Serial Podcast - You Need to Listen To This
As I've posted several times on the blog I love to listen to both podcast and audiobooks. A couple of months back my DarkCast compatriot Jonathan recommended a podcast called Serial. It's put on by the same people that do This American Life. It's a twelve episode podcast series hosted by Sarah Koenig who looks into the real-life 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee who was in High School. A couple of months after her murder, her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted of her murder with only one of his friends (Jay) testimony as evidence.
Over twelve episodes Sarah Koenig does an incredible job of putting forward both the prosecution and defenses case and looking at both of there flaws. She has an opinion on if Adnan really did commit the murder and that wavers throughout the twelve episodes. You can tell that she is genuinely conflicted about the entire case. As the listener I too was extremely conflicted after each episode. I'd describe the series as a very raw look at a case that never had any right to have convicted Adnan. That's not to say that Adnan didn't commit the murder, I'll give you my thoughts on that in a bit. However with the evidence that the jury had, I cannot believe that they convicted him.
After Sarah goes through the past details she does her own investigation (others start to help later in the series) on whether or not Adnan really did kill his ex-girlfriend. She has hours of conversations with Adnan who has never once admitted to murdering Hae. In most of her conversations with Adnan he comes across as a guy who either is a master deceiver or someone who was wrongly convicted. If you haven't listened to the podcast I'd recommend you stop reading now and go listen to it. You can listen to all 12 episodes on SerialPodcast.org
Assuming you've listened to Serial here are my thoughts. I do believe that Adnan had some part in murdering Hae. Whether it was his hands that did it or Jays (his friend) or someone else, he had some involvement. Nothing about his story on that day adds up. It just doesn't make sense. Why would he let Jay borrow his car and phone? Who does that, even in 1999 who does that? Unless the police, the defense, and Sarah Koenig missed someone else that no one has mentioned yet the most likely has to be Adnan and/or Jay. There is some real mystery here that we may never get to the bottom of. But with the information given in the twelve episodes it seems like Jay/Adnan aren't telling us the entire story.
Oh and if you loved Serial make sure you watch the SNL skit which is hilarious.
