by, “I mean, most of the time I think he didn’t do it” (Koenig Ep.12) a lot of time time there is reason to believe he is innocent, but there is a lot of things that make Adnan look bad, things that you have to question; there’s reasoning to believe that he could be either guilty or innocent, but there is just not enough evidence prove either. The part of the case that landed Adnan in jail, was a simple word against word. Unfortunately, Adnan didn’t exactly have a word, he didn’t remember that day, “your asking me to remember details from a day six weeks ago” (Koegin Ep. 1), specifically the details of the twenty one minutes after school, that his case, “lived and died in” (Koegin Ep. 1).
Do you remember what you did three weeks ago? Let alone six? How about details? What time did you wake up? Did you work? What did you eat? I sure don’t. But this is what a seventeen year old had to remember to keep him out of jail. If Adnan did not kill Hae, then it makes total sense to me that he wouldn’t remember the day. If he did, its perfect excuse. But lets go further into the reasons that Adnan could be an innocent man convicted.
The state’s key witness against Adnan, is Jay. Jay say’s that Adnan told him he was going to kill Hae. Red flag. Why did Jay not go to the police right away? Had I been told something like this, I certainly would, leading to question why he wouldn’t. Jay also says that they met in a “Best Buy parking lot” (Koeing Ep. 1), where Adnan proceeded to show Jay, Hae’s dead body, but that is a pretty open spot to show someone that. It doesn’t make sense that he would show that in such a populated area, where anyone could see. Another reason that Jay’s claim is questionable is that it changes, continuously. Jay never tells the same story twice, so, “if Jay is willing to repeatedly lie to the cops in order to avoid getting in trouble for buying and selling pot, why on earth would he not also be willing to lie in order to avoid getting in trouble for murder?”(Susan Par.16).
Asia McClain presents an alibi for Adnan. She can testify that Adnan was in the library after school on January 13, 1999. Had this piece of evidence been brought up in 1999, there would have been three people to provide a statement, that Adnan couldn’t of killed Hae, because he was at the public library. There is evidence to believe that Adnan’s Lawyer Cristina Gutierrez, “threw the case on purpose to get more money from the attorney” (Koenig) as Rabia believes.
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