Jennifer Pusateri: Innocent Or Guilty

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.

Further, inconsistencies in a case should never be ignored, and for Jay, his story is full of them; because of this, Jay is an unreliable witness and cannot be depended on to tell the truth. There are many problems with Jay’s stories he tells, like Sarah Koenig says, “… the stories about where he is are so messy and so confusing that I can't even keep the different versions straight.” (Koenig 4) For example: “In the first taped interview, Jay says they're grabbing some food at a restaurant when Officer Adcock calls Adnan asking if he's seen Hae. The next time he tells it, he says that when that call comes, they're at a friend's apartment – a friend whose father happens to be a homicide detective in another county.” (Koenig 4) That doesn’t seem

Physical evidence was extremely lacking, and all DNA tests conducted were clear of Syed’s DNA. Therefore, it is more than likely that Syed is innocent. The evidence, or lack thereof, presented in the case of Adnan Syed v. State of Maryland proves that Adnan Syed is not guilty of the murder of Hae Min Lee.

A main point of interest and something that Jay was incredibly inconsistent with, was the location where Adnan supposedly showed Jay the body. In his first interview Jay told the police that Adnan showed him Hae’s body at Edmondson Avenue. However, second interview he said that he saw the body in the Best Buy parking lot. If you were in this position, would you forget the place you saw a dead body? Another detail he repeatedly changed was when Adnan told Jay that he was going to kill Hae. The day changes from the day of the murder to 3 or 4 days earlier. In fact, just about the only consistent event that occurs in all of Jays different retellings of the day Hae was murdered was the ‘come and get me’ call from

The Serial podcast, hosted by Sarah Koenig, is about the murder of young Woodlawn High School student Hae Min Lee. Hae was a smart, ambitious, and outgoing young lady taken from this world too soon. Sarah Koenig and the podcast takes us through the ins and outs of typical and unusual teenager behavior to try and uncover something unseen in this case. Adnan Syed, the now convicted murder, and Jay Wilds, the state’s only witness, are the key people of this story. I believe Adnan’s innocence should be maintained because Jay’s story should not have been used for evidence, there was not enough evidence to even arrest Adnan, and Adnan had a trustworthy alibi.

In the first episode of serial (episode #) in one the police tape had jay interview and the police had some simple questions that had to relate to the day of Hae Min Lee disappearance. And of course, jay mention Adnan was at the scene/event. Some minor point of the during the interview. For example, what did Jay and Adnan do after

My verdict is Adnan Syed is innocent of the murder of Hae Min Lee. I reached this verdict after analyzing the evidence and determining that there was a reasonable doubt that he committed the murder. The following pieces of evidence showed he was not linked to the crime: The first piece of evidence talks about the lack of physical proof.

A lot of people wonder if Adnan Syed is guilty or innocent, today as a legal assistant I'm going to tell you one important reason why he is innocent. Adnan is not guilty because there is another potential suspect like Jay. Jay's story that "proves" Adnan's guilt, has changed every interview and testimony. Jay had intimate knowledge of the crime he knew things, like if he knew every single thing that Adnan was thinking about which makes everything looked suspicious. Also Jay's stories don't quite match Adnan's cell records.

Adnan expresses, “No way did I, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t either, imagine that she would turn up, dead, murdered, her body would be found.” (ep. 9). According to Adnan, when he found out that Hae’s dead body was found he didn’t believe it. When he found out, he actually called the police to tell them there had to be a miscalculation and that they got the wrong person. Adnan was genuinely sorrowful and perplexed when he was told that Hae was dead. In all likelihood, if he would have killed her, he he wouldn’t have expressed the emotions and actions he did. “I understood they were asking questions, but not that they actually thought that I killed Hae.” (ep.9). Adnan goes on to say that the day he got arrested, he didn’t even consider himself to be a possible suspect for murdering Hae. On account of Adnan not thinking the police were at his house to arrest him for this crime shows how the only thing he had tied to this case was that he was Hae’s most recent

When someone is innocent, they aren’t blamed for a crime, and when someone is guilty, they are blamed. So, would Adnan Syed be innocent or guilty, for being accused of murdering Hae Min Lee? The podcast Serial is narrated by Sarah Koenig, which is about a man named Adnan Syed who was put in jail for “killing” a woman named Hae Mine Lee. Adnan’s ex-friend, Jay, accused and turned in Adnan into the police, stating that Adnan killed Hae. Because of this, Adnan was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life. After investigating the case, it is clear that Adnan is innocent because he had a good relationship with Hae after the breakup, he was a good student, and there was no trace of Adnan that showed he killed Hae.

On January 13th of 1999, a 17 year old Korean girl by the name of Hae Min Lee when missing after school in Baltimore, Maryland. Lee’s body was discovered in Leakin park; three weeks later in a shallow grave. The police arrested and charged Lee’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed with the murder six weeks later. The police alleged Syed because of phone records they obtained also their only witness Jay Wilds. In the murder case of Hae Min Lee, Adnan Syed should not have been convicted. Syed should not have been convicted on the account of Syed has no history of violence, the single witness in the case has major inconsistencies in his story about the events that occurred, and the lack of evidence that firmly connects Syed to the murder.

examine Jay to the core by tapping into all the evidence found in this case as well as

What would you do if a convicted criminal’s guilt was being questioned? Would you have the urge to let your inner detective shine? If you are one of those people, the perplexity of this murder would be right up your alley. On January 13, 1999, in Baltimore, Maryland, 18-year old high school senior Hae Min Lee mysteriously disappeared after school, leaving her family and friends worried. Weeks later, on February 9, 1999, the innocent young woman’s body was found buried in Leakin Park. Many people, including the whole state of Maryland, pointed fingers at Adnan Syed. Syed comes from a traditional Muslim family, yet he did “American teen-like” things, such as dating and going to

As humans, we believe in myths that the police, or anyone working for the justice system, will say the truth. This is a given, since they work for the justice system. Nevertheless, the Serial podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig questions this criminal justice system people whole heartedly trust. Serial is about a 1999 case where a Muslim teenage boy, Adnan Syed, is convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee – 17-year-old Korean teenager. I have listened to the Serial podcast and took a significant amount of interest toward it. However, when I continued to listen to the podcast, I could clearly see that throughout Adnan’s trial and the investigation process, there were many flaws in the justice system. This has confirmed the criminal justice system to be flawed and ineffective, which is seen through the defense, investigation team, as well as the prosecution.

He spent time in prison, and two years on death row. However, when a DNA test was done in 1993, he was exonerated from his crime (Iwasaki, 2017). This proves that before there were advances in technology like DNA testing, the justice system was and still is capable of making mistakes. There is no way to tell if the over 1,000 people executed since 1973 were innocent, but many times new evidence has come up after the defendant was executed.