My Verdict on “Serial”. Adnan, Guilty or Innocent?

Posted byAhmad Abu Shawarib Leave a comment on My Verdict on “Serial”. Adnan, Guilty or Innocent?

This post is going to be about my verdict on the innocence of Adnan Syed from the Serial podcast by Sarah Koenig. I highly recommend checking out the three seasons by clicking here.

Image from fanpop. Image of podcast logo.

This post is an expansion on my previous post on “Serial”. You check that out here.

I haven’t been able to finish all the episodes released by Sarah Koenig, so my knowledge might have some gaps in it.

Today, in this post I will try to convince you that Adnan Syed was not only put into prison without a fair trial, but was wrongfully convicted. Every episode (that I have listened to) of Sarah Koenig’s podcast seems to pull you into your chair. Every time one question is answered, two more appear in its place. One mystery after the other, digging further into other sources that talked about Adnan, it all becomes very coincidental. To make things worse, the Court of Appeals, Maryland’s highest court, has denied Adnan Syed of a well deserved new trial with all the new evidence that support.

Seal of the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

I can’t imagine myself in a situation where I would be convicted for something I haven’t done, or wasn’t physically there to witness; to only be convicted by your friend – someone you can rely on in hardship and trust your things with. It just feels wrong. Why would Jay Wilds tell the story the way he did? Was he under the influence of some drug he took on that day, and that’s all he remembers? Or could it possibly be that Jay Wilds has something against Adnan, so Jay Wilds wanted him out of the picture?

Picture of Hae Min Lee

For those who still don’t know the story, here is a brief overview: On the 13th of January, 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland, a high school senior student by the name of Hae Min Lee, goes missing after school. Hae Min Lee was found six weeks later, manually strangled to death. No rope, no nothing, just someone’s bare hands. At the same time, in that 21-minute frame, Adnan Syed is accounted for to be in two places. One version is by Jay Wilds saying Adnan was at the crime scene and he killed Hae Min Lee. The other is by Asia Mcclain, saying she, her boyfriend, and his friend had seen Adnan at the campus library not murdering anyone. Unfortunately, Asia mysteriously disappeared before the trial, changing houses and moving out. So who’s right?

Furthermore, an autopsy report confirmed that Hae Min Lee was murdered on January 13th, 1999 between the times of 2:15 p.m. to 2:36 p.m.. However, there was no physical evidence linking Adnan to Hae Min Lee, or the place of murder, or the burial site. There was no evidence collected from Hae Min Lee’s body at the time, nor was there any evidence of Hae Min Lee’s prints on Adnan’s body.

Adnan’s case was handled by criminal defense attorney Cristina Gutierrez, who is believed to have purposely thrown Adnan’s case. Cristina Gutierrez died shortly, a few years afterwards, leaving more loose ends.

Asia Mcclain

To begin, Asia McClain, a possible alibi witness, was completely left out of the story. The defense attorney didn’t even mention or attempt to contact Asia at all. Asia wrote letters relating to that day, which seems to be the only physical evidence so far. These letters mentioned that Asia saw Adnan at the campus library. In the first episode of “Serial”, Sarah Koenig talks about the faults of the human memory and if something significant happens in a day, people tend to remember that entire day with a bit more clarity. This could mean that Asia did write those letters about that day. Since Asia was never contacted, this is evidence that something was wrong with Adnan’s trial.

What’s more coincidental is that there was a huge snowstorm that closed down schools and possibly streets, which called for a national emergency. Another possibility, is the body could have been affected by the weather, throwing off the autopsy record. Oddly, the state only used Jay Wilds’ story to convict Adnan, no other person was against or with Adnan. Jay Wilds told his story six times, each time changing a significant detail, either in front of friends, the police, or even during his hearing. What’s most surprising is that Jay Wilds, off tape, said that he doesn’t know anything about the murder.

Jay Wilds

Later on, while re-listening to Jay Wilds’ account of the story, I began to notice that the detective was pushing Jay Wilds to draw out a conclusion. Under stress, people can break down and tell false information. What seemed off was that the detective wanted to make Jay Wilds say that Adnan had planned this all out. From Jay Wilds’ story, after strangling Hae Min Lee, they went strolling around and smoked pot for a couple of minutes. Then, they headed back to the school between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. for Adnan’s track practice. If they did all of that, Adnan would have missed his track practice. The detective also pressed for Jay Wilds to say that Adnan gloated about killing Hae Min Lee. In addition, the detective pushed about the amount of work Jay Wilds did digging the hole that covered Hae Min Lee. What interested me the most is that the detective didn’t ask ‘why didn’t Jay Wilds try to escape’. I am quite aware that Jay Wilds’ accounts constantly changed, which is why they pressed him. However, that may have stressed Jay Wilds which would have led him to say what he thought the police wanted to hear, in order to get the police off of his back.

In the end, The cops only took his changing story because it was the most convenient, and no one else was speaking against it. Like this, Adnan was wrongfully convicted and was forced to unjustly serve 19 years of his life in prison.

Judge from Ace Attorney

Verdict: INNOCENT.

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Works Cited

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