Adnan Syed- Is He Innocent After All?

The murder case of Hae Min  Lee is a controversial one that specifically sparked my interest after I had a chance to listen to the podcast "Serial", created by Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder. The podcast goes through the events that occurred January 13th, 1999- the day Hae was murdered. Adnan Syed, Haes classmate and ex boyfriend at the time was arrested for her murder, however the debate still goes on to this day about whether or not Adnan is innocent or guilty.

Hae and Adnan at Prom
https://news.sky.com/story/the-case-against-adnan-syed-
there-could-be-thousands-more-flawed-convictions-11675415

The story begins in Baltimore, where 17 year old Adnan and 18 year old Hae went to high school. After Hae was brutally murdered and found burried in the woods a month later, Adnan was arrested for her murder. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and the main case the court had against Adnan was the testimony given by Jay, one of his friends. Jay's story was that him and Adnan were shopping when Adan told him his plan to murder Hae. After it was done Jay proceeded to pick Adnan up and help him bury the body in Leakon park. Adnan denied this ever happened and claims that Jay is lying.

When I first started watching the podcast I assumed that Adnan was guilty as it made the most sense. After all stories that consist of an ex boyfriend killing a girl are not uncommon. Furthermore, Jay's story made sense at first, why else would he make that up? However as I continued listening to the podcast stories didn't exactly line up. By the last episode of the podcast and after doing my own research, I have personally concluded that Adnan Syed is innocent.

Jay's Map Best Buy
https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/maps

The first piece of evidence that made me believe that he is innocent is the amount of holes in Jay's story. When asked the draw out a map of the telephone booth in the Best Buy parking lot where Adnan supposedly showed Jay Haes body, he drew the booth outside the best buy. Although the booth is actually inside the store and according to the best buy employees, there has never been one outside. I would think someone would remember the exact location of a payphone, especially when such a major event occurred there. Another factor of Jays story that left me unsettled was a piece of information I found on "The Daily Beast" where Jays ex girlfriend claims she got him to admit that the cops got him to tell this story about Adnan in exchange for not charging him with marijuana possession. The fact that Jay had a reputation for being "sketchy" didn't help his case either. This led me to believe that Jay was not being truthful with his testimony and that Adnan is telling the truth.

The next clue that Adnan may be innocent is that there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Upon my research, I learned that what little DNA that was left on the murder scene was not tested which I found very unusual. However they tested things such as the dirt on Adnans shoes and still nothing matched. To not find any physical evidence linking Adnan to Haes murder would be extremely unlikely if he actually did commit the crime so it only seems fitting for him to be deemed innocent.

Although Adnan could not remember exactly where he was at the time of the murder (he said he was either at the library or football practice), one of his fellow acquaintances Asia claims she saw him at the library at the approximate time of Haes death. She states that she remembers having a conversation with him while waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up, and described his behavior as calm and normal. Asia wrote two letters to Adnan after his arrest about this situation but in the end she never ended up testifying in trial. In these letters she says that he should get access to the library camera to prove he was at the there at the time, but the library never gave it to them. In her statement Asia said she was discouraged to testify, as someone convinced her not to. Although it is odd that she never choose to testify, it did not look like Asia's story was fake in any way.

Asia's letter to Adnan
https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/maps

All in all, I stand by my statement that Adnan Syed is truly innocent in the Hae Min Lee murder case. There are just so many inconsistencies in the case that it is impossible to tell what really happend the night of January 13th 1999. With the holes in Jays story, the lack of physical evidence and Adnans eyewitness, I think it is clear that Adnan was wrongly convicted in this case.

Listen to the "Serial" podcast!
https://serialpodcast.org/
Sources:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hbos-the-case-against-adnan-syed-shows-us-what-serial-could-not
http://www.lsbu-multimedia-journalists.co.uk/cresswell/2016/11/02/serial-podcast-episode-1-the-alibi-summary/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/serial-witness-asia-mcclain-claims-testimony-surpressed