Serial Podcast Informative Essay

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.

We believe that Jay is guilty. In the next five minutes we will prove to you that Adnan is in fact innocent and why Jay should be in jail. Adnan was close friends with Jay’s girlfriend Stephanie which is what we believe Jay’s motive was to murder Hae. The court convicted Adnan of the murder with the motive of being jealous of Hae’s new relationship. We argue that the motive of jealousy was what made Jay kill Hae Min Lee.

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.

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.

or something. And I sat down next to him. We starting chatting,” by Asia Mclean. This piece of evidence gives Adnan an abili to where he was after school and it causes us to believe that he couldn’t have killed Hae. The final piece of evidence Adnan and how he was during the

Adnan Syed is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, and various factors present him as a very likely suspect. Information put together by the state don’t add up, but instead prove he is innocent. Is Adnan guilty or innocent for his ex-girlfriend’s death? In the Serial Podcast, journalist Sarah Koenig discusses the case, committed almost seventeen years ago, and uncovers new evidence that indicates Adnan’s innocence. Adnan Syed has been viewed as a boyfriend, honor roll student, and a murderer. Many described him as a smart, flirtatious, and a likable high schooler. On January 13, 1999, his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was murdered. Investigators immediately assumed Adnan as the primary suspect because Hae had broken up with him, a month

Since Adnan had a lot of free time before track practice started, he usually went to the library to check his email, however, on the day Hae was killed, he talked to Asia McClain. Sarah Koenig states that, “This hour and change is a crucial window. This is the time when the states says Hae was killed. School got out at 2:15. People remember seeing her after her last class heading to her car. According to Jay's story and the cellphone records, she was dead by 2:36 PM. So sometime in those 21 minutes, between 2:15 and 2:36, she was strangled,” (Ep. 1, p. 14). This shows that Adnan had enough time to kill Hae and then go back to the school to have witnesses. Moreover, it usually takes about five minutes to check and email, and about ten minutes to have a small conversation with Asia McClain. Because of this, he had less than ten minutes to kill Hae, and then head back to school. However, Asia remembers talking to Adnan, while she was waiting for her boyfriend to come pick her up. In one of Asia’s many letters, she mentions a crucial detail. The letter states, "’Asia plus boyfriend saw him in library 2:15 to 3:15,’" (Ep. 1, p. 19). This shows that Adnan had two alibis, Asia, and her boyfriend, who both happened to see Adnan at the library during the time when Hae was strangled. Furthermore, Asia remembered seeing Adnan at the library that day, because there was a

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

What are these wrongdoings you ask? Kang claims that Serial is not so much about the cold case it is investigating, but more so the producer and narrator, Sarah Koenig’s, fixation on the case. He also believes that while Koenig may be well intentioned, she is interpreting and making assumptions on facts of the lives of people within minority communities involved with the case. Another writer, Yang asserts that This American Life’s method of narrative journalism displays “cultural clumsiness” (Yang qtd. Friedersdorf). Friedersdorf argues that these allegations

My thoughts after listening to The American Life podcast was, as bad as it sounds I didn’t even really know that there were still all black and all white schools. I didn’t know that kids were still separated in that way. I think it’s sad that still after so many years people can’t all come together as one, they have to separate themselves based on skin color. Which is just wrong. The part where they talked about students that we behind. They were correct. If you’re someone who is already way behind where you should be and you are then given bad resources and unskilled teachers you are either going to stay where you are, or get worse. If you are on a classroom with a bunch of kids who are advanced, you are more likely to catch up. The kids that

(Episode 9, pg. 134). This quote shows that he was really emotional about the breakup and that he might actually be really sad. It shows that he was actually really emotional and went from crying in heaving waves and seeming to be normal. He could have been so sad that he wanted to kill her. Sarah was biased and favored Adnan, and she might have chose to talk to people that said that he

The podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig, follows the riveting murder mystery of Hae Min Lee, a well-loved senior at Woodlawn High School. The prime suspect was her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, with whom she had broken up prior to her death. Throughout the series, Koenig analyzes court transcripts and investigates the prosecution’s evidence in order to determine whether or not Syed’s incarceration was justified. Due to the absence of physical evidence and numerous inconsistencies in the state’s allegations, Adnan Syed is innocent in the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.

Imagine being in prison for 15 years, convicted for a murder that had extremely little physical and forensic evidence against you. This was one of the numerous holes and facts that Sarah Koenig discusses in Serial that doesn’t match up in the murder case of Hae Min Lee. On January 13th, 1999, a seventeen year old student in Baltimore, Hae, disappears after school one afternoon. Her body was found in Leakin Park on February 9th, 1999, and was manually strangled. Adnan Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was arrested and eventually convicted of murdering her. The unusual aspect about this murder case is that there are many holes in the story that doesn't make sense. There is not much physical and real evidence against Adnan, although more of, stories that former classmates and friends discuss

Adnan was a caring and loved person until he made something that ruined his reputation. Upon this essay, I’ll guide you to the things we’ll be covering, Adnan’s Prom Night and the investigations. Adnan and Jay were close friends, so Jay decided to pitch in and help. As a rule, anyone who kills without having any evidence to prove them guilty is most likely to go to jail. But someone who has evidence and didn’t kill someone is most likely to have a chance on escaping from cuffs, such as what Jay did.