Adnan Syed: Guilty Case Study

Adnan Syed, senior at Woodlawn High School, was accused of the murder of his ex girlfriend Hae Min Lee and has been locked up for about 16 years now. Picture this, it’s the beginning of second semester, Adnan’s senior year, and his girlfriend has gone missing a month after their breakup. Who’s to blame? The only reasonable suspect would be the “jealous” Muslim ex boyfriend that was upset about her new boyfriend, or perhaps just simply wanted revenge on her for breaking up with him, or was just a psychopath all along. Having jealousy, wanting revenge, being a psychopath or just having extremely bad luck, whatever it was, caused him to get put behind bars for a crime that he is not guilty of.

The criminal justice system is meant to protect the innocent, and punish those who are guilty of a crime. However, no system is perfect, and as a result, sometimes the innocent become victims of the system that was meant to protect them. How exactly do these innocent people become victims of the system? Sometimes the person gets framed, and the crime scene is staged to point a finger at them. Sometimes, there is no strong physical evidence against them, yet circumstantial evidence is used by the crown to put them away. This happened to a 17 year old boy named Adnan Syed in Baltimore, Maryland, who was imprisoned for life, for the alleged murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Lee. Throughout the Serial podcast, Sarah Koenig is able to critically analyze information which proves Adnan’s innocence. Firstly, Asia’s letters gave Adnan an alibi for the time of the murder. Secondly, Adnan’s innocence can be demonstrated through the lack of any strong evidence and the prosecution’s use of circumstantial evidence which can be disproved. Thirdly, Jay’s constantly changing testimony is not credible evidence of Adnan’s guilt, making him innocent.

In any sort of legal situation, telling the truth and only the truth is extremely important. However, for Jay Wilds, the main witness in the murder of Hae Lee, it seems that the truth was the only thing he refused to tell. For example, in Jay’s story, he tells of a very memorable “trunk pop” location. This is where Jay claims that Adnan opened the trunk of Hae’s car, showing off Hae “pretzeled up.” In one interview, Jay claimed he saw the body in front of his grandmother’s house. However, Jay said in a different interview that he saw the body in front of Best Buy. These two statements are hugely contradictory. Seeing a corpse of a friend must be an event permanently engraved in one’s mind. Yet, for some reason, Jay blatantly changed the location the trunk pop happened. That is a fairly large red flag in the case, being that Jay should remember where he was when he saw the corpse of a friend.

The State of Maryland has charged Adnan with Hae’s murder solely using Jay’s alibi as their premise; they overlooked the alibis of former Woodlawn High School students who knew of Adnan, Hae, or Jay. Asia McClain, a

Every time Jay was asked to give his testimony his story changed and he never really had an exact story of what happened that day or why Adnan would have killed Hae Min Lee. In the trial testimony Jay was asked why Adnan killed Hae and he said, "because Hae made him mad." In Jay's second testimony he responded to the same question with a different reason "because Hae had broken his heart."

Annually hundreds of wrongfully convicted bystanders are let out of prison, some having served decades for crimes they didn’t commit. On January 13th, 1999, Hae Min Lee of Woodlawn high school was murdered and her body later found in linkin park. The person convicted? Adnan Syed, an ex-boyfriend. With, the majority of the evidence easily disproven by cell tower records, an alibi not ever addressed, and jurors who openly admit his culture was a factor, Adnan Syed deserves the right to a new and fair trial.

On June 07, 2000, Adnan Syed was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The evidence and statements made during this case changed often and did not prove Syed as guilty. Syed's friend, Jay Wilds, accused Syed of strangling Lee and showing him her body in a Best Buy parking lot. Wilds told the prosecution that he helped Syed bury her body in the Leakin Park woods on January 13, 1999. Many people had evidence that Syed could not have committed this crime; however, many of those people were never contacted or were never asked to testify.

More to the Story Than Meets the Eye By: De’Asia Thompson Hae Min Lee went missing after school on January 13, 1999, her strangled body was found six weeks later and Adnan Syed, her ex- boyfriend and classmate, was convicted of the murder. It was an ordinary day for students attending Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Nothing really eventful or special that day. Hae Min Lee was on her way to pick up her younger brother from school when suddenly she vanished.

No one can be convicted of a crime if his or her guilt is proven “beyond a reasonable doubt”; A trial, which lacks of factual proof and shows any discriminated against the defendant or bias toward the accused, was not acceptable. Kevin Urick, who was Syed’s prosecutor at the time, is firm with his doubt that Syed is guilty because Syed’s cellphone records, which received or make a call in Leakin Park the evening that Lee disappeared, collaborated with Wilds’ testimony. Urick uses this call to accuse that Syed was kidnapped and killed Lee in leakin Park that evening; however, Urick’s accuse was not accurate enough for the call was incoming call. In Serial, Koenig points out that AT&T, the cellphone company that Syed used, will chard for call that unanswered for an unreasonable time, which is

Lee vanished on the 13th January, 1999, she was reported missing that day by her family after she didn’t pick up her cousin from their day care. Baltimore County Police opened a missings persons case for Lee. Amid the missings persons case Baltimore County Police talked with some of Lee's companions, including Syed. On 9 February 1999, Lee's body was found by a non military personnel in Leakin Park. On 12 February 1999, the Baltimore County Police professedly got an unknown telephone call proposing that Lee's ex, Adnan Masud Syed, was in charge of her homicide, and that Syed had debilitated to murder Lee. The homicide examination of Lee was led by Baltimore City Police. On 17 February 1999, information transfers organization AT&T gave Baltimore

The fallout in a relationship can lead to one of the most complicated and emotional periods in our lives. We are compelled to sit through a continuous merry go round of rejection, anger or sadness that feels almost insurmountable. Our pride will be bruised and our ego, regardless of its size, will deflate, prompting us to murder our former significant other. This was the state’s claim regarding 17-year-old Adnan Syed’s motive in strangling his ex-girlfriend, Hae-Min Lee, on January 13, 1999. The state also built its case against Adnan out of Jay Wild’s, an acquaintance of Adnan who sold drugs, testimony and the suspect’s cell phone records. This case has garnered so much attention not because it involved an unconventional response to a break-up,

Although I tend to shy away from murder mysteries, Serial presented a captivating case with striking components that will make anyone desperately root for the justice of Hae Min Lee. From the moment I began listening to this story, I found my thoughts racing to conclude my own person theory. Between contemplating if Adnan Syed is guilty or not, this podcast is impressively well created for its audience. As Serial takes you on the journey of those accused of Lee’s murder, I would definitely tune in again in hopes that justice comes

On January 13th, 1999, a seven-teen year-old girl named Hayley Lee disappeared after school ended. She was supposed to pick up her younger sister from school and when she did not show up, they knew something was wrong. School got let out at 2:15 and when her body was found in the forest, it was determined that she died around 2:36. She had secretly been dating this guy named Adnan Syed since junior year. Both of their parents were super strict, so dating was not allowed and they ended up breaking up. On February 23rd, 1999, Adnan got charged for her murder and was sent to a maximum state prison in Maryland. He got charged with 1st degree murder and the cause of death was by hands. Everyone was confused when he got charged because everyone loved

Listeners discover that Adnan was a genuinely caring and intelligent person, and that Adnan was a cherished member of his community. Adnan was an honor student, volunteered at the mosque, and worked as an EMT. The state prosecution took these glorifying tributes of Adnan’s and turned them against him. The state used Adnan’s Muslim religion against him by saying, “he put everything on the line- his family, his relationships at the mosque, to run around with this girl.”(Episode 1). The prosecution claimed Adnan had given everything up for Hae, so when she dumped him 8 months later he became enraged, so enraged he strangled her to death. The prosecution then used Adnan’s job as an EMT against him saying “Adnan would have known how to strangle someone, and would have had the training to revive them if he wished”(Ep.2) However, the prosecution's motive for Adnan quickly dissipates as contradicting facts are brought forth. In Episode 1, Sarah interviews Rabia and Saad, some of Adnan’s close friends, and they point out that these “facts” don’t match up. Rabia and Saad point out that Adnan drank, smoked, and had sex, all things good Muslim boys do not do. Adnan was already “putting everything on the line” as the state would say. They also pointed out that Adnan was not as deeply as religious as the state made him out to be. Adnan also claims his job as an EMT was not so he could strangle Hae,

There are many people in the adnan syed case. Of course there's Adnan, Hae Min Lee murder victim, Jay and a bunch of friends of Hae and Adnan. Sarah koenig's was the reporter in the case. So does Sarah take one side over the other or is it mutual. Sarah koenig in this case has always been a Adnan's fan she has never taken another side she has always been on adnan's side throughout this whole case.