Episode 6- The Case Against Adnan Syed
Notes
- Most incriminating piece of physical evidence against Adnan was a palm print on a map found on the backseat of Hae’s car
- One page was ripped out from the map, which showed Leakin Park
- Defense said you can’t put a time stamp on fingerprints and that the page ripped out showed around 90% of the places Adnan and Hae went to
- Was Adnan looking for a ride for Hae?
- Adnan told one cop he asked for a ride, told another cop that he didn’t ask for a ride
- Adnan says he was high when he got a call from the cops asking where Hae was; didn’t associate call with Hae’s tragic death, not a foreshadowing
- Adnan just thought Hae was going to get in trouble
- All of Hae’s friends thought she had run off possibly to California with her stepdad, or with her new boyfriend Don
- Adnan called Hae 3 times the night before she disappeared; Adnan says he called to give her his new phone number
- Adnan’s cell records indicate neither Hae’s number nor herpager show up again, suggesting he never tried to contact her after she went missing
- Adnan said he always got information from another source who spoke to Hae directly
- Koenig takes pause as she thinks Adnan would have called her to make sure Hae was okay since they were so close and had a relationship
- Hae had written Adnan a frustrated letter after they broke up, saying Adnan doesn’t respect her enough to accept her decision
- Adnan had shown this letter to Ayesha and they wrote notes on it; on top of the page it said “I’m going to kill”
- Ayesha says the message wasn’t part of the conversation, the message was out of context and she didn’t take it to be meaningful
- Stray report in police file w/ man named Dave calling cops saying his daughter heard something about a dead body
- Dave says “neighbor boy” had seen body of girl in the trunk of some vehicle
- Laura, Dave’s daughter’ said neighbor boy told her that she had seen dead body, needed to get something off his chest; said name of boy was Adnan
- Neighbor boy said his friend Adnan had shown him the body of a girl in the back of a car; Laura says she thought he was telling the truth
- Neighbor boy totally denies this episode when Koenig called about it; said he was only friends with Jay
- Talked to cops in 1999 and said he didn’t know anything
- “Cathy” saw Adnan and Jay acting suspiciously on the evening Hae disappeared
- All three acknowledged being together at Cathy’s apartment; after Hae had been killed but before she was buried
- Cathy says she was surprised when Jay and Adnan came together to hang out; Jay sat over by table and Adnan by the cushion, not speaking much
- Cathy says the whole night felt wrong; Jay was conspicuously chatty
- Adnan says there was something really important that he had to do
- Adnan got a phone call and says “what am I going to do? They’re going to come talk to me”
- Implies that a third person must have known about the murder
- Adnan seemed concerned
- Adnan left right after the phone call
- Jay and Adnan sitting outside in the car doing nothing
- Jen put Jay and Adnan together on the night of Hae’s murder
- Says she was one of the calls on the phone
- Adnan says Jay will call back when he is ready
- Seems like Adnan was in Leakin Park not giving the phone to Jay
- Nisha call
- Between 12-5 pm, 7 outgoing calls on log
- Only Adnan knew Nisha, who says that he and phone were separated from 12pm-5pm, but call happens at around 3 pm
- Jay says Adnan was on the phone with a girl who lived in Silverspring
- Cops talked to Nisha and she said she talked to Adnan and he put Jay on the phone
- Nisha says Adnan gave phone to Jay so he could talk to her, may have happened in the evening
- From Jay’s testimony, Jay didn’t start working at video store until end of January
- Nisha says Jay had invited Adnan to come to video store
- Asked how she was doing
- Adnan can’t explain this situation; must have been a butt dial or an answering machine; Nisha’s home phone doesn’t have an answering machine
- Adnan says biggest fear is not being believed
- Doesn’t like tendency but can’t help going overboard with facts to explain his side of the story
- Koenig sees many problems with state’s case, but many problems with Adnan’s story too
- Explains that Adnan hooked her most as to why she took this case upon herself
- Adnan explains Koenig doesn’t know her well as they have only had a few phone calls; Adnan says he’s shoot himself because people say “he didn’t do it because he’s a nice guy”
Reflection
After listening to another intriguing episode, I found that the most interesting aspect of this Serial installment were the multitude of sources that were utilized by the prosecution to either contradict or oppose Adnan’s recollection of events coming forward, and yet still not definitively painting Adnan as the guilty murderer of Hae. In the United States legal system, the saying goes that an individual is “innocent until proven guilty,” and yet from my perspective no witness or evidence highlighted or used by the state can without a doubt prove that Adnan killed Hae early in 1999. It’s hard to fathom how an informed jury could make such a decision, to put a man in jail for a life sentence, based on the inconclusive and unconvincing evidence that was presented before them. As Koenig points out, the physical evidence against Adnan was scant; a palm fingerprint found on a map in Hae’s car proves absolutely nothing, especially considering the fact that one cannot pinpoint the date that the fingerprint was left there. There seems to be no genetic or DNA evidence that can prove Adnan was guilty, and most of the witnesses questioned by the state during the trial simply point out that they may have seen Adnan at a particular time on the day Hae was killed, and even then their testimony doesn’t seem to me to be particularly convincing. Granted, there are moments where it seems Adnan may have been guilty or at the very least hiding the truth, such as with the Nisha call that was brought up in this episode. This evidence, which Koenig highlights may be one of the most damning against Adnan, only reveals that Adnan may have had his phone on him when he said he didn’t have access to it and perhaps wasn’t at school at the time he says he was; nonetheless, this doesn’t seem significant enough to render this man guilty of such a heinous crime given the lack of credible evidence presented against him.
In this episode, I particularly liked how Koenig presented and then analyzed each piece of evidence that the state used against Adnan, highlighting how each is in some way significant to Adnan’s case and how it changed her own perspective on Adnan and his recollection of events. By going in-depth on each witness and source of evidence, Koenig is painting herself as a credible and reliable individual with regards to the investigation of this case, and the audience is therefore more likely to believe her side of the story and take her word on the arguments and points that she brings up. She consistently analyzes the evidence and then does her own investigations to make a logical conclusion, never taking a definitive side in the case and adding any of her own bias. Due to her meticulous and thoughtful manner of presenting the information in her podcast, I find myself trusting Koenig more than any other individual involved in the Serial series. The state’s case is untrustworthy because of their inability to bring forward a credible piece of evidence that definitively proves Adnan’s guilt. I can’t seem to fully trust Adnan either because of flaws in his story as well as his failure to explain his whereabouts during a few crucial points in the case’s timeline, such as with the Nisha call. The only individual whose arguments are completely valid and whose trustworthiness to me seems unquestionable is Koenig, and I believe that to be one of her aims with her podcast. She clearly wants to establish a connection with her audience so that they can come to trust her as a credible reporter who can then influence and sway the beliefs of those tuning into Serial on a weekly basis, and she without a doubt accomplishes this in a deft and exquisite manner.
While I thoroughly enjoyed this episode in the Serial saga, there were some improvements that I think could have been made in order to give the audience a broader sense and greater understanding of the case against Adnan as a whole. Perhaps the biggest improvement to me that could have made listening in even more entertaining and enjoyable would have been including how exactly the defense counteracted or attempted to disprove the credibility of the evidence brought up by the state against Adnan. This entire episode was highlighting all of the sources and witnesses that were used to prove Adnan guilty, and yet not much at all was included with regards to Adnan’s defense, and I believe this to be a vital aspect of the case. Clearly, the defense didn’t do an effective enough job as Adnan was sent to jail for the rest of his life, and I wish that the Serial producers included the defense’s case so that we as the audience could comprehend where exactly they went wrong.
Furthermore, I believe that Koenig does a masterful job once again in enticing the audience to tune in for next week’s installment of Serial with the use of small teasers and foreshadowing. In this episode, Koening lays out all of the main evidence used against Adnan, all of the most incriminating sources that could have proved his guilt, which is exactly what the audience has been tuning in each week to hear. Despite revealing the information the audience is so fascinated by, Koenig still allures her audience to continue listening by revealing that now knowledgeable experts will be involved in helping to determine the guilt or innocence of Adnan. Despite the intrigue and emotional weight that this mysterious crime case carries, it is Koenig who seems to be the unquestioned star of the show, as it is her personable charm and fastidious mannerism that keeps me wanting to tune in for more.
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