The case of the murder of Hae Min Lee has seen a resurgence of interest summoned by the addictive podcast Serial. The facts and evidence in this case have been combed through extensively since. Despite the obvious instability surrounding star witness Jay Wilds’ malleable testimony, Adnan Syed was convicted of first-degree murder and given a life sentence. The evaluation of this evidence shows that Adnan Syed did not murder Hae Min Lee, and should have never been convicted. Syed’s innocence has manifested itself in several ways, specifically with the theory of reinforcement and memory binding through emotional arousal, the complete lack of true evidence, and his staunch resolve in his innocence in the face of extreme pressure.
In the first episode Sarah Koenig talks about memories, and the power of the associations that the brain makes. Koenig states that on a regular day, if nothing unusual or particularly stimulating happens, it is normal to not be able to recall any memories from this day at all. However if something abnormal occurs on this day, it is much more likely that other mundane memories from this day will attach themselves to this emotionally arousing memory, along with a higher chance of recollection. This is the theory of reinforcement and memory binding through emotional arousal (Mather 42). Adnan had a hard time recalling anything from this day. He didn’t even remember his own alibi, speaking with Asia McClain in the library while sending an email after school. Applying this recollection theory to Adnan, we can see that he didn't remember many of the basic, and potentially helpful, portions of his day because this was just another standard day to him. Many say that the fact that his ex-girlfriend was missing should have been an emotionally arousing enough event for this theory to work. When he spoke with the police on the phone however, only a few hours after Hae's disappearance, Adnan was not thinking that she was actually missing, let alone dead. There were a myriad of places that an active teenager with the mobility of a car could be, including with her older boyfriend, so Syed did not think that this was innately abnormal. The only thing Adnan later recalled thinking about this phone call was that whenever Hae eventually made it home, she would be in a lot of trouble with her parents. School was cancelled for the remainder of that week because of heavy snow and a bad ice storm. It didn't hit Adnan until almost a week later that Hae was legitimately missing, after he returned to school. The one thing that anyone suspected of murder does is make sure their alibi is intact, whether it was made up or not. So instead of having absolutely no memory of this day, why wouldn’t he remember that he did actually have an alibi at the time of Hae’s death? This was because Adnan did not know that Hae was dead, so the events of this day didn’t have an emotional or arousing memory to attach themselves to. In his true innocence he didn’t think about needing to create an alibi for a crime he didn’t commit
The second confirmation of Adnan's innocence is the fact that there has never been any hard evidence to connect Adnan with either the murder scene or the burial site. When the police tested his boots, there was no evidence found indicating that he had been in a heavily wooded area burying a body (Chaudry, Miller, and Simpson). Undoubtedly the police searched Adnan’s room following his arrest, and nothing was ever noted or documented as being found during any search. If there was ever any evidence of any sort found that would shore up the case against Adnan, the police and the prosecution would certainly have used it to secure a conviction. No one saw Adnan get into Hae's car that afternoon, there were no actual eye witnesses to the murder, and Adnan never said anything to incriminate himself.
The circumstantial evidence that was used to convict Adnan was extremely questionable and unreliable. Anyone taking even a cursory look at this case can see that Wilds was the furthest thing from a reliable witness, with his recollection of the events of that day flailing around wildly during his interrogations and testimony, telling no less than five different versions of the day. With his story alone, even the prosecution knew that they would never have received the conviction. So they introduced the cell records and cell tower information to corroborate the timeline that Wilds laid out. Taking a deeper look at the dependability of these cell records though, it can be seen that these documents truthfully should not have been admissible during the trial. The State hung their case on two incoming phone calls, the two calls to the phone at 7:09 pm and 7:16 pm which pinged the Leakin Park cell phone tower, which would place Adnan at the burial site. During the trial the AT&T expert witness said that it is not possible to tell exactly where a phone is when a call is made or received. When AT&T faxed the phone records to the police, on the very first page of the fax highlighted for emphasis was a statement that noted that incoming calls were not to be used as markers for where a phone might be, as the incoming phone call data is very unreliable (“Fax Cover from ATT”). This means that incoming calls cannot be used as an accurate barometer for where a phone is, and should not be used as one would use a GPS tracker, especially in 1999. Even outgoing calls were hard to pin down with specificity because there are so many different variables that can determine which cell tower a phone connected to. It is a reach to say with confirmed certainty that because the phone connected to the Leakin Park phone tower at the alleged time of Hae's burial, that this is exactly where Adnan, or his phone fort that matter, were at. It is well known that cell towers cover ranges of localities and not just one exact location. So how can we say that Adnan was somewhere that only one other person, an admitted liar, saw him when he could have potentially been at least two miles away? Sure it is possible to say that Adnan could have been in Leakin Park that night with Jay, but it is also just as possible that he could have been anywhere in the area that uses the cell tower near the park. But possibilities do not a conviction make. Nothing other than fluctuating testimony and unreliable cell phone records have come close to placing Adnan in Leakin Park that night, and no alternative corroboration or evidence has been offered up since.
The final and perhaps most telling validation of Adnan's innocence is his resolute steadfastness that has lasted up until today. Think for a moment about the pressure cooker of a situation Adnan found himself in on the day of his arrest. The police snatched the teenager out of his bed in his family home at 5 am and arrested him for murder. He was questioned for six hours, and was denied the opportunity to speak with both his lawyer and his parents. He was scared, hungry, and exhausted. During this six hour time period in the face of this extreme tension, Adnan never said anything that was used against him during the trial. Adnan did not bend, fold, or seek any plea deals during this interrogation. A known tactic that police use during murder investigations is threatening the accused with very harsh punishments, convincing them there is absolutely no way out. This is actually known to work 1 out of every 4 times, and is even higher among juveniles, regardless of innocence (Hritz, Blau, and Tomezsko). Even with the possibility of being separated from his family and going to jail for the rest of his life, the young teenager never wavered, and that resolve has remained just as firm until this day. After 16 years he has never faltered and has never confessed to anything in order to cut a few years off his sentence or serve his time in a prison with more freedom and comfort.
Is it more likely that Adnan was able to hold to this resolve because he had lived his whole life to that point with some sort of undiagnosed personality disorder, despite showing no inclination towards violence, or because he is truly innocent? Would a guilty person completely forget about a legitimate alibi? Shouldn’t there be at least one piece of damning evidence besides untrustworthy testimony that tied Adnan to this crime in some way? The reason that Adnan Syed
Works Cited
“Asia McClain Affidavit.” 2000. Photograph. Serial Podcast. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Chaudry, Rabia, Miller, Colin, and Simpson, Susan. “Adnan’s Day” Audio Blog Post. Undisclosed. 15 Apr. 2015. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
“Fax Cover from ATT.” Photograph. Undisclosed Podcast. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Hritz, Amelia, Blau, Michael, and Tomezsko, Sara. False Confessions. Cornell University Law School. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Mather, Mara. “Emotional Arousal and Memory Binding.” Perspectives on Psychological Science. (2007): 42. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
