By Ayah Hassan, Staff Writer
In 1999, Adnan Syed, a teenage boy from Woodlawn High school was accused of a terrable crime: murdering his ex- girlfriend. On September 11 the Baltimore City Circuit Court vacated the conviction and on October 19 the Maryland Office of the Public Defender dropped the charges against Mr. Syed.
On January 19th, 1999, Hae Min Lee (Adnan’s ex girlfriend) was declared missing. Her body was eventually found in Leakin Park in Baltimore, Maryland. After a series of interviews, investigations, and court trials, Adnan Syed was convicted of her murder and sent to jail. Was there really enough evidence to convict Adnan of such a terrible crime?
Saadi Patel, a close friend of Adnan who went to the same school as him in their senior year of high school, the year that Hae went missing. “We were childhood friends”, says Saadi. They’ve known each other since birth, hung out often, and loved to play sports together.
After Adnan was accused of murder and sent to jail, it had an immense impact not only his family and friends, but also the community around him. Saadi says that “it had a major impact on me and a lot of my close friends and family. When something like this happens you just don’t know how to continue on with your life.” Saadi uses the words ‘shocking’ and ‘disbelief’ to describe his and others’ emotions after this tragic incident.
Adnan’s community provided help and support in many ways. They not only provided financial support for the family, helping raise money to cover legal fees, but also emotional support.
Years after Adnan was sent to jail, NPR reporter Sarah Koenig produced The Serial Podcast. This not only shed light and awareness to the situation, but also investigated the case even further, looking for something that might have been missed or solid evidence supporting or refuting Adnan’s guilty verdict. Saadi says “I was happy that they were bringing attention to the case, because if they didn’t bring attention to the case, I don’t think he would have ever been released.”
The podcast was very popular and influential. Emery Hassan, a self proclaimed podcast guru said, “It was probably one of the best podcasts that I’ve ever listened to!” Diane Curry, an English teacher at River Hill High School, said, “I thought it was a beautifully crafted story. They had certainly the first half of it set up almost like a novel. They were unveiling pieces and it kept you hooked!”
The evidence used to convict Adnan was very minimal. “I think that the podcast brought a lot of issues to light. It made you realize that certain things weren’t looked at to the fullest and there was a lot of evidence that was overlooked” Emery said. Ms. Curry agreed, saying that “the cell phone data aligned with what Jay was saying but that was completely false and unreliable. You can’t get convicted from that data, that was completely unfair.”
When asked what interested him most about the podcast, Emery says “I think a lot of it had to do with it being recommended to me by so many people and just the true crime nature of it. The podcast wasn’t biased towards any person, she was trying to find out the facts of the case.”
On September 19th, 23 years after his initial conviction, Adnan Syed was finally released from prison. After his conviction, he was overturned because of failure to disclose evidence to the defense team of an additional suspect who threatened Lee’s life and had the motive and intent to kill. As Adnan left the courtroom, everyone cheered! “I went straight to his house afterwards and I got to spend a couple hours with him,” said Saadi. They hung out and he took him around to a few places. “It was almost like no time had passed.” After 23 years in prison, Adnan is slowly adjusting to a normal life.
If you are interested in listening to the true crime podcast, go to https://serialpodcast.org/. There’s even a documentary on Hulu called ‘The Case Against Adnan Syed’ that shows pictures and videos of details in the case.