Sarah Koenig's Serial: The Guilt Of Adnan Syed

Although some will say that Adnan is a sketchy person, in reality they should believe that Adnan is a chill type of person. When Adnan is being questioned by police and Sarah Koenig he is calm and more laid back about it compared to others. Also his story is consistent and he doesn't let others get to him, when Hae Lee broke up with him each time he wasn't clingy or obsessed. In a Serial Episode it says, “Adnan syed Each time we broke up or each time -- let me just say this, each time she ended the relationship or took a break, it was never a thing where i was like pestering her or, like, going to her house knocking on the door or chasing her down”(“Episode 02: The”15). When Hay lee broke up with Adnan he never appeared to be obsessed with

When presenting their cases, hosts in true crime podcasts narrate in an unbiased and serious manner to emphasize the seriousness of the matter and to allow the reader to draw their own opinions. In Serial, Sarah Koenig investigates the murder of Hae Min Lee and as part of her investigation, she interviews Adan Syed, the boyfriend convicted of her murder. Above all, Koenig does not treat Syned as guilty but rather plays both sides by saying things such as “Maybe Adnan really is innocent. But what if he isn't? “(Koenig) and allows the listener to come up with their own conclusions. Similarly, Payne Lindsey, Phoebe Judge, and Marc Smerling do this in their podcasts as well, allowing the listeners to be attentive and become Sherlock Holmes for a

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.

Adnan Syed, a senior in Woodlawn High School, was convicted and charged with the first-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999. Not only is Adnan’s alibi inconclusive, but he also fails to recall any specific details or occurrences of January 13th-the date Hae Min Lee disappeared. His acquaintance, Jay Wilds, has served as the State’s key witness. Despite having already served seventeen years in prison, Adnan did not murder Hae Min Lee. His innocence simply has not been captured due to missing perspectives, inconsistencies in Jay’s story, and biases in the law enforcement.

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."

Adnan never forcefully stood up for himself, which proves that he isn’t innocent. For example,

There are many ways to decide what makes a man guilty. In an ethical sense, there is more to guilt than just committing the crime. In Charles Brockden Browns’ Wieland, the reader is presented with a moral dilemma: is Theodore Wieland guilty of murdering his wife and children, even though he claims that the command came from God, or is Carwin guilty because of his history of using persuasive voices, even though his role in the Wieland family’s murder is questionable? To answer these questions, one must consider what determines guilt, such as responsibility, motives, consequences, and the act itself. No matter which view is taken on what determines a man’s guilt, it can be concluded that

Similarly, Koenig in Serial spends many hours reviewing the case attempting to discern, whether Adnan is guilty or innocent. She spends many hours on the phone with Adnan, even more than she does with her friends. Koenig feels invested in the case and in Adnan. When Adnan says, “I mean, you don’t even really know me though,” Koenig gets very insulted. Koenig believes that through the over thirty phone hours she logged with Adnan, she got to know him. She even calls this Adnan’s hostility, as she describes in her podcast following this statement “This is the closest thing to hostile Adnan has ever gotten with me.” The case certainly is very time-consuming for Koenig, and perhaps becomes a big focus of Koenig’s life to figure out whether Adnan

Throughout Koenig’s investigation, she wavers on whether Adnan is guilty; she does not tell us her viewpoint of Adnan’s innocence - the direction she chooses in her conclusion. When Koenig describes the case in episode six, she lists reasons for Syed’s guilt. After, Koenig searches for reasons to disprove those reasons of Adnan’s guilt, and sometimes she even asks Syed for explanations of her findings. Many times, Koenig agrees with Syed’s explanations and many times she does not. Koenig agrees with Syed’s explanation when discussing Cathy’s detective interview, in which Cathy tells the detective that Adnan was saying on the phone what am I going to do and what am I going to say. Adnan explains if I know the police are going to call and do

Adnan Sayed, a kind-hearted and intelligent Muslim, had everything to lose. He was unfortunate to lose it all and was played. This story unfolds with this Muslims everyday life, the high school life of Adnan. He was a very caring, intelligent, and religious teen and had a relationship with a girl named Hae. Everything seemed normal and they seemed like a loving couple but then one day it changed, the couple allegedly broke up and there was disbelief about this everyone believed they were so nice and innocent. Then soon after Hae went missing, and who was left to question Adnan because he was the ex-boyfriend and was immediately a suspect. Soon after going missing, her body was found and she had been strangled and Adnan was tried

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,

Using deductive reasoning to go over this case I found it difficult to come to just one logical conclusion with so many general statements by these suspects. I first took notes about the case; including and highlighting the differences in each suspect’s story which I then used to formulate my theory.

He is saying he is not a nice person because he knows it is true. He doesn’t want to be judged based on the person he is made out to be but by the novelty of the case. He wants the listener to pick apart the evidence and break the case in order to prove his innocence - not because he is a good guy, but because he is truly innocent. Out of the entire podcast so far, this is the moment where I can trust and believe Adnan. Universally a group of people might be good but an individual person is susceptible to weakness. Not every person is morally righteous and Adnan understands this. Adnan knows himself best, therefore, he understands the capabilities of his own wickedness. Although he may not have committed the atrocities he is charged with, he is saying it is not completely out of reach. He states that he is not a good person because he may not have carried out this particular act, but it does not mean he isn’t incapable of other morally wrong decisions. The strongest reason to get rid of his own moral, humane nature is that he did not actually commit the act. Alternatively, he knows that people will be listening to what he is saying so he might be manipulating our emotions with this common evil.

Adeline's the criminal investigator here. She should have all the answers and she would if the circumstances were different. I could tell her expressionless facade

He is to be a declared good moral person to feel guilt, an amoral person has no guilt complex to be burdened. Amir has recognized his behaviour and feels his guilt. The way Amir dealt with his guilt was with restorative change. He swallowed his pride and lied to avoid justifying the situation by revisiting its details. So, Amir lied and said Hassan had stole Amir’s birthday money and watch. Ali, Hassan’s father felt humiliated and insisted he and Hassan leave, that they no longer live in Kabul with Amir and Baba. Amir was not searching for Amends, though Hassan was searching for a friend. Perhap Amir was also guilty of never being the reliable friend that Hassan was to him. He had ridiculed him on his illiteracy, referred to Hassan as only his servant, and neglect Hassan when