Adnan Syed: First-Degree Murder Of Hae

Have you ever wondered what comes in play in a first-degree murder? How do you know if the person is getting a fair chance for justice? On January 13th, 1999 a girl named Hae Min Lee went missing. Adnan Syed, a Pakistani Muslim was accused of first-degree murder of killing his ex-girlfriend Hae. Adnan and Hae both went to Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Currently, Adnan Syed is serving life sentence of the murder of Hae. Some say that the evidence provided by this case does not give a solid conclusion that Adnan Syed killed Hae, while others say that the evidence gives substantial proof that Adnan is the killer. Racial profiling and a lack of attention to significant evidence caused Adnan Syed to receive an unfair trial of murdering

As Shah writes, “Mr. Syed committed the murder because of “his honor was besmirched,” claiming it was the defendant’s “religious beliefs” that motivated him to kill” (Shah). The prosecutor is saying by default, Adnan’s religion motivated him to kill his ex-girlfriend Hae. The word choice “his honor was besmirched” is significant because it is implying that the jury used one of the Islamic teachings to sabotage the case that Adnan indeed killed Hae because of his practice of the Islamic faith. Additionally, Shah states, “Instead, it appears that the state relied on the insinuations that “Islamic culture” was at fault” (Shah). The state is explicitly saying that the cause of Hae Min Lee’s death was due to the religion that Adnab Syed follows. This justifies the fact that the jury had a bias towards Adnan Syed because he is Muslim in a place predominantly white and back community. While racial profiling was taking place in this case, there was important evidence that was disregarded that could have made a major impact on the result of Adnan’s Syed

An evidence that makes Adnan guilty is when the State “contended that Hae was killed between 2:15 and 2:36 parking lot, about a mile from Woodlawn High School” (Chen 16). Basically, Adnan and Hae were together during that time frame where Adnan strangled her at the Best Buy parking lot. Adnan told Jay to come pick him up afterwards. This aligns perfectly with Jay’s story because he told the detectives that Adnan had killed Hae at the Best Buy parking lot. Thus, making Adnan the prime suspect since he was last seen with Hae. However, a witness named Summer explicitly stated that she was talking with Hae after school during the time frame that Hae was “supposedly” murdered. The authors state, “Summer, a young woman who goes to Woodlawn High School, states that if the state said that Hae was killed by 2:36 then that is impossible” (Rosario, Tepi, Marte, and Masieh 31). At that moment, Hae and Summer were having a conversation. Hae told Summer that she would meet her at the wrestling match. They were both managers of the wrestling team. This is significant because the conversation between Hae and Summer lasted for at least 10 minutes which cannot align with the possibility that Hae was murdered at 2:36 p.m. This is very peculiar since the jury never followed through Summer’s statement. Even though the jury believed that Jay’s story was the most accurate, they forgot to make sure that his story was