10,000 people are wrongfully convicted of serious crimes each year, and that at least 340 innocent people may have been executed since 1973. Adnan Syed is living proof of this statistic. He was wrongfully convicted for the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999. Sarah Koeing unfolds the whole story in her podcast “Serial”. Throughout the podcast, Sarah uncovers and interviews many for unveiling details about Adnan Syed. Even though there are leads to why Adnan Syed may be seen as the murderer and be labeled as guilty, this whole case is lacking the foundation of hard physical evidence and facts. This whole trial is being misled by Jay Wild’s inconsistent testimonies, lack of hard evidence, unreliable cellphone records, Asia McClain’s testimony, and lastly, was defended by poor tactics of Christina Gutierrez. Although many would say this is a “Young Love Gone Wrong” situation, Adnan Syed has wrongfully been in prison for misled information.
To begin with, this whole trial has been misled by Jay Wilds's inconsistent testimonies. His inconsistent lies should have been questioned more during the trial and should have been used against him. Jay wild states that the cops showed up to the video store without him knowing. When Sarah interviews his friend Josh he has something else to say. Josh states that Jay had told him that he personally called them making him 100 percent aware that police where on the way. By him lying about this it is clearly portraying that Jay was definitely had something to hide, as a result making him paranoid. Police should have questioned him further more about his inconsistencies. Jay also “forgets’’ to state in his interview on Febuarty 28th that he had seen a white van with Middle Eastern men outside the video store. This is just adding more fuel to the fire making Jay even more of a liar and making it seem that all of what he said through out this trial hard to believe. In a social phycology article titled, “How To Recognize The Signs” by Kendra Cherry, Kendra clearly states that, “If the speaker seems to intentionally leave out important details, it might be because they are lying” (Cherry 1). One can clearly see that this is the case with Jay, this type of information that he told Josh should have been said during his interview. Overall, Jay’s whole testimony can be clearly seen as a whole lie. Although Jay may not have killed Hae Min Lee, he is definitely hiding something and because of this, he should have been in the same position as Adnan Syed and also be in prison for his involvement.
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Another reason why he’s Adnan Syed is not guilty is simply because there is no hard physical evidence that was used against him. One would assume that with Adnan being sentenced life in prison there was some type of physical evidence that was used against him. But in reality, nothing was tested against him. There was no physical evidence linking Syed to the murder of Hae. Jay Wild had testified that after they buried Hae’s body, Adnan had driven the car from the park to dump her body. This is hard to believe since no soil from Leakin Park was found in the car. Jay had also stated that Adnan strangled Hae, which would evidently leave some DNA in the crime scene. The Department of Justice states that, “ DNA is generally used to solve crimes in one of two ways. In cases where a suspect is identified, a sample of that person’s DNA can be compared to evidence from the crime scene. The results of this comparison may help establish whether the suspect committed the crime. In cases where a suspect has not yet been identified, biological evidence from the crime scene can be analyzed and compared to offender profiles in DNA databases to help identify the perpetrator. Crime scene evidence can also be linked to other crime scenes through the use of DNA databases.” If they know that Adnan is the suspect then why can’t they link his DNA to the crime scene? It was reported that police had collected swabs from Lee’s body but was never tested for DNA. Adnan shouldn’t have been convicted because of the fact that there wasn’t enough solid evidence to tie him with. In Episode 03 of the “Serial” podcast, a mysterious brandy bottle was introduced. The bottle was found near Haes dead body at Leakin Park. This piece of information was very crucial and should have without a doubt been tested. The results of the test could have led this case to the actual murderer but instead wasn’t even tested. Because of these it only leads one to that Adnan Syed is in fact wrongly convicted for the murder of Hae.
Many see the cellphone records being a solid piece of evidence in this case and it was what ultimately led Adnan to being convicted. Those AT&T records stated that “Syed’s phone “pinged” a cellphone tower covering the park and nearby areas during calls he received at 7:09 pm and 7:16 pm on 13 January 1999.” These cellphone records were described by as “the pillar of the state’s case” against him. What many are not aware of is that the cellphone records that were used against Syed were considered unreliable. The Jurors of this case were also unaware of this, which is another main reason why Adnan was more than likely wrongly convicted for the murder of Hae Lee. In an Irish Times Article by Mark Ramirez, Ramirez states that “Gerald Grant, a communications forensics expert, testified in Baltimore City Circuit Court that jurors should have been told that AT&T cellphone records used to place Syed at the site where Lee’s body was buried were flawed. The AT&T engineer who testified in the original trial was not aware that outgoing phone calls were reliable but incoming calls were not, he said. A sheet accompanying the faxed records included that disclaimer but was misplaced or overlooked.” (Ramirez 1). The Jurors were clearly misinformed of the reliability of the cellphone records. If they knew this about the records then the possible outcome of the trial will be different. Possibly resulting it still being an open investigation to this day, but one thing for sure Adnan Syed was put in jail for “evidence ” that is unreliable which is unrightful.
A main reason that leads to why Adnan Syed is being wrongly convicted is because of his Alibi. Asia McClain was an important piece of evidence to support Adnan. Unfortunately, she did not participate in Adnan’s appeal. Although she wrote letters to Adnan stating that she knew he was innocent Adnan’s defense attorney never contacted Asia. Hypothetically, if Asia McClain participated during Adnan’s appeal then she would have eliminated the possibility of him being elsewhere after school on January 13th, 1999. In the article “Why Science Tells Us Not to Rely On Eyewitness Accounts” by Rabia Chaudry, Rabia states that, “Jurors tend to give more weight to the testimony of eyewitnesses who report that they are very sure about their identifications even though most studies indicate that highly confident eyewitnesses are generally only slightly more accurate—and sometimes no more so—than those who are less confident” (Rabia 4). With that being said if the jurors where to be educated on this then they would of known for a fact that Asia McClain is being honest about her testimony and woud consider that she did clearly remember that she saw Adnan enter the library at around 2:30 pm Overall, Adnan Syed’s defense team did a poor job in trying to contact Asia McClain. Asia could have served more than a purpose in Adnan’s appeal; she could have been the one in proving Adnan’s innocence.
Christina Gutierrez, Adnan Syed’s defense attorney was stated to be tough, savvy, and smart. Her colleagues even praised her by saying, “She was exactly the kind of person you’d want defending you on first degree murder charge.” The podcast seemed to display her as the complete opposite. Christina’s defense tactics quickly backfired in Adnan’s case. She failed to contact Adnan’s only alibi. After Adnan’s trial had ended Cristina’s career had also ended a year after. Adnan Syed was represented and defended poorly, at the end he was convicted which seemed to puzzle many since she was known to win cases similar to Adnan’s. Which led many to believe that this whole case was unfair and bias. Adnan should have been given a retrial but results in him serving a life sentence for a crime he is un-guilty of.
To Conclude, Adnan Syed is serving life in prison for a crime that he did not commit. This whole case is being misled by Jay Wilds's testimony, which is proven as lies. Adnan shouldn’t also be in prison because of the fact that there is no physical evidence that ties him with the murder of Hae Min Lee, the cell phone records used against him are proven as unreliable, he had a poor defense team supporting him, and of his alibi Asia McClain. As a result of this Adnan Syed is serving a life sentence in prison but is currently being re considered for a retrial. Hopefully, now he can fully be represented the way he deserves and can get his life back.
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