Adnan Syed is released!

[Squisita]

Adnan Syed was yesterday released from jail, after a judge ruled that the state violated its obligation to share evidence with the defence that would have helped his case.

Having listened to the Serial podcast about the case, I think this was the right decision and it's come 22 years too late. Based on the evidence, Adnan should have been acquitted.

I hope this now opens the path to finding Hae Min Lee's real killer.

I don't think he's one of the new suspects they've talked about is he? They've said both suspects have a criminal record I think, does Don have one? I do think they should have investigated him more as well though

I had just stumbled upon the serial podcast recently and finished listening to the final episode this morning. It did make me feel like he was wrongly convicted so I gave it a google and couldn’t believe that he was released yesterday. I am no legal buff but the podcast made it seem like so much was left out of the trial and that it was fixed to make sure he went to prison for it. I hope if a retrial does come around that it is now fair and just so if he is then found guilty it’s because they have the evidence to prove he did it.

If I remember correctly there is a police interview with Jay where you can hear some highly suspicious tapping, like maybe a policeman tapping on a map, when Jay is ‘recounting the events’

I wasn’t aware of the Undisclosed podcast, though I listened to Serial when it came out, and was highly sceptical of the conviction. I never saw how Adnan Syed could have done it. The police investigation seemed appalling, to put it mildly - they seemed to decide it was Adnan first, then worked backwards from there.

I’ve now gone back to start listening to Undisclosed from the beginning and it’s absolutely clear that the police coached Jay on multiple occasions; that they were tapping on maps and documents to remind/prompt him after a series of ‘pre-interviews’ before they switched on the official record. He could barely string together a narrative unprompted and he readily agreed to events suggested to him that just couldn’t have happened, if other evidence from multiple people and from phone masts etc was correct. It’s heartbreaking for Hae’s family but they have to get this right now.

@AryaStarkWolf I was being a bit flippant, but we don’t know who the two current suspects are officially. There may also be a difference between what their criminal record was at the time, and what it is now.

I only hope, that whoever did it, there can be a trial and resolution for Hae’s poor family.

I've listened to Serial. One thing that struck me was, how could any of them, Adnan included, be reliable witnesses, when they were clearly high on drugs much of the time?
I don't know why Jay was given so much credence for that reason but I'm not convinced Adnan is innocent either when he just couldn't remember what he was doing for much of the time.

I think I know who the two are by the criminal history bit. I was certainly leaning towards thinking it was Adnan when I watched the show/listened to the Podcast but there are quite a few others that should have been much more thoroughly ruled out before prosecuting Adnan, for sure

Jay was given so much credence because apparently the cell phone pings backed him up (but we now know that was unreliable) plus he (apparently) told the Police where Hae's car was

I only listened to the Serial podcast and from
what I recall I was unconvinced his guilt had been established.

There’s going to be a retrial anyway so premature to say he’d “got off” yet.

And I’d rather a guilty man go free (after 22 years in prison remember, so not exactly nothing) than an innocent man be convicted.

I think if Adnan had a clear recollection of that day, it would have helped him a lot. He could have asked people like Asia Maclean to corroborate his alibi. But I think if someone questioned me a month and a half after what happened on a ‘mundane’ work day, I would struggle to remember what happened too.

(I say mundane because Adnan and all of Hae’s friends say they did not know Hae was killed that day, they all thought she had gone away (perhaps to her father’s) so there was nothing violent / disturbing to remember that day.

I’ve just looked back at my calendar at a date that 1.5 months ago and I would not be able to tell you what I did that day, except that I went to work.

I think she's guilty, too.

I always thought this as well - there was so much he couldn’t explain and so many holes.

I did think Adnan was guilty but tbf asking him to account for the full day a few weeks later must be near impossible to remember (especially if he wasn't the killer so it was just an ordinary day for him)

I too am suspicious of his guilt but I thought that (based on the podcast info at least) there was reasonable doubt. So I think if I was on the jury even though I think he probably did it, I would not be confident in returning a guilty verdict.

I feel so sad for the family though. With all the attention on the suspect it's easy to lose sight of the fact that there is a grieving family out there who are left without answers.

The thing about that though was that (as far as I can remember) every claim that Jay made was backed up by hard evidence (the mobile phone pings) or so the Jury were told

Agree about Hae's family but if I were them I'd be glad that the Police were looking into the other suspects too because it's important the right person is caught not just someone

Oh no way. I totally thought these West Memphis guys were 100pc innocent. The conviction was based on satanic hysteria and there was evidence pointing to the step father of one of the kids being involved and that the alleged marks of satanic torture were actually bites from a specific type of turtle found where the bodies were dumped. Again, a very very sad case made only more sad by the huge miscarriage of justice.

Could you tell us exactly where you were between 3-7pm on a random day a month and a half ago? Unless you have a specific daily routine it’s really difficult. I know I couldn’t.

Remember they didn’t know Hae was missing for a week or so. There was nothing memorable about the day itself.

he was a smart kid. If he’s been guilty he’d have at least tried to feed them a story. his inability to explain a lot of stuff is because he genuinely doesn’t know what happened

Hmmm. I think there are significant failings in the police investigation and no one should be in prison if not proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt - which Adnan Syed probably wasn’t. I think it’s likely he is guilty though.

A lot turns for me on whether the police told Jay the location of the car so he could pretend to tell them. That is possible I suppose, but I think Jay would have caved on something like that by now. If it wasn’t a conspiracy, and Jay genuinely did know where the car is, it’s hard to see how Adnan Syed isn’t easily the best suspect. It would mean Jay was involved at least in burying the body. We also know they were likely together at the time from the “Nisha” call. The incoming call evidence may not be reliable enough to prove it, but alongside everything else it is suspicious. In terms of when she was buried, I thought the lividity issue was contentious because it would depend on the position her body was buried in?

anyway, an absolute tragedy for Hae and her family, and I hope they get to the truth and get justice for that poor murdered young woman.

It might be worth reading my earlier post.
there is no evidence against Adnan, never mind ‘hard’ evidence.

prosecutors don’t generally throw away their own convictions. It’s not a good look to admit your own office was corrupt/incompetent.

It isn’t true to say there is “no evidence”. The quality of that evidence may be up for debate, but when someone says they helped him bury the body - that is evidence. The fact Jay is in inconsistent witness doesn’t change the fact his oral evidence is evidence.

the existence of evidence, and whether that evidence is reliable or not, are not the same issue.

For other true crime junkies, I also recommend the podcast "Black Hands" which details the infamous massacre of an entire family in Dunedin, NZ and subsequent conviction of the only surviving member of the family, David Bain.

Like serial, there was a huge groundswell of public support whipped up in support of David Bain (although no podcast, just led by some key champions of Bain). As a consequence, David was released and for a time he received quite widespread support. Although I think the tide started to turn as people actually learnt more of the actual facts, and people started to realise he is actually dodgy as fuck.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm trying to say here (or maybe my post wasn't clear) I was just explaining to the person I quoted why the jury would have believed Jay's story, at the time they were told that the cell pings were concrete (hard evidence) that backed up all the locations Jay claimed to have been with Adnan. Obviously we know that those pings were actually unreliable but they were told at the time that they were an exact science

Sorry that was in response to @Tabbouleh upthread about the West Memphis case

She was buried on her right side. She had full frontal fixed lividity. Thus she couldn’t have been ‘pretzeled’ in the car as Jay claimed and had to be laying face down for 8-12 hours post mortem. Which annihilates the states timeline, and means even if you choose to believe the discredited cell phone evidence, that adnan was near that cell tower at 7pm (remember no cell tower can give a specific location only a range/circumference around it in any direction, there are plenty of other places he could have been too), there’s absolutely no way he was burying her body.

Jay’s story was coached by police to fit cell tower evidence they didn’t understand, and before the post mortem results had been analysed.

Apologies, I misunderstood