Serial Podcast Real Evidence

The Serial podcast is a story about a girl, Hae Min Lee, that was murdered in January of 1999. Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was arrested and charged for her murder. The podcast tries to figure out if he is truly guilty and if he isn’t who did kill Hae Min Lee. Everyone has an opinion on whether Adnan is guilty or not or who did what but what needs to be talked about is whether or not the state should have convicted Adnan with the murder based on the evidence that they had.

So let’s start with what we know about the day the state says Hae was killed, January 13, 1999. Adnan gave his phone and his car to Jay to use. Adnan said he let Jay borrow these things so he could get something for his girlfriend, Stephanie. Jay tells a different story and

Jay has been caught lying multiple times. He has told lies from the very beginning. However, the police decide to trust him and let his testimony be the only real evidence in this case. There are four factors you need to check to make sure a witness’s testimony is a good and credible to use: Inherent Credibility, Bias or Interest, Inconsistent Statements, and Corroboration by Other Evidence.(Simpson) Inherent credibility is a witness’s general truthfulness. Jay does not have any general truthfulness at all. As I previously mentioned he was lying almost from the get go. He changed his story of where Adnan showed him the body, when he knew Adnan was going to kill Hae, and he had switched his story of how that day played out many times. His defense for his lying was trying to keep himself out of trouble. That’s not a very sound argument especially when you are saying that you are trying to help the police. Now for bias or interest. Jay had every reason to lie. All he had to do was go along with the story the police already had and tell them what they wanted to here. Next is inconsistent statements. Jay is basically the king of inconsistent statements. As previously stated he has lied about where Adnan showed him the body, when he knew Adnan was going to kill Hae, and where he and Adnan did that day but the lies don’t stop there. He also lied about where Adnan killed Hae and many other things. Lastly we have corroboration by other evidence. They only