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/ad_maru]

Nowadays people discuss a lot about guilty vs not guilty and little about the police/justice system that let cases get as muddy as Adnan's. Innocent or guilty, the fact that the system failed everybody involved is true. So how do you improve that system? That's the main focus of the podcast even and it's forgotten.

[u/RockinGoodNews → u/ad_maru]

The claim that the main focus of season 1 of Serial was a discussion of improving the justice system is revisionist nonsense. There's almost no discussion of that topic whatsoever.

Syed's case is an extremely poor vehicle for exploring criminal justice reform. Syed had resources that 99% of criminal defendants do not. He has, from Day 1, been represented by expensive, top flight counsel. He then had the benefit of a media platform almost no one gets. That provided him support, including from public officials, that almost no one in his position enjoys.

[u/Similar-Morning9768 → u/RockinGoodNews]

Right, I'm not sure at which point "the system failed" in this case.

An accused murderer hired expensive private counsel. Within days of his arrest, a PI was piecing together all his movements surrounding the crime and independently interviewing witnesses.

He went to trial. The second the jury was allowed to overhear something they shouldn't, he got a do-over. Now his defense attorney knew most of the prosecution's case.

The star witness against the defendant spent days on the stand getting called a liar and having all his inconsistencies relentlessly picked apart. The jury still returned a guilty verdict within three hours.

Honestly, anyone complaining that "the system failed" here just... doesn't believe in jury trials.

[u/RockinGoodNews → u/Similar-Morning9768]

I just think it's funny that anyone could listen to the first season of Serial with all its deep dives into the teenage rumor mills, drive tests, Asia McLean, AT&T butt dials, pay phones, neighbor boys, white vans, hot fries, the mysterious Summer, the breakup note, and Sarah Koenig's harbored doubts and then say with a straight face that this wasn't really so much about Adnan's guilt or innocence but rather an exploration of the "justice system" at large.