Episode 1: The alibi
❖It's really hard to account for your time in a detailed way
❖If some significant event happened that day, you remember that, plus you remember the
entire day much better
➢If nothing significant happened, then the answers get very general
❖January 13, 1999. Hae Min Lee disappeared. She was Korean, smart, beautiful, a great
athlete, and responsible.
➢When she didn’t show up to pick up her little cousin, her family was worried
something had happened to her.
❖On February 9th, Hae Min’s body was found in a big park in Baltimore.
❖Cause Of death was manual strangulation
❖Adnan Syed was arrested a couple weeks after that for her murder and has been in
prison ever since
❖Adnan was the community's golden child. He was smart kind, goofy handsome. He was
an honor roll student, a volunteer EMT, he was on the football team,a star runner on the
track team, he was the homecoming king, and led prayers at the mosque
➢Adnan was paid to be the EMT. He was on the track team but wasn’t the star. He
wasn’t Homecoming king but he was the prince of prom. He was pakistani
muslim
❖The State’s case against Adnan: 1. They argued he put everything on the line to run
around with this girl, so when she broke up with him 8 months later, he was left with
nothing and was enraged so he killed her. 2. Look at what a liar he is. He played the
good muslim son and yet look at how much he was lying about
➢He and Hae had been going out since junior prom. He wasn’t supposed to be
dating, his family was conservative muslims. Adnan had to keep his relationships
with Hae a secret.
❖Prosecution painted Adnan as a dual-personality.
❖Apart from fingerprints in Hae’s car, there was nothing linking him to the crime.
❖The only thing they had on Adnan was one guy’s story, a guy named Jay
➢Jay was a mutual friend of Adnan’s. Jay sold weed and he and Adnan smoked
together. The story Jay told changed from telling to telling.
➢According to Jay, Adnan had told him that he was going to “kill that bitch” in
reference to Hae Lee.
■ Jay claims he didn;t take it to seriously’
➢According to Jay, on the morning of the 13th, Adnan left school and drove to
Jay’s house. From there, they left to go shopping at the mall. Jay took him to
school, dropped him off in the back of the school. He left the cell in the car and
said he would call him. Jay believes that Adnan had left the phone in the car and
asked him to pick him up from wherever it was he was planning on killing Hae
Lee
➢Jay claims that Adnna had called himi said “that bitch is dead, come and get me,
Im at best buy”
➢Adnan asked Jay if he was “ready for this”
➢Jay claims that Adnan opened the trunk and showed him Hae Lee’s dead body
with her lips blue and her body” ‘pretzeled” up in the trunk.
➢They leave the parking lot and Adnan is driving Hae’s car with Hae Lee in the
back of the trunk. They ditch Hae’s car and then tool around Baltimore country for
a while as if nothing had happened
➢After he takes Adnan back at school and claimed it was because Adnan claimed
he needed to be seen there: he wanted an alibi at track
➢After track practice Jay drives Adnan around some more. The cops called Adnan
to see if he had seen Hae. Jay claims that after the call, they drive to jay’s to get
some shovels, retrieve Hae’s car and end up at Lincoln par where Adnan buries
Hae
➢Jay claimed Adnan asked him to help and he ended up helping Adnan dig the
hole. Digging the hole took 20-25 minutes. He claimed to have dug the hole app
6 inches. “It wasn't very deep”
❖Adnan was 32 when the narrator had visited him. He was a big guy, and had giant big
brown eyes. Could someone who looks like that really strangle their girlfriend?
❖Adnan claims that Jay’s story was completely made up. He was not involved in Hae’s
murder and had no idea who did it
❖Adnan claimed to have loved her in a high school way, and got over her. He was sad
about their breakup, but not to the point of obsession. Adnan claimed to have no motive
to have wanted to kill Hae
❖Adnan’s telling of the 13th was a lot muggier than Jay’s story
➢Adnand claims that because that day was Stephanie’s birthday and Stephanie
was a dear friend of his, he encouraged Jay to get her a gift. After having asked
Jay and finding out that Jay in fact did not get Stepahnie a gift, he encouraged
him to take his car, go to the mall, get Stephanie a gift and pick him back up from
track
❖After track practice, that’s when Adnan’s memory gets foggy
❖Adnan knows how inconvenient it is that he does not remember the day, but he does not
know what else to say. The day was like any other for him.
❖Adnan claims that there was a girl that went to his school, Asia McClain, who right after
he got arrested, wrote him letters, visited his family, and claimed to have remembered
seeing him at the public library right after school
❖Asia used to go out with Adnan’s friend Justin, and Adnan remembers thinking about
how he could tease his friend. This is how Asia jogs his memory about that night
❖Asia claims she and Adnan spoke for about 15-20 minutes while she was waiting for her
boyfriend to give her a ride.
❖No attorney ever contacted Asia about being a witness
❖A few defense attorneys claimed they out Asia in trial because alibi witnesses can
become tricky. If they put Asia on, then it is one persons’s testimony against another. In
the cross defense, the prosecution could have torn her apart
➢What doesn’t make sense, is that nobody ever contacted Asia McClain about her
information. It was a “fuck-up” by the attorney
❖Adnan’s family hired a new lawyer, who filed a petition based on the Asia affidavit. He
believed Adnan should get some form of post-conviction relief
❖The new lawyer finds Asia through a private investigator, Asia’s fiance answers the door,
says that Asia isn’t available to talk, and that from what he’s heard, Adnan is guilty of the
crime he was put away for
➢Adnan’s lawyer called off the hunt for Asia, but finds out at the hearing that Asia
had called one of the prosecutors and undermined her statement
➢According to the prosecution lawyer, Asia had only written the affadavait because
she was getting pressure from the family and wanted to get them off their back
■ It did not look good for Adnan
■ It sounded like Asia was also hiding something
❖Asia mentioned in one of her letters that there were security cameras in the library
➢The manager MIchelle Hamil calms that there likely was a security camera during
the time that could have been checked
❖To use the computers at the time, people had to have checked in by writing their name
on a piece of paper
➢These logs were not kept for 15 years
❖Adnan had a friend named Jorad
➢Jorad had no recollection of the events
❖Derek, Asia’s boyfriend at the imt was the next to be found
➢Derek couldn't remember that day either
➢He used to pick Asia up from the library all of the time
➢Derek claims that Asia is not the type to involve herself in a lie
❖Asia then calls from a blocked number
➢Asia now claims that she “trusts the court systems”
➢Asia was spooked when the private investigator came to the house
➢She had remarkable memory of the day in question
➢Asia claims that when she talked to Adnan, he said that he and Hae had broken
up and that she cheated on him with “some white dude” but that he seemed very
chill about it
➢Asia remembers that day because it snowed; It was the first snow of the year
➢Like a lot of other people, Asia claims that Adnan was a nice guy and didnt seem
to harbor any negative feelings for Hae
➢Asia’s testimony would crumble the prosecutions case because they believe that
at the time frame that Asia saw Adnan was when Hae was murdered
❖By the time Asia came forward, it was already too late
➢The judge had ruled that not using Asia’s affidavit was strategic
Episode 2: The Breakup
❖Hae had a diary where she talked about her and Adnan’s relationship.
➢The first entry is on April 1st 1998, when they started going out
➢The last entry is dated January 12th, the day before she went missing
➢Adnan asked Hae to prom because of a competition between hm and his friends
to get the prettiest girl to go with them
➢Hae’s diary was like any other high school girl’s
❖Their relationship was entirely secret.
➢Hae would lie to her parents about where she was going: she would tell her
parents she was going to her friend’s house and go see Adnan
➢They had to schedule their talks on the phone. One would page the other when
the coast was clear. Then that person would call some 1-800 service and either
one would call in so that the call would come in through call waiting.
❖Adnan sometimes came over as a bit controlling or over-involved
➢One time Adnan came uninvited to a girls trip to check in on her
➢It never seemed weird to Hae how Adnan acted
■ Nobody thought it was weird at the time
➢Hae would also sometimes pick fights and had a strong personality
➢Hae never had much bad to say about Adnan in her diary
❖They broke up and got together a few times
❖Hae’s diary is apparently where they found the evidence that Adnan was moving against
his religion by being with Hae and it was tearing him up inside
➢He called her a “devil” a few times jokingly
➢Adnan told Hae that his religion meant a lot to him, but he fell in love with Hae, a
great sin, despite that. He said that he couldn;t let her go but that one day he
would have to choose between her and her religion
➢Hae was distressed and believed she was tearing him away from his beliefs
➢Adnna claimed that he wasnt that religious and likely just said this stuff as a joke
❖Adnan didnt care that much about lying to his parents
➢He was a good kid and didnt believe he was doing anything to be that ashamed
of
➢Adnan’s mom knew more than Adnan thought
➢To Adnan’s mom, him dating was not as big a problem as it was made to seem
❖Adnan’s parents had found out about Adnan taking Hae to prom
➢They showed up at the dance and chastised him and made a scene
➢Adnan actually found the whole situation hilarious
■ He was not as tormented as the prosecution made the jury believed
❖One of the points the prosecution made was that working as an EMT, Adnan would have
known how to strangle someone and would have had the training to revive someone if
he wished
❖Adnan’s english teacher Jane Effron was interviewed and claimed that Adnan showed a
dark side in his poetry
❖Hae did not find the homecoming debacle very funny
➢Hae wrote that she was heartbroken but that she knew what she was doing was
right. A month later, Hae is filled with love for Anan again. 3 days after that Hae
confessed in her diary that she was thinking about someone else: Don, an older
man
➢By Christmas Hae and Don were officially over
❖On New Years day Hae went on her first date with Don, and they started going out.
➢According to Aisha, Don was significantly older than her and Hae
❖According to Jay, who suopplied th emotive to police, Hae had broken his heart and he
victimized himself and coudnt believe that Hae could be that heartless.
➢This is when he says jokingly”Im gonna kill her”
➢Most people found Adnan’s res;onse to the breakup normal
➢Adnan definitely wasnt mooning over Hae
➢Adnan was dating multiple girls during the time Hae was dating Don
➢Adnan was a “player”
❖Adnan describes the breakups as calm, and mutual
❖Hae never expresses concern about Hae’s breakup behavior
➢There is one instance where Hae’s car breaks down and she calls both Adnan
and Don and they decide together that it is not safe to drive.
■ Even Don describes the encounter as very cordial
❖Hae was still sending flirty messages to Adnan and got him a very expensive Christmas
gift
❖The night Hae disappeared, Adnan called her from his cell 3 times. 11:27 pm and 12:01
am were 2 seconds each. The third call at 12:35 am lasted a minute and 24 seconds.
➢Adnan said he likely called Hae to tell her his new cell, he just got it the day
before
❖In her last diary entry, Hae talked about how much she loved Don and that she believed
sje found her soulmate
❖The day Hae died, Adnan allegedly tried to get into her car
➢Hae had been planning to meet Don at the mall
➢Hae ran in to get something to drink, tell the wrestling bus not to leave, and left
her car running the whole time
➢Adnan was not seen anywhere near Hae’s car
➢Adnan claims to have not remembered asking Hae for a ride because he knew
she always had to pick up her cousins
■ Some witnesses say that Adnan did ask Hae for a ride
➢Adnan himself had actually told the police that he was supposed to get a ride
home from Hae but that he got detain dand she got tired of waiting and left
➢Adnan later then tells a different cop that he wouldn't have asked Hae for a ride
cause he drives his own car
Adnan allegedly committed a felony: crimes punishable by death or confinement of a year or
more and fine
Criticisms of Incapacitation
•Incarceration shifts criminality from outside prison to inside prison
•Violent offenders continue offending in prison, property offenders continue also
Episode 3: Leakin Park
❖Mr. S works in the maintenance department at the school. He found the body
❖Leakin part is huge and is known for dead bodies being found there
❖Adnan claims to have never even been to leakin Park
❖Mr. S walks out to pee, but he walks way too far for someone just finding somewhere to
pee (127 feet)
➢Mr. S was a suspect in the case
➢Mr. S’s testimony was super suspicious, and while the police questioned him,
they sort of just blew past it
➢127 feet really wasn’t that far
❖The police tried to trick Mr. S into admitting that he threw out alcohol out of the window
which matched with the brandy they found at the scene
➢Mr. S has a criminal record for streaking
❖Mr. S. fails a polygraph test but he was nervous because of an important meeting with a
realtor
➢Second time he takes it, no deception indicated
Episode 4:
❖Police get an anonymous call saying to look at Anan as the murdered of Hae Lee
❖Jay tells his friend Jen that Adnan killed Hae Lee.
➢Jen liues to the police at first and says that she knows nothing
➢Jen then decides to come with an attorney and her mom
➢Jen doesn;t know much pretty much all the details Jay told the police
➢Jay claims not to have known where Adnan was killed, but he found the shovels
and got rid of the clothes and boots he was wearing the previous night
❖a=Jay tells the police he knows where Hae’s car is
❖Adnan was close with Jay’s girlfriend Stephanie, and he believed that it was the only
reason Jay could have turned on him
❖Jay claims that Adnan would have turned to Ja to help him with the crime because he
considered him a criminal who sold drugs
❖There are inconsistencies in Jay’s testimonies.
➢Details keep changing
