Review of Podcast about Adnan Syed Crime

Serial is a podcast narrated by Sarah Koenig, throughout the podcast she is searching for the person who is guilty of the murder of Hae min Lee. Lee went missing around January in 1999 and her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was charged and prosecuted. Although there was no clear evidence that Adnan did it,there seemed to be no one else who really could have done it. The lack of evidence created suspense throughout the story and made the audience question if Adnan really did do the crime. This murder case has many mysteries and unknowns and also has facts that really don't match up. That’s why I have come to the conclusion that Adnan is innocent.

Although Sarah ran this podcast and did many years of research she was never really able to come to a final conclusion. It seemed that the more information, she found instead of solving the case they led to more questions. The podcast says that “On January 13th, 1999 Hae Min Lee was murdered and buried in a forest named Leakin Park. ”I believe that the key evidence to argue for Adnan's innocence is in Jay’s story. The first part of Jay’s story sounded true, but the second part of the Jay’s story seemed very uncertain. If you follow through Jay’s story, Adnan would have been extremely late for his track practice. (Episode 5). Also in one of Jay’s first interviews, he said that Adnan called him to come get him and brought Hae’s body to the drug location, where they meet at. Later in Serial, Jay switched up his story and said that Adnan called from a payphone at Best Buy and showed him the body there. Eventually more research was done, and that research showed that there was no payphone in that lot for Adnan to call Jay. This means how could Adnan have contacted Jay with no phone. My question for readers is why would Jay lie? This lie to me is very suspicious and this is when I really started believing that Adnan is not the murder. (Episode 9). Another piece of evidence that also goes against the accusations of Adnan being the killer is multiple people saying that there was no way that Hae could have been dead by 2:36 PM. A key example is Hae and her friend both competed in wrestling, and Hae was telling her friend that she wasn’t able to attend the meet. They talked for about ten minutes and it would have definitely cut into the time frame of Hae being murdered. Therefore, there was no way she was killed by the time Jay said. Another piece of evidence that goes against Jay’s story, which should be to most readers a source that seems unreliable.

Some people claim that there is key evidence against Adnan, but a lot of it can be dissected down to prove that he is innocent. For example, they found a palm print of Adnan’s on a map book in Hae’s car, including his print on the page of Leakin Park, where Hae was buried. However, there were plenty of prints on the map from different people and nobody knew when the palm print of Adnan’s was put there. Since you can’t find the exact time of Adnan’s palm print this evidence becomes useless.

Also many people claim evidence against Adnan who wrote a note between him and a friend during class and one read “I’m gonna kill.” Many people say plenty of things when they are joking around with their friends, and this, more than likely, was just a joke. I'm sure many people have joked before saying the same words, but this is again not credible evidence to use against Adnan. (Episode 6).

Some people claim that if Adnan didn't do the crime who did? I personally believe that Jay is a dangerous suspect in this story and I think he might be responsible for Hae’s death. In Jay’s story evidence above proves that he lied twice. The only reason I could think of why a witness would lie, is that he or she would have to be involved in the crime. Jay could have had a motive to commit this crime, and it involves his girlfriend and Adnan. Jay had already graduated, but Stephanie was in the same grade as Adnan. The fact those two were at the dance together and such could’ve easily made Jay jealous. Jay also has a very mixed background, working at an adult film store and sold drugs. People have also claimed that Jay is a very kind guy, but he could also be rude and mean. In one of Jay’s first interviews, Jay claimed that he was the “criminal of Woodlawn.” Later, he said that he was a good guy. He went from admitting he’s a criminal to suddenly changing his mind and saying he’s a good person in the wake of lee’s death. The reviews about Jay’s story seemed to be very suspicious to me, because how can a person be kind, but mean at the same time.

After observing all of this evidence, the main argument still continues. There is evidence that shows that Adnan is innocent. Although there is plenty of evidence to prove or go against the idea that Adnan Syed is guilty. My information leads to the conclusion that Adnan Syed is innocent and was falsely convicted for this crime especially with the lack of pure evidence against him.  

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