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Cristina Gutierrez Case Summary

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Cristina Gutierrez’s Faults as Adnan Syed’s Lawyer INTRODUCTION “Innocent until proven guilty” is America's motto, but in Adnan Syed's case his own lawyer didn’t even try to prove his innocence. Serial by Sara Koenig was released in 2014. She discusses the murder of Hae Man Lee, a high school student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Serial brought a lot of attention to Adnan Syed, who was convicted of Haes murder in 1999. Cristina Gutierrez, Adnan's lawyer, provided him with an incompetent defense due to evidence overlooked, such as Hae Man Lee's body, her car, and Jay’s inconsistent story. FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH When Hae Man Lee’s body was found, many forensic tests went unseen due to Cristina Gutierrez. When Crime Junkie was reviewing …show more content…

The fact that Jay knew where Hae's car was, is what proved him a reliable source, according to the prosecution. But where the car was found was obviously not where it had been the full 6 weeks. Cristina Gutierrez never brought up Hae’s car at trial, furthering the allegations that Cristina was an incompetent lawyer. That car had not been there the whole time. This puts a lot of Jay's story up for negotiation and Adnan out of the hot seat, if only Cristina brought it up at trial. THIRD BODY PARAGRAPH Throughout all of Adnan's case, Jay's inconsistent story had been the prosecution's biggest piece of evidence, and the hardest for Cristina to crack. Since Cristina neglected every piece of evidence that would have proven Jay was a liar, she had to resort to making him look guilty on the stand. Sara talked about how she would cross examine Jay and that “she was aggressive”, and Sara also states “you gotta wonder if moments like this hurt Adnan's case rather than helped it” (Koenig 8). Crime Junkie also points out that “if you follow Jay's story side by side with the police, Jay's story unfolds as police are finding new evidence, not the other way around”

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