Running head: RESEARCH PROJECT

Research Paper: Serial

Benjamin D. Miller
English 12 Honors
Glenelg High School

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Adnan Syed: Guilty or Not Guilty

Adnan Syed was found guilty fifteen years ago for a murder, that he is truly not guilty for.
Seventeen years ago on January 13th 1999, Hae Min Lee was reported missing, and it wasnt
until a few weeks later her body was found in a shallow grave in Leakin Park Baltimore,
Maryland. The police conducted an investigation into the murder, where they gathered character
witnesses, cell phone records, and a supposed eye witness to the murder. Using these pieces of
evidence, the court built a case against Adnan Syed. They demonstrated that Adnan was an
emotional, lying teenager who they believed to be distraught over the break-up of with Hae.
After several days of trial Adnan was found guilty and was convicted of first degree murder.
Adnan was sentenced to life plus 30 years. He is fifteen years into that sentence and was the
subject of a Serial Podcast narrated by Sarah Koenig. This twelve week podcast analyzed the
details of the case. The case had many questions still unanswered, like why did Jay, the States
witness, change his story so many times or why Adnan cannot remember any details about that
afternoon? Those questions are what Sarah Koenig was investigating and if Adnan was actually
guilty or if he was innocent. The information that the podcast and other sources reveal makes it
very clear that Adnan is not guilty for the crime that he was convicted of. Adnan was really
convicted solely on the testimony of Jay. There was no DNA, physical evidence, or
corroboration of the stories told. How can a teenage boy with no history of criminal activity be
convicted for such a large penalty with no hard evidence? That is the question that so many
people struggle to comprehend. The police work in this case was very suspect and lacked the
work ethic to find the truth in this case. Jay, a fellow teenage drug dealer of Adnans,
suspiciously changed his story multiple times throughout the course of the investigation, and that

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is the only form of evidence the state has. This story however has many inconsistencies that
cannot be proven, along with many other parts of the story that the State accuses Adnan of. This
lack of reliable evidence makes Adnan not guilty.
The first thing that the State choose to attack Adnan with was his personality. They posed
Adnan as a revengeful teenager who was so angry that he strangled his ex-girlfriend to death.
However, according to Koenig (2014), many of Adnans friends believe that he could not have
committed this murder. They knew him as a smart, funny, nice guy who was always looking to
help people. Many of these same people knew Jay as the school drug dealer and as a guy they
wanted to stay away from. However, there were others in the school that thought of Adnan as a
liar and a kid who was capable of such terrible actions. For the state to display Adnan as either
personality without any sort of proof was wrong. Sure, Adnan could have been putting on an act
for his so called friends, but they also could be the people who actually knew him and knew how
he reacted to circumstances. The fact is that the State took the word of several individuals and
portrayed Adnan in a certain light that made him look guilty to the jury. Truly understanding the
exact personality of someone is nearly impossible. Considering that this laid the foundation for
the case against Adnan, makes a representation of Adnan that was possibly unfair. Basing a case
on the possible emotions of a human uses a lot of assumptions that make for a very weak case
against Adnan.
The key piece of evidence in court for Adnan is the testimony of Jay Wildes. The State
displays Jay as an honorable teenager who was doing the public a service for turning in Adnan.
In court, Jay tells the jury the events that transpired January 13th, 1999. According to Koenig
(2014) in Serial Podcast episode five, Jay tells three versions of the day. The only piece of

