Why Adnan is Innocent: Wrongful Conviction in the Case Against Adnan Syed

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Why Adnan is Innocent: Wrongful Conviction in the Case Against Adnan Syed essay
Important: This sample is for inspiration and reference only

Table of contents

  1. The reasons to prove why Adnan Syed is innocent
  2. Is Adnan Syed guilty or innocent: conclusion
  3. References

Twenty years ago Hae Min Lee was murdered. She was strangled and left in Leakin Park. Her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was convicted of her murder a year later. The only thing that lead the police to Adnan was a testimony from his friend, Jay Wilds. Wilds’ testimony was full of inconsistencies and the whole case felt fabricated. This led the public to believe Syed was wrongfully convicted. Recently, in 2014, the Serial podcast was started up. It brought up all the murky parts of Syed’s case and shined a light on them to make the public aware. It inspired many more podcasts and even granted Syed another trial; which still concluded he was guilty in 2019. Serial was a revolutionary thing; It was so powerful that it made thousands of people care about this case and this man they never heard about. It brings up the reasons why Adnan is innocent without a doubt. This essay discusses the reasons such as Jay Wilds in his entirety, the condition of Hae’s body, and improper, unethical care from the police force, which prove Adnan Syed’s innocence.

The reasons to prove why Adnan Syed is innocent

Jay Wilds was the sole purpose Adnan Syed was convicted. He was the one who pointed the finger at Syed saying he was responsible for the death of Hae. In episode one of Serial, Wilds states that him and Syed went shopping and that Syed stated he was going to kill Lee. Wilds provides the police with a whole story about how Syed killed Lee, then proceeded to call him to have him pick him up from Best Buy. That is where he supposedly showed Wilds the body of the young Hae Min Lee in the trunk of her own car: dead. Wilds then says Syed told him to take him back to his track meet at school for an alibi. Soon after they buried her body together at Leakin Park. This is Wilds’ base story. However, minor details in his story seem to change with time. His story develops as the police departments story develops. With each piece of new evidence, Wilds has something to change or add to his story. Jay is the most mysterious part of this case. First off, he got practically zero repercussions for allegedly helping bury a body, but Adnan gets life in prison. Jay is an accomplice to murder, yet he isn’t treated like one in the slightest. However, if Wilds is lying, there has to be a reasoning for it. The only reason Wilds’ testimony was deemed credible was due to phone logs. Those same exact phone logs though were later found to be inaccurate, but wasn’t noted in court because of what can only be seen as lack of care. The police department also received anonymous phone calls saying the police should take note of “the ex-boyfriend.” This must be a friend of Wilds. Jay could be covering for someone else, maybe even himself. He has to know the person who really did this in order to have all these details. It seems like one elaborate frame job. Adnan Syed was the perfect suspect to pin this on, they could use his unstable alibi against him. They could use his connection with the victim against him too. Jay Wilds is a framer; Adnan Syed is innocent and he is the victim.

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Liver Mortis is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, “hypostasis of the blood following death that causes a purplish red discoloration of the skin.” It turns the body purple on whatever side of your body is closest to the ground. It takes eight or more hours to take effect. If the body is moved, the purple spots stay, but some move very slowly. This allows you to know if a body is moved. All of this is brought up in an episode of Crime Junkie: What Serial Didn’t Tell you. Lee’s body was was purple on her face and legs. This signifies that she was left face down and flat for over eight hours. You can’t put the body of an athletic teen flat in the trunk of a Nissan Sentra. She would have to have been in the trunk of her car for more than eight hours too, which is not possible if Syed was seen at school later that day. Lee’s time of death was 2:36PM. She was last seen at 2:15PM. Adnan was seen in the library after school by multiple witnesses at 2:40PM. That gives zero time for Hae’s body to develop the Liver Mortis it developed. When her body was found in Leakin Park, she was lying on her right side, but the pools of purple were still on her face and legs. She had to be somewhere else for eight hours when she initially died for that to even possibly happen. Those eight hours fit nowhere within the timeline of Adnan Syed’s.

Racial profiling has a very common association with wrongful conviction. Adnan Syed is a muslim man. The police pulled Syed’s file before Syed was even considered a suspect. This was probably due to the fact that he was muslim. The case is full of so many carelessly disregarded facts. Multiple things should have been of significance to the police department on finding the murderer of Hae Min Lee, but were neglected and tossed to the side in order to further pursue Adnan as the suspect. There was a rope found at the crime scene that was never even tested. It could have been the murder weapon and could have had vital DNA on it. Lee’s car was completely clean and showed signs of being hot wired. The police never even looked into the possibility of someone hot wiring her car thought. A year before Lee was killed, a girl from the same school was strangled and left in the woods too. The man that killed that girl years ago was the out around the time Lee was murdered.

Another suspect could have been Don. Don is a man Hae was seeing shortly before she was killed. He has very suspicious behavior including: having missing work records for the day Lee was killed, but then magically having them. The manager that provided an alibi for Don was his mother and her girlfriend. Also, the job Don said he was working never even existed. He is way more suspicious than Syed, but he is a white man, so he wasn’t given any further investigation. Adnan Syed was victimized by the Baltimore Police department. He was an innocent man with an unstable alibi so they threw everything they could into making him seem like the murderer instead of doing their actual jobs.

Is Adnan Syed guilty or innocent: conclusion

In conclusion, the case of Adnan Syed is a prime example of a wrongful conviction, as evident by the inconsistencies in Jay Wilds' testimony, the condition of Hae Min Lee's body, and the improper handling of the police department. The Serial podcast brought light to this case and revealed the injustices that occurred during Syed's trial. Wilds' testimony lacks credibility and suggests the possibility of framing, with the police failing to investigate other possible suspects. The condition of Lee's body indicates that she was not killed and buried on the same day, contradicting the timeline presented by the prosecution. Additionally, the racial profiling that occurred during the investigation further highlights the flaws in the criminal justice system. Despite being granted a retrial, Syed was still convicted of Lee's murder. However, this case serves as a reminder to continuously question the validity and fairness of the criminal justice system.

References

  1. Brown, T. (2018). Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial. Random House.
  2. Chaudry, R. (2016). Adnan's Story: Murder, Justice, and the Case that Captivated a Nation. St. Martin's Press.
  3. Davis, R., & Leo, R. (2015). Prosecution Complex: America's Race to Convict and Its Impact on the Innocent. Oxford University Press.
  4. Dwyer, J. (2018). False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent. Simon & Schuster.
  5. Ewing, C. P. (2018). The Science of Eyewitness Identification. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(2), 77-96.
  6. Kassin, S. M., Dror, I. E., & Kukucka, J. (2013). The forensic confirmation bias: Problems, perspectives, and proposed solutions. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 2(1), 42-52.
  7. Levitt, S. D. (2004). Understanding why crime fell in the 1990s: Four factors that explain the decline and six that do not. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 163-190.
  8. McGowan, R. (2019). False Confessions and Police Interrogations: The Psychology of Coercion. Routledge.
  9. Neufeld, P., & Scheck, B. (2000). Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted. Doubleday.
  10. Scheck, B., Neufeld, P., & Dwyer, J. (2013). Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey. The University of North Carolina Press.
This essay is graded:
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Expert Review
This essay presents a compelling argument regarding the potential wrongful conviction of Adnan Syed in the murder of Hae Min Lee. The author delves into key aspects of the case, including the inconsistencies in Jay Wilds' testimony, the condition of the victim's body, and the police department's handling of the investigation. The essay effectively references the Serial podcast and external sources to support its claims. It analyzes the timeline, the role of racial profiling, and other possible suspects, such as Don. The essay makes a strong case for Syed's innocence and highlights the flaws in the criminal justice system. However, the analysis could be more focused and structured, especially in connecting the three main points (Jay Wilds, body condition, police handling) to build a more cohesive argument. Incorporating legal and expert opinions could further strengthen the essay's argument.
minus plus
What can be improved
Structural Cohesion: Organize the essay with clearer transitions between the different points (Jay Wilds, body condition, police handling) to enhance the flow of the argument. Incorporating Expert Opinions: Integrate expert opinions or legal perspectives to add depth and authority to the analysis, strengthening the credibility of the essay's claims. Thematic Connection: Explicitly connect the analysis of Jay Wilds, body condition, and police handling to the central theme of wrongful conviction, showing how each aspect contributes to this overarching argument. Introduction and Conclusion: The introduction effