The Case Of Hae Min Lee

February 9, 1999, was a very sad day for many in Baltimore County Maryland. This is why highschool student Hae Min Lee was found dead in Leakin Park. Just 19 days later on February 28, Adnan Syed was arrested for her murder and stayed in prison for 23 years. I believe that Adnan was falsely accused and imprisoned because Adnan did not have a good motive for the crime, he was found guilty only on the basis of reasonable doubt, and he had been exploited by his lawyer Christina Gutierrez.

When you think of a crime what is one of the first things that comes to mind? A motive. Adnan was convicted of Hae’s murder without a sound motive. The state said, as discussed in the podcast, that Adnan’s motive was based on him being upset about their breakup

During the case, the previous motives and Jay was the only substantial “evidence” against Adnan. Jay tells the police and investigators that he had helped bury Hae’s body (Also discussed in Serial S1 E4). In the article Adnan Syed is Innocent and I Can Prove It: Lawyer Rabia Chaudry it states” Wilds testified that after he and Syed buried Lee, Syed drove Lee's car from the park to a nearby street and dumped it. Yet no soil from Leakin Park was ever found in or on Lee's car in tests conducted by the Baltimore Police crime lab, Chaudry tells PEOPLE.” This evidence shows and should have shown back in 1999 tha Jay was not a credible source and should not have been

Later in her career Gutierrez had garnered a bad reputation. She would demand high sums of money in cash from her clients for legal services that would never transpire. In the article Lawyer Gutierrez agrees to disbarment It states “At the same time, clients began complaining, he said. About a dozen clients said they had paid Gutierrez, but she had not filed their pleadings in court.” She had also failed to investigate the alibi provided by Asia Mclain. In a transcript by PBS it states “This is where Asia McClain, the classmate of Adnan and Hae, said that she saw him here. And she wrote two letters after his arrest saying, ‘I know I saw you here. I can't believe that you did this because I saw you during that day.’” The exclusion of Asia’s claims in the trial was also brought up during Serial S1 E1. This shows that Gutierrez was untrustworthy and if she were not Adnan's lawyer the case might have ended with a different