Adnan Syed, a senior in Woodlawn High School, was convicted and charged with the first-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999. Not only is Adnan’s alibi inconclusive, but he also fails to recall any specific details or occurrences of January 13th-the date Hae Min Lee disappeared. His acquaintance, Jay Wilds, has served as the State’s key witness. Despite having already served seventeen years in prison, Adnan did not murder Hae Min Lee. His innocence simply has not been captured due to missing perspectives, inconsistencies in Jay’s story, and biases in the law enforcement.
The State of Maryland has charged Adnan with Hae’s murder solely using Jay’s alibi as their premise; they overlooked the alibis of former Woodlawn High School students who knew of Adnan, Hae, or Jay. Asia McClain, a
…show more content…
Jay was a “drug dealer who worked in a porn video store” (Alvim 15). He ran an “operation out of [his] grandmother’s house...had a lot more on the line than just a few bags of weed”(Vargas-Cooper). Indisputably, Jay was a delinquent unlike Adnan, an esteemed Muslim teen referred to as the “community’s golden child”(Zaman 3). The law enforcement’s trust in Jay’s words is inconceivable; Jay is pathological liar and hooligan that has incessantly broken the law. Jay is dishonest even towards his own friend, Jenn. “When [Jenn] asked [Jay] if he was involved in the crime in any way he denie[d] it stating that even though Adnan asked for his help to bury Hae’s body, he did not help him, he only took Adnan somewhere in the city and dropped him off”(Alvim 15). Indeed, Jay seems to be minimizing his participation in the crime in order to protect himself. An innocent man would not have massive inconsistencies in his story. The discrepancies in Jay’s testimony have concealed the truth, causing for the State to have a clouded judgement on the Adnan’s
Adnan Syed is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, and various factors present him as a very likely suspect. Information put together by the state don’t add up, but instead prove he is innocent. Is Adnan guilty or innocent for his ex-girlfriend’s death? In the Serial Podcast, journalist Sarah Koenig discusses the case, committed almost seventeen years ago, and uncovers new evidence that indicates Adnan’s innocence. Adnan Syed has been viewed as a boyfriend, honor roll student, and a murderer. Many described him as a smart, flirtatious, and a likable high schooler. On January 13, 1999, his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was murdered. Investigators immediately assumed Adnan as the primary suspect because Hae had broken up with him, a month
The main source of evidence that the prosecutors used against Adnan was Jay, who by himself was not a credible informant. There were many inconsistencies in Jay’s testimony, and his side of the story changed each time he was interviewed. As well as Jay’s claims, there were many statements pointing to Adnan’s religious background being a motive for him murdering Hae
The podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig, follows the riveting murder mystery of Hae Min Lee, a senior at Woodlawn High School who was admired by many. The prime suspect was her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, with whom she had broken up prior to her death. Throughout the series, Koenig analyzed court transcripts and investigated the prosecution’s evidence in order to determine whether or not Syed’s incarceration was justified. Due to the absence of firm evidence and the numerous inconsistencies in the state’s allegations, Adnan Syed is not guilty in the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
On the other hand, Koenig begins her investigation with the belief that Syed’s defense lawyer is corrupt. Koenig was informed along with the request by Chaudry to investigate the state’s case, that Syed’s defense lawyer was the same lawyer who Koenig wrote about in the Baltimore Sun after he was disbarred from law for mishandling client’s money, and therefore Koenig was suspicious of Syed’s defense lawyer. Koenig explains this in her introduction: “Rabia was writing to me because, way back when, I used to be a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, and she'd come across some stories I'd written about a well-known defense attorney in Baltimore who'd been disbarred for mishandling client money. That attorney was the same person who defended Adnan, her
There has been a lot of speculation and internal conflict as to who committed Hae’s murder. At some points, I thought that surely Adnan had done it. However at other points, there was no way that he had killed her. Based on the lack of physical evidence against him, I do not believe that Adnan committed the murder.
The criminal justice system is meant to protect the innocent, and punish those who are guilty of a crime. However, no system is perfect, and as a result, sometimes the innocent become victims of the system that was meant to protect them. How exactly do these innocent people become victims of the system? Sometimes the person gets framed, and the crime scene is staged to point a finger at them. Sometimes, there is no strong physical evidence against them, yet circumstantial evidence is used by the crown to put them away. This happened to a 17 year old boy named Adnan Syed in Baltimore, Maryland, who was imprisoned for life, for the alleged murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Lee. Throughout the Serial podcast, Sarah Koenig is able to critically analyze information which proves Adnan’s innocence. Firstly, Asia’s letters gave Adnan an alibi for the time of the murder. Secondly, Adnan’s innocence can be demonstrated through the lack of any strong evidence and the prosecution’s use of circumstantial evidence which can be disproved. Thirdly, Jay’s constantly changing testimony is not credible evidence of Adnan’s guilt, making him innocent.