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evidence that the court uses to convict Adnan is a false testimony of Jays. Jay changed his story
over three times, so it impossible to know which one of his stories is actually the truth or if any
of them are true at all. How can Jay be viewed as an honorable man when he works at an adult
video store, sells drugs, and has been convicted of crimes? During Jays first interview, he tells
the cops that Adnan called him from a strip mall at Edmundson Avenue to come pick up the
body. However, in the second and third interviews Jay tells the cops that Adnan called him from
Best Buy. Now why would Jay have lied in the first place? That was a major detail that could
not have been forgotten. Another part of Jays testimony is the cell phone data. The State tried
to use this against Adnan, in saying that he was in Leakin Park at the time of the murder;
however, the cell phone records do not match Jays story. Looking at episode fives related
documents, it is clear that in Jays final testimony his story is off by over an hour from what the
cell phone records show. How is it possible for the jury to believe anything that Jay is saying
when after 3 oclock it is impossible to know what is the actually truth? Jay may have appeared
as an honorable man, but his story only contradicts the findings of the police, making him an
unreliable witness; thus, ruining all credibility in his story and the States case against Adnan.
Along with the cell phone records, the State used the cell phone tower data. The State
claims that Adnan received phone calls at 7:09 and 7:16 pm, that pinged the tower that covered
Leakin Park. According to Everett (2015), AT&T had a glitch with the towers. If Gutierrez had
paid closer attention to an AT&T cover sheet that included information about the cell phone
towers pinged by Adnans phone on Jan. 13, the trial may have ended differently. The cover
sheets stated, outgoing calls only are reliable for location status. Any incoming calls will not be
considered reliable information for location (Everett, 2105). This is a massive piece of

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information that Adnans lawyer overlooked. The only two pieces the State had on Adnan were
Jay and the cell phone towers, both were proven to have given false data. The State used these
cell phone tower data anyways and got the jury to feel that Adnan was guilty. Had Adnans
lawyer caught this, the case may have been completely changed in Adnans benefit. With this
statement, the State could not reliably place Adnan at the park around seven oclock.
Now that it is clear that the case against Adnan that the State brought to court is essential
false and incorrect, it is time to begin looking where Adnan may have been. According to Serial
Podcast episode one, Asia McClain believes that Adnan was innocent because she was talking
with him that day (McClain, 1999). Looking at the letter it is clear that she is not certain that she
saw him at that time, but it is possible. Again Adnans lawyer failed to contact Asis even though
she was the best chance at an alibi that Adnan had. Asia tried to help in 2000 with her statement
that was an Affidavit, saying that she was with Adnan until 2:40 the 13th of January (McClain,
2000). This would cover the entire 21 minute window that the State believes that Hae was killed
in. This would completely ruin the States case against Adnan if they could ever prove Asias
statement is true. Still, why Ms. Gutierrez did not contact Asis is mind boggling and really begs
the question if she was actually trying to help Adnan? This would have made it word against
word making it almost impossible to prove who was correct without concrete evidence.
Another alibi that Adnan may have is that the murder may not have been physically
possible to commit in the 21 minutes the court allotted for the crime based off of witnesses.
According to Koenig (2014) in Serial Podcast episode five, Sarah Koenig and her partner timed
themselves going through what the State believe to be Adnans actions. They left school at 2:15
and drove through town to the Best Buy, which is where Jay said was the location of the murder.

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Sarah was able to complete her trip in about 22 minutes. This shows that there is a chance that
the time window is correct, but that was with Sarah driving and running around as fast as
possible. Adnan would have had to have all the perfect circumstances in order to get their time
and with that said, there still may not have been enough time. This just puts another hole in the
States timeline. Had this been shown at court, the guilty verdict beyond a reasonable doubt
would have been hard to prove.
All of the problems and concerns with the States case begs the question what were the
police doing? And were they actually doing their job properly? The police seemed to narrow in
on Adnan and not even look at any others as potential suspects. Once they had Adnan, they
never looked to Jay or Don as suspects. At that time, it seems as if all they did was bury
evidence or anything that may have made Adnan look innocent. What is really puzzling is why
the police never ran DNA tests or looked to see if there was a phone booth at Best Buy? These
were important pieces of evidence that may have completely shown the truth one way or the
other. So many concerns were brought up by Sarah Koenig that were never answered by the
cops. The police did not time out the timeline or even see if Jays story made sense with the data
they had. This is very questionable police work and just makes it even harder for anything in this
case to be looked at as truly reliable because so much information is lacking. Adnan may be the
actual killer, but the police work in this case did not actually prove that beyond a reasonable
doubt.
While these inconsistencies make it hard to believe that Adnan was guilty, there are
people who believe he is. These individuals raise the point that if he is not guilty then he is the
most unfortunate man on the planet. It is so strange, that some of the points Jay makes very well

