As an avid investigator of murder cases made that catch public attention, I have been following Adnan Syed’s case closely. Personally, after examining the evidence provided by the state and after reading through multiple blogs and articles concerning Syed and the proof provided on the defensive, I feel as though he was wrongfully convicted. Linked above is a video exploring new evidence that proves how the state provided a terrible case against him, I will go on to explain a few points made in a recent article, which I think summarizes how terribly the state dealt with this case, about very specific pieces of evidence for Syed, previously used against him. In explaining evidence, there is a lot to be said, and rethought, of Syed’s innocence. One such article tackling this information, is 'Serial' Subject Adnan Syed: 4 Key Pieces of Evidence by the Rolling Stone website. It deals with four pieces of evidence. The first point is made about an existing piece of evidence, seen in a new light. Quoted from the article: “The outgoing cell towers pings, on the other hand, are accurate, but they do not link Syed to Lee's murder.” The calls that placed Adnan Syed at Hae Min Lee’s burial state, according to the star witness, Jay Wilds, were incoming calls. The state’s expert on cell towers did not know this, and when he did find out in 2015, he wrote an affidavit to Syed’s defense counsel retracting his testimony. This is only goes to prove the point that state mishandled information, and allowed an innocent man to go to prison for more than a decade, wrongfully convicted. The second point brought up is about the state’s star witness, Jay Wilds. Wilds claims that Syed told him he was going to commit the murder, and then convinced him to help him bury the body. Wilds was Syed’s acquaintance that he occasionally smoked weed though, obviously a completely reliable person. The article mentions that there are so many inconsistencies in Wilds testimonies and interviews that Susan Simpson, a lawyer who investigated the case told them: "I think their best option is to go with the theory that Jay [killed Lee] with Adnan," Simpson told Rolling Stone. "To say ‘Jay is also a murderer, Jay may have done the deed himself," that's what they have to do in order to excuse his lies. ‘Yes, Adnan was involved, and guilty and culpable, but Jay is the one who did the deed which is why he lied.' That's the state's only way to explain his lies, but that's gonna be a hard sell." It’s difficult to claim that a criminal who has been convicted for more than ten years is actually innocent, who will accept the blame for such an injustice? Wilds for lying, or the state for presenting insufficient evidence and using the jury’s sway to public opinion (at the time of the trial the public media had a lot to say about Syed and his supposed guilt)? Pictured bottom left, Adnan Syed, the accused and wrongfully convicted. Pictured bottom right, Syed and the victim, Hae Min Lee The third point addressed, is Syed’s poor memory and his failure to provide an alibi. The Rolling Stone article states: “Syed's vague memory of what was otherwise a normal school day cannot reasonably be considered evidence of guilt, but it hurt his defense because he was unable to provide an alibi for his whereabouts when the prosecution alleged the murder occurred.” Syed has no alibi for the time the murder was thought to be committed, and Wilds’ statement means he called Wilds at 2:36 pm on that fateful day, but previous points brought up show that Syed never called, but rather received two calls (!!!). However, Syed apparently did have an alibi, one he did not notice. Asia McClain and her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s friend, remember seeing Syed (he does not remember this and never mentioned it) at the library during the time he allegedly killed Lee, and wrote him two letters confessing this fact. The judge himself, Judge Welch, admits this would have hurt the state’s case had it been brought up, but Syed’s attorney never contacted them (another person that can be put on the list to blame for a wrongfully carried out sentence). Pictured above is Asia McClain The final point discussed in this article is that Syed’s only mentioned motive is that he might have been possessive over Lee after she acquired a new boyfriend. All high school relationships are toxic and exhibit unhealthy behaviour, without any substantial evidence there was no real need to convict Syed: “There was no physical evidence linking Syed to Lee's murder, and there are no witnesses who saw them together around the time of Lee's disappearance or the alleged time of the murder.” If anything, Lee’s new boyfriend should have been high on the list of suspects, and yet he was not. The only real proof are some excerpts from Lee’s diary that Syed might be jealous. Imagine a high schooler living out the majority of his life in prison because he dared to be insecure and jealous after his girlfriend broke up with him. It seems at this point that any allegations made against Syed are false and not researched thoroughly enough, everything points away from him, from the new evidence (explored in a video linked above) to the old (explained in depth by the Rolling Stone article: 'Serial' Subject Adnan Syed: 4 Key Pieces of Evidence). Why a Blog Post?I chose to use a blog post as my medium for this media text because it allows me to express my personal opinion and use many visual aids to help the reader enjoy the text presented. Blog posts are also informal and there is no expectation for formality, an author can be as crude or as opinionated as they would like to be. As well, blog posts are available to niche readers, therefore they will reach the target audience and will not up for public scrutiny, you have to look for blog posts to find them. Sources ReferencedMcDonell-Parry, A. (2016, July 01). 'Serial' Subject Adnan Syed: 4 Key Pieces of Evidence. Retrieved November 08, 2017, from
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/serial-subject-adnan-syed-4-key-pieces-of-evidence-explained-20160701
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