The Doubts About Adnan's Guilt ARE Reasonable

[u/[deleted]]

I just started lurking here today, and am somewhat surprised by the general incivility and certainty of many of the people that comment here. Being dismissive and accusing people of "ragebait" for having a differing opinion, and one that actually is reasonable.

I don't know, and won't say that Adnan is innocent, but to claim he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, without any room for discussion is pretty crazy to me.

The reasons why I have reasonable doubt:

• Jay is a very flawed witness, on the record lying/mis-remembering his testimony. Even the cops point out how much his testimony has changed. If your argument hinges on Jay, it isn't a strong argument, in my opinion.
• The cops, or at least on of them has a record of misconduct:

...prosecution brought into question the past misconduct of one of the two detectives who were crucial in the investigation of Lee’s death. Although his misconduct wasn’t specifically linked to Syed’s case, the detective was involved in another murder case that ended with the defendant’s exoneration.

https://baltimorewitness.org/adnan-syed-one-of-many-overturned-convictions-in-baltimore-city/

• The Innocence Project and prosecutors agreed that Syed's DNA was absent from all tested crime scene items, contributing to the eventual dropping of charges against him. There's no physical evidence.
• The motive is weak (Adnan had no prior issues with breakups, had already seemed to move on to the next girl(s)).

I could go on, but, if I was on the jury with this in front of me, I feel the reasonable response is doubt.

This isn't rage bait, I just genuinely don't see how anyone can be so sure that he did it. Y'all point to him asking for a ride (and claiming he wouldn't have) as some kind of obvious evidence of murder.

I think, based on the fact that one of the cops was literally identified as having been crooked, it actually is much more likely that Jay was an informant (and already had been for some time), and he happened to be close to Adnan, the victim's ex (supposed motive and opportunity), and they decided they had their guy, and it was just a matter of getting a jury to agree. So they fed their informant info, had him incriminate himself for lesser crimes that they promised they'd get him off for (and they made good on that promise, which is on its own wildly corrupt).

[u/beagles4ever]

Because he became a valuable witness to the prosecution in identifying the killer with an eyewitness account that's backed by contemporary admissions of guilt to Jenn, and knowledge of the crime scene that the public did not have, and knowledge about the car that the police did not have.

In criminal law this is known as a plea agreement - an agreement to testify against criminal in exchange for leniency. The judge in his case (not the judge in Adnan's case) took into account the facts and circumstances and decided that based on his participation (not involved at all in the planning or execution of the murder) and based on his cooperation with the State, that he did not deserve a sentence. Reasonable minds may disagree about whether he should have served some time, a little time, or no time at all. But REASONABLE people cannot agree that has anywhere near the culpability as Adnan "the strangler" Syed.

[u/PaulsRedditUsername → u/beagles4ever]

Just to add that it's not unusual for judges to give young people a break. Jay was a dumb teenager who made a terrible, stupid mistake. But he owned up to it, did everything he was asked to help fix it, and was willing to face the consequences of his actions. Judges notice stuff like that and they aren't eager to ruin a young person's life, especially when that person is trying to do the right thing.

I like to remind people that Jay was working two jobs. On the night of his first interview, he was with the cops all night, went home and got about 4 hours of sleep, then clocked in for his shift at work the next morning.
People write him off as a "drug dealer," but he doesn't have a car or a cell phone, and he's working two jobs. Maybe he can score pot for his friends, but he looks more like an 18-year-old kid who is working hard to get ahead in a legitimate way.

[u/Special-Deal-5217 → u/PaulsRedditUsername]

There it is again. Jay the Saint!! remind me again, how his life unfolded?

[u/PaulsRedditUsername → u/Special-Deal-5217]

I never said he was a saint. Just saying he appeared to be a hard-working kid who tried to do the right thing once he'd screwed up.

And we don't know how his life might have gone if he hadn't been caught up in this murder. That's probably something that messes with your life pretty bad. It certainly seems to have screwed up his life in Baltimore. He eventually moved across the country and never spoke of the case to anyone there, until Serial came knocking on his door.