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Sara Koenig's Investigation Into The Murder Of Adnan Syed

1184 Words5 Pages

Can you remember exactly what you did six weeks ago? That's 42 days, 1,008 hours, 60,480 minutes - because that might be the difference between a normal life, and a life in prison. This situation is not a hyperbole, it is a real circumstance one young boy was forced into. His story was covered in 2014 by an American journalist, Sara Koenig, in her podcast, Serial. The podcast follows Koenig’s investigation into the murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of Adnan Syed, which was based entirely on the account of one witness, Jay Wilds. This loose evidence has many people wondering: is one witness really enough for a conviction? The answer is no, the state’s case was not strong enough to convict Adnan Syed, it was formulated to accuse an innocent …show more content…

Firstly, Baltimore’s police department had the resources to DNA test a lot of possible evidence in this case, but chose not to. When Hae Min Lee’s body was found, she was found with fibers on her body. As Mario Peia, a lawyer for the innocence project, puts it, “I would think you would be able to compare the fibers [to something].I didn’t actually see that ever get tested. the fact that the fibers just kind of went away.”(Koenig ep 7). These fibers could have been a match for the rope found near Hae’s body, or maybe they could even be traced back to her assailant. And yet, despite all of the reasons to test the fibers, the Baltimore police department chose not to test them. These fibers could have revealed the clothes her murderer was wearing, they could have proved an innocent kid not guilty, but they didn’t. They didn’t test these for fear the fibers would not match up with their story against Adnan Syed, so they could continue to accuse him. There was another instance where they did this too, with the PERK kit. For background, a PERK kit is often referred to as a rape kit, actually there was no evidence prior that showed Lee to have been

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Crime scene investigators noted signs of a struggle left under Estelle’s nails. After it was already too late, DNA testing determined the skin found under her fingernails was not a match to Blair but rather a match to the other suspect at the time of the original investigation. The expert DNA testimony at Blair’s trial consisted of fibers and hair found in his vehicle, on his person, and at an unrelated park was circumstantial and eventually disproven by DNA

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While Wilds’s is somewhat weak because of inconsistencies between times and details, Cathy’s story is the strongest and corroborates lots of witness testimonies. She isn’t as bias as she’s only friends with Jenn, and both Wilds and Syed testify they went to her house. She testifies that when Officer Adcock called Syed, he was extremely worried, asking her “How do I get rid of a high?” (Episode 5: Route Talk) This is inconsistent in terms of Syed’s alibi.

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“Because in our files we have a lot of things, evidence they collected that got sent off and we don’t have reports for everything and we are curious about the results that we don’t have and whether or not those exist and just why they’re not in the files that we have’’ (“Inconsistencies Episode 4”). For example “The Liquor bottle for one” (“Inconsistencies Episode 4”). The police openly ignored evidence that, if added up, could have possibly proved Adnan’s innocence in the murder of Hae Min Lee. The police use the excuse that the evidence, like the beer bottle, was outside of the crime scene so they do not need to run a test for DNA even though one of the possible suspects drinks that kind of beer. The detectives were too lazy to solve the death of a high school student properly and decided to make another student pay for the crime and lose years of his life.

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His conviction was overturned after a DNA test excluded Adnan’s DNA from Hae’s body at the time of the murder. The case of Hae Min Lee’s murder and Adnan Syed’s conviction highlights the critical importance of thorough and unbiased criminal investigations, emphasizing how necessary it is for rigorous evidence collection,

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In the Adnan Syed case, the state of Baltimore and the prosecutors failed to disclose key evidence that could help his case. His team was described as “horribly negligent” as they chose not to dive deeper or ignore key evidence that could have given Adnan a second standing to his innocence. The team mostly relied on cell phone towers as key evidence to conduct any sort of prosecution against Adan Syed. Jay Wilds, a supposed witness in Adnan’s case, gave statements which were then interpreted as the cell phone towers and pings around the supposed area that Adnan and Jay were driving by after committing the crime. The problem with this is that not a single call or text pinged to one of the phone towers where Jay says he and Adnan were driving.

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1, p. 6). She explains how the investigators did not find any physical evidence because usually in a murder investigation, there has to be some physical evidence because it helps the investigators identify the killer of the victim. Even though some prints lead back to Adnan, it still doesn’t mean that those prints were from that day because Adnan has been dating Hae and Adnan probably touched Hae’s car. To add on, Sarah claims that when she interviewed the students from Hae and Adnan’s school, no one said that they saw Hae leave school with him, and that he wasn’t even near Hae’s car. Sarah Koenig explains, “Okay, so no one actually testified at trial that they saw Hae and Adnan leave school together.

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There was no physical DNA to even convict

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But Adnan still convicted regarding the lack of evidence. There was no DNA or forensic evidence at the scene, besides a palm print. Detectives say “On the palm print, there were 13 other people around and possibly holding the same book as Adnan” (The Case Against Adnan Syed 6). If there is not any evidence on Adnan, you can not link

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A piece of evidence that supports this is, "During the trial, it was revealed that the prosecution's timeline of events, as supported by the cell phone records, didn't align with the actual call logs, suggesting a discrepancy in the state's narrative." This evidence indicates that Adnan's conviction may have been based on flawed or misleading information. In light of the discrepancies between the prosecution's timeline and the actual cell phone records presented during Adnan Syed's trial, it becomes evident that the evidence used to convict him is questionable. This inconsistency undermines the credibility of the state's narrative, suggesting that Adnan's guilt may have been based on erroneous or incomplete information. By highlighting these discrepancies, we can see that the prosecution's case against Adnan lacks the solid foundation necessary for a conviction.

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there is a lot of parts where they said that Adnan Syed is innocent, For example Because if he was in the library that equals innocent ,Asia says he’s innocent, i would says he’s innocent. “ Saad Chaudry thinks Adnan is innocent”. A lot of people made him look innocent which of course I believe he’s innocent. (S1.ep1.pg27.), (S1. ep6 .pg 108.)

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When Syed was freed from jail, Hae Min Lee’s brother wasn’t there. So, the family wants Syed back in jail because they still have reason to believe that Syed murdered Hae Min Lee. Moreover, the portrayal of Syed’s innocence extends beyond legal innocence to surrounding moral innocence. Despite being incarcerated for over two decades, Syed maintains his humanity and dignity, emerging as a symbol of resilience in the face of adversity. His belief in his innocence serves as a powerful accusation of a justice system riddled with flaws and prejudices.

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Adnan was tried and convicted of a murder based on evidence that was, at points, proven to be misleading or false. The witnesses in the case lied, the timeline the state had was faulty because of its reliance on the cell records, and there are several alibis who say Adnan was not able to commit the crime because he was in other locations. It appears that the state was just trying to pin the crime on anyone they could without looking further into many obvious holes in their understanding of what happened. While it is not entirely clear who killed Hae Min Lee, it is exceedingly clear that there is a minuscule amount of reliable proof that Adnan Syed was the one who killed her and so he should not have been convicted of the crime.

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On top of that, he was convicted and given a life sentence in prison. Adnan had spent over fifteen years there with no chance of getting out until the hit podcast, Serial hosted by Sarah Koeing, brought new facts to light about this shut-and-closed case. This podcast as well as, Undisclosed created by Rabia Chaudry, Susan Simpson, and Colin Miller, both explain and analyze the facts of the case: known and unknown. With this all in mind, the court unfairly convicted Adnan Syed. To start, the court wrongfully accepted the discombobulated testimony of Jay Wilds.

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There are many cases where people, despite having no physical evidence against them, are found guilty of a crime. Although having DNA or video evidence helps, if there are enough pieces of information that build up against someone, that person’s lack of innocence becomes obvious. The same can be said for Adnan Syed, who was arrested for murder even though there was no physical evidence against him. In 1999, Adnan Syed was arrested and put in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. At first, Hae was reported as a missing person, but after a couple weeks her body was found in the woods.

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In my opinion I think that Adnan Syed is innocent I believe this because first I think that he has been acting strange. The second reason is because he would have thought about what he was doing. The last reason is because I think that he was a good kid who came from a caring family. These are the reason that I will explain in the following paragraph. I will also include my thoughts and opinion.

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