“Proving Adnan Syed’s Innocence ”

Aaisha Al Jabri

Mrs. Hunt

Block D

Essay Writing Assignment

January 4, 2017
 ​ When exactly can investigators say that they have enough evidence to proof that a suspect is

guilty? Court cases highly depend on evidence to determine whether a suspect is guilty or not. But what

happens when there is not enough information or information that just leads to more questions? When

this happens, making a clear judgment on which side to take becomes extremely difficult. So in a case

like this, should investigators and judges proceed to making a judgement or should they wait until more

information could be collected? Adnan Syd’s story of conviction and life sentence for the murder of his

high-school girlfriend, Hae Lin, is one that could be used as an example of this type of cases. There are a

lot of evidence that might make us think otherwise, but in this essay I will be explaining why I think

Adnan is innocent. I was able to make this judgement from the information I was able to get from

listening to the Serial Podcast Episodes and researching the case as well as the discussions that took place

in class. I am relying on three main factors to justify my judgement that says that Adnan is innocent.

These factors are the many flaws in Jay’s account on what happened on the day when the crime took

place, Alibis’ testimonies and the many mistakes and gaps in the case that make looking again in the case

necessary and inevitable.

The first factor that I​ ​was able to retrieve form the different information sources on the case

and believe makes Adnan innocent is the many flaws in Jay’s account on what happened on the day of the

crime. His narration is noticeably inconsistent throughout the different testimonies he had to give. In

addition, the way he dealt with the whole incident was very suspicious. He demands that he offered to

help Adnan burry Hae’s body and get rid of all of the tools that was involved in the process. And after

doing all of that, he decides to tell the police of all what happened. Why would anyone want to be

involved in a crime incident the way he did and only decide to tell the truth after a time period of almost

six weeks from the incident? Even if Jay was telling the truth and was scared to tell the police because of

his fear of getting trouble of his own mischief, the way he dealt with the whole situation stays very

suspicious in a way that shouldn’t be overlooked.

 The second thing that makes me believe that Jay was not telling the truth is the noticeable way

his testimonies were inconsistent. For example, in the first taped interview Jay said that Adnan told him

about his intention to kill Have on the same day of the murder. However, two weeks later, Jay says that

Adnan started talking about his intentions four or five days before. The judges might have let that pass

thinking that it might have been just a mistake he made in remembering the information, but what about

the times he actually admitted to lying and that is what we understand when the narrator said, “Jay is

saying I figured there were security cameras at Best Buy so that’s why I lied- because I didn’t want to be

associated with it.” (Episode 4, Serial Podcast). Why would a witness lie about something that couldn't in

no way harm him? Was there something that he was trying to hide and decided that lying would save him.

The court was not wrong about being lenient with the inconsistencies, but in the way they overlooked the

fact that Jay was lying. The court should have sensed that something wrong was going on when Jay

admitted to lying and maybe should not have trusted him as a reliable witness anymore.

One last thing that makes me believe that ​Jay was up to no good was getting to know that the

narration of the events of the day are practically impossible to carry out in real life. The narrator in the

Podcast Series, Sarah Koenig, and one of her fellow producers reenacted the events the events of that day

according to Jay’s story. Doing that made them come out with one realization- Jay’s narration was just

impossible to happen in real life. The first part of the day according Jay, which involved going to the mall

and looking for a birthday present for Jay’s girlfriend, was possible. However, the second part of the day,

which involved getting Adnan to practice on time, was practically impossible. The narrator and her fellow

producer get back to Woodlawn at 4:45 while Adnan’s practice starts at four p.m. Koenig comments on

this by saying, “that means if Adnan still had to get changed, he is very late for four p.m track now, which

seems like a bad strategy for an alibi, doesn’t it?” (Episode 5, Serial Podcast). Jay and Adnan could have

never made to practice on time according to the reenactment that Koenig carried out, and that gives me
more reason to believe that Jay was making things up. That is why I believe that Jay should have never

been considered as a reliable source of evidence.

Moreover, the second factor that I am relying on to prove that Adnan is innocent is the account

of an Alibi and a couple of people who knew Adnan. According to the account of an Alibi named Asia

Mclain, ​who happens to be a classmate of Adnan’s, Adnan was at the library that day at 2:36, when the

murder supposedly took place. Mclain was never contacted to talk about this in court, but spoke with

Sarah and told her this information. Asia Mclian does not seem to have any reason to lie about her

encounter with Adnan at the library. She barely even knew the guy so why would she lie about something

like that? If I had to choose between believing either Asia’s or Jay’s account of what happened on that

day, I would have believed Asia because a person who lies once could lie a multiple times more.

The last factor that I rely on to justify Adnan’s innocence and that makes me believe that giving the case

another look would have been a good idea is the lack of solid ground that the evidences needed. There are

just too many holes and unclarity in the evidences that were used to prove that Adnan was guilty. Many of

those evidences could be easily proved to be wrong and unreliable. Nisha’s call is an example of this type

of evidences. According to Jay’s account of the events of the day Adnan called Nisha while he was in the

car with him. However, Adnan says that this call could not have taken place because he was at the library

and his phone was with Jay at that time. Nisha stated that the call did take place, which makes Adnan look

guilty. However, this piece of information was easily proved to be useless as the call could have been

simply a butt dial, but it was still considered as an evidence against Adnan’s innocence. There is more

information that show how loosely this case was treated like the way the new piece of information about

the serial killer who was released during the same period of time when Hae was killed was ignored, and

the hurry in which the case was handled knowing that Jay was bribed to tell the truth.

Adnan Syed’s case remains an example of how easy it would be to believe that someone is

innocent or guilt when there is a lack of clear evidences. However, after getting a chance to deeply think
and discuss the case I have come to believe that Adnan Syed is an innocent man and was wrongly

convicted for this crime. And even if the court thinks there is not enough information to prove this, the

case should at least be reopened in hopes of maybe finding more information.

Work cited:

“Adnan Syed is Innocent and I Can Prove It: Lawyer Rabia Chaudry.” ​PEOPLE.com​,

people.com/crime/adnan-syed-is-innocent-and-i-can-prove-it-lawyer-rabia-chaudry/.

O, Lexi. “Serial Podcast Persuasion Essay.” ​Prezi.com​, 7 May 2015,

prezi.com/xpyhvbemu9yx/serial-podcast-persuasion-essay/.