The case of Adnan Syed: A conclusion

I just saw the news that Adnan Syed has been cleared of all charges in the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae-Min Lee, due to new DNA evidence. He had been released under home detention a few weeks ago pending these results. Syed was 17 when arrested and Lee was 18 when she was murdered in Baltimore in 1999.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, the murder of Lee and the conviction of Syed were the subject of the first season of Serial, the 2014 series that was the patient zero for public acceptance of podcasts. Since the podcast, there have been various legal manoeuvrings to get Syed’s conviction re-examined for various reasons (lack of competent counsel, technical issues with the mobile phone data used), but I don’t think anyone would have predicted this outcome even a few years ago, and I am keen to learn more about the details.

My take on Serial: I was completely absorbed back in 2014, and thought it was an intriguing case. While presenter Sarah Koenig made an effort to come across as impartial, it was obvious that she had serious doubts about the case against Syed. My doubts about his guilt eroded a bit on digging deeper as there was some pretty incriminating stuff that Koenig chose to leave out of her narrative, but it was also obvious that the police had done a less-than-stellar job on the case, and had relied heavily on the word of a small-time drug dealer and acquaintance of Syed who claimed he helped Syed bury the body. It seemed plausible that Syed was involved, but the case was weak.

And here’s the interesting part of the case: that drug dealer, Jay Wilds provided evidence and details that only someone involved in the crime could know. In particular, he led the police to Lee’s abandoned car. So regardless of the rest of his story, Wilds had to have been involved at least after the fact (which he readily admitted). The case came down to the word of Wilds vs the word of Syed, and it seemed strange that police would side with the former (who got off scott free, btw, in exchange for testifying against Syed). Today’s news comes with the stinger that police will soon make an arrest based on the DNA evidence, and that can only be of Wilds, however he already has a valid excuse as to why his DNA may be on the body as he helped bury her. (There was no sexual assault in the case, which is also rare for a stranger-on-female murder)

For Hae-Min’s family, who have always been convinced of Syed’s guilt, this must be hard and I hope they get some sort of closure following the public dissection of this case over the past eight years. For Syed, if he is innocent then I am happy that this public dissection has overturned an injustice. Regardless, I think it raises serious questions about the conduct of the police involved and I hope it leads to some systemic changes.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-12/charges-dropped-against-serials-adnan-syed/101525454

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