Adnan is probably innocent because the only solid evidence is Jay’s inconsistent testimony. The first evidence is the police audio when the first audio played jay mentions that he Adnan were at on the mall and the other audio mentions that they were at a different mall. And the second evidence is the court tapes when Adnan lawyer is questioning jay and changes his answers at the moment when jay was at the stage. And last evidence is Jay’s lack of memory because hard to believe that he forgot the day/night that he saw a dead body for the first time (Hae Min Lee’ Body)
My verdict is Adnan Syed is innocent of the murder of Hae Min Lee. I reached this verdict after analyzing the evidence and determining that there was a reasonable doubt that he committed the murder. The following pieces of evidence showed he was not linked to the crime: The first piece of evidence talks about the lack of physical proof.
We believe that Jay is guilty. In the next five minutes we will prove to you that Adnan is in fact innocent and why Jay should be in jail. Adnan was close friends with Jay’s girlfriend Stephanie which is what we believe Jay’s motive was to murder Hae. The court convicted Adnan of the murder with the motive of being jealous of Hae’s new relationship. We argue that the motive of jealousy was what made Jay kill Hae Min Lee.
Adnan was a caring and loved person until he made something that ruined his reputation. Upon this essay, I’ll guide you to the things we’ll be covering, Adnan’s Prom Night and the investigations. Adnan and Jay were close friends, so Jay decided to pitch in and help. As a rule, anyone who kills without having any evidence to prove them guilty is most likely to go to jail. But someone who has evidence and didn’t kill someone is most likely to have a chance on escaping from cuffs, such as what Jay did.
What would you do if a convicted criminal’s guilt was being questioned? Would you have the urge to let your inner detective shine? If you are one of those people, the perplexity of this murder would be right up your alley. On January 13, 1999, in Baltimore, Maryland, 18-year old high school senior Hae Min Lee mysteriously disappeared after school, leaving her family and friends worried. Weeks later, on February 9, 1999, the innocent young woman’s body was found buried in Leakin Park. Many people, including the whole state of Maryland, pointed fingers at Adnan Syed. Syed comes from a traditional Muslim family, yet he did “American teen-like” things, such as dating and going to
Often times there are articles in newspapers or headline segments on the news about a person who spent most of their adult life in prison, only to be freed because they were truly innocent. Thus, in the case of Joseph sledge, that was all too true. In 1976, Joseph Sledge was sentenced to prison for the double murder of Josephine Davis, 74, and her daughter Aileen, 57, at their home in the small North Carolina town of Elizabethtown (Zucchino, D., 2015 Jan., 24). It is baffling how evidence provided by officers and testimony that convicted him was the reason behind his presumed guilt and eventually the result of his freedom.
The crime that will be discussed was a rape and murder case recently happened in Waterbury, Connecticut. Chloe Ottman went out with a friend, Francisco Cruz, on a Thursday night. When she did not return home by Friday her parent’s reported to the police that she was missing. A day later her body was found. The last person to see the 16 year old girl was Francisco Cruz, who instantly became a suspect of the incident. He denied any connection to the disappearance of Chloe Ottman, but was charged with capital felony murder. It was not until a day later that he decided to tell the police the truth. Furthermore, he decided to tell the police every detail of what had happened. Cruz explained how “how he and Ottman were drinking alcohol at Holy Land USA” and went further to explain how that lead to rape and eventually murder (State's Attorney Calls Suspect's Statement 'Chilling', 2010). Police stated
Good people are not always rewarded, and people who commit felonies and do wrong are not always punished. Imagine a man who tries to be nice, honest, and friendly. One night police end up at your door and you are suddenly the suspect for your friends’ murder. This is sadly the case for James Driskell (Howe). In September of 1990 his friend, Perry Harder, was shot in the chest several times. A year later James was convicted to a lifetime in prison. The evidence the police had for the crime were 3 hairs on Harder’s chest that apparently belonged to Mr. Driskell. Later tests revealed that those 3 hairs did not
The Serial podcast, hosted by Sarah Koenig, is about the murder of young Woodlawn High School student Hae Min Lee. Hae was a smart, ambitious, and outgoing young lady taken from this world too soon. Sarah Koenig and the podcast takes us through the ins and outs of typical and unusual teenager behavior to try and uncover something unseen in this case. Adnan Syed, the now convicted murder, and Jay Wilds, the state’s only witness, are the key people of this story. I believe Adnan’s innocence should be maintained because Jay’s story should not have been used for evidence, there was not enough evidence to even arrest Adnan, and Adnan had a trustworthy alibi.