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may be the truth and make Adnan guilty of something. The fact that Jay had Adnans cell phone
and car for part of the day makes it seem as if Adnan was trying to hide something. And if
Adnan is truly innocent why is he not trying harder to remember what he was doing that day or
finding some way to be found innocent? Instead he accepts the fact that every piece of evidence
went against him in this case as being unlucky, and that he must have been in the wrong place.
With that said, some believe that Adnan was capable of killing because he was able to live the
double life with his parents by drinking and doing drugs. While all of these points go against
Adnan and at least give some light as to why the jury found him guilty, it does not make them
right. Adnan very well could have been a liar and a murder, but not in the case that the State
presented to the court. There is no way that Adnan should have been convicted based off the
little factual evidence the State had for the case they presented.
No DNA, no fingerprints, no confession, no conclusive timeline, and only a teenage drug
dealer with a testimony. This is the case that Adnan faced: Jay versus Adnans word. Jay laid
out a testimony to the police, where he told the police he helped Adnan try and cover up the
murder. The State set up the case as Adnan being a grieving ex-boyfriend who was enraged, but
did they really know how Adnan felt? Not even his parents or friends knew the full details, so
how could the police truly determine his emotional state. The only evidence the State supplied
was the testimony of Jay and cell phone records. However, there were major flaws with both of
these pieces of evidence that Adnans lawyer seemed to miss. Jays testimony changed three
times in the course of the investigation and many of the major details changed as well. This
makes it very hard to believe anything that Jay says and makes his events of the day unreliable.
Then with the cell phone towers, AT&T announced a glitch with them, making it impossible to

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trace incoming calls. Again the State used this evidence and Adnans lawyer failed to notice it.
These pieces of data may have convinced the jury at first, but now under further glance make it
very doubtful that the murder could have taken place in the states timeline. Because the police
seemed to stop their investigation after arresting Adnan many pieces of evidence went untested.
The police never ran down Jays story, checked DNA, looked into Asias story, or tried to find
another possible suspect. Sarah Koenig brought the case to an innocence group, and they found
many inconsistencies with the case that alarmed them. The group believed that Adnan should
not have been convicted with the evidence that was against him. The fact of the matter is that
there are too many unknowns for the jury to convict Adnan beyond a reasonable doubt. Sure,
some things make Adnan look innocent and some make him look guilty, but that does not make
him guilty in a courtroom. There must be no question of guilt in order to convict and in a case
where the true story is unknown, Adnan Syed was wrongfully convicted of the case he faced.
Adnan may have killed Hae, but not in the courts case. With that said Adnan is not guilty of the
conviction he is currently serving life plus thirty years for.

Bibliography
Everett, C. (2015, August 24). 5 Key Findings From Undisclosed That Serial Missed. Retrieved
from http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/24/5-key-finding-undisclosed-serial-adnan-syed
Koenig, S. (2014). (Producer). (2014). Serial Podcast Season 1: Episode 1: The Alibi [Audio
Podcast]. Retrieved from https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi
Koenig, S. (2014). (Producer). (2014). Serial Podcast Season 1: Episode 5: Route Talk [Audio

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Podcast]. Retrieved from https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/5/route-talk

Koenig, S. (2014). Timelines: January 13, 1999 [Image]. Retrieved from
https://serialpodcast.org/maps/timelines-january-13-1999
Koenig, S. (2014). Cell Phone Call Log [Image]. Retrieved from
https://serialpodcast.org/maps/cell-phone-call-log
McClain, A (1999). Asias Letter to Adnan [Image]. Retrieved from
https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi
McClain, A (1999). Asias Affidavit [Image]. Retrieved from
https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi