The podcast series Serial by Sarah Koenig opened up my eyes to a new perspective on the murder of Hae Min Lee. Through Koenig’s podcast I was able to gather my own information and research on this case and whether I thought Adnan was guilty. Though her information may be biased in the way she presents it, by doing further research I was able to come to my conclusion, I believe Adnan is innocent… or at least there isn’t enough evidence to prove him guilty.
Throughout my journey listening to these podcasts and finding secondary information on the subject through other resources. I have come to the conclusion that Adnan is innocent based on one excerpt from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that is, “Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to
law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.” Adnan wasn’t proven guilty, his case was a matter of proving himself innocent. Now I understand that this case was based in the USA but I still stand by Canadian Rights, as I do believe in our justice system.
As I continued to listen to more podcasts from the series and did some research from other websites, I began to realize how circumstantial the evidence against Adnan really was. It was evident he was being tried based on his religion, his “defiance” and his lack to bring forward an alibi. The most upsetting part about this case is the fact that they convicted a teenage boy without any real evidence, taking away what would become many years of his life.
Something that stood out to me about this case was the fact that the court continued to use his religion against him, suggesting that since he lied to his parents about his religious beliefs and its rules, he would in return lie about the killing of Hae Lee. They continued to claim that since he was hiding this information from his parents (which put many things in jeopardy) once the couple split he was outraged and murdered her out of anger. This to me isn’t useable evidence against Syed because of two reasons, one being, many teenagers go through breakups and they go though similar emotional states; however, in any normal teenager this does not involve murderous outrages, and the other being, any “normal” teenage boy is going to hide some information from his parents and finally this evidence is CIRCUMSTANTIAL. Although Hae is the victim, looking at this case from a different perspective gave me the thought that Hae was doing exactly the same things! She too was defying her parents as well as religion by hiding their relationship.
Although Adnan didn’t have an alibi at his original testimony in 1999 this was at the fault of his lawyer who knew about Asia but didn’t bring her forward. His alibi Asia Mcllain would end up testifying for him in 2016 at his new hearing (Herbst, Adnan Syed is Innocent and I Can Prove It). The lack of an alibi in 1999 was a large hit against Adnan, this combined with the testimony from Jay was enough evidence for the court to find him guilty of first degree murder (Finn, Digesting Serial).
However, looking past these two pieces of “evidence” against Adnan there isn’t anything else to tie him to her murder. There was no dirt in his vehicle (or hers) that would have came from Leakin Park, there is none of his DNA on her body and there are no actual witnesses of this crime. These are all reasons which lead me to believe that Adnan is not guilty of this crime. I’m not basing my decision off of his looks or his age, I’m basing it off of the cold hard facts.
As said on practicalhomicide.com there are various different forms of physical evidence, and from all the options provided, none are present in the case of Adnan Syed, except in his favour. There are letters from Asia admitting to seeing him in the library at the time the crime was supposed to be committed which a piece of defensive physical evidence.
It is all these little details of this case which lead me to believe that Adnan Syed is an innocent man in the murder case of Hae Min Lee, or at the least there isn’t enough evidence to find him guilty. If there was any physical evidence against Adnan the situation would be different; however, there just isn’t enough information to connect him to her death in my opinion. They may have had a history but that doesn’t make him a killer.
Works Cited
Geberth, Vernon J. “The Homicide Crime Scene.” Articles. N.p., Nov. 2003. Web. 28 July 2017.
Finn, Natalie. “Digesting Serial: Everything You Need to Know About the Adnan Syed Murder Case.” E! News. E! News, 07 June 2017. Web. 28 July 2017.
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