Examining Adnan Syed's Innocence With Serial Evidence Analysis

Examining Adnan Syed's Innocence with Serial Evidence

Since the well-known podcast "Serial" brought Adnan Syed's case to the public's notice, it has been the subject of intense examination and discussion. The name Adnan Syed has come to be associated with “Serial”, one of the most well-known true crime podcasts ever. The podcast, which debuted in 2014, explores the murder of Hae Min Lee, a senior in high school, in Baltimore, Maryland; and the conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed that followed. Adnan Syed is not guilty of the murder of Hae Min Lee; as the evidence against him is largely circumstantial, there are inconsistencies in the prosecution's timeline, and there are concerns about racial and religious bias in the investigation and

Some people have concluded that Adnan Syed is guilty due to his poor memory and inability to provide evidence for his alibi during his testimony. The prosecution's case against Adnan Syed was primarily based on the testimony of Jay, a friend of Adnan who claimed that he helped him bury Hae Min Lee's body. However, Jay's testimony was inconsistent and changed several times throughout the investigation and trial. One of the most significant pieces of evidence that supports Adnan's innocence is the alibi witness, Asia McClain. In the discussion with Sarah Koenig and Rabia, a lawyer , Rabia explains what Adnan said to the audience, "He's like, the only thing I could offer is I remember there's a girl I go to school with. Her name's Asia McClain. He's like, right after I got arrested, she wrote me a couple of letters. And she said she also went to see my family. And she said she specifically remembers me being at the library, at the public library, right after school. "(pg. 21) McClain claims that she was with Syed at the time of the murder, and she provided letters and affidavits to support her story. The testimony of Jay was unreliable and inconsistent, while Asia McClain's testimony was consistent and supported by physical evidence. The evidence against Adnan is largely circumstantial therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that Adnan Syed is not guilty of the

Adnan Syed is a Muslim and his family is from Pakistan, and there have been allegations that he was unfairly targeted and discriminated against by the police and the prosecution because of his background. This line of thinking is seen between Sarah and Deirdre Enright, where Enright explains to the audience, “I still don’t understand why you want this girl dead. Because she broke up with you? People break up with people all the time. I’m a little concerned about racial profiling here, you know?” (pg. 94) Despite the lack of evidence connecting him to the crime, the police and prosecution concentrated on him as a suspect from the start. There have been several instances of Muslims being unfairly targeted and falsely accused of criminal activities, leading some to speculate that Adnan's ethnicity and religion may have had something to do with this. Also the fact that there was another potential suspect who was not thoroughly investigated by the police at the time of the murder. For example, Hae Min Lee's new boyfriend, a white man with blue eyes and blonde hair, was dropped as a suspect because of his alibi of being at work, with evidence of a time stamp card, but his mother owns the store he works at and she could have altered the time to make her son not guilty, but this was not investigated. Additionally, there have been concerns about the quality of Adnan's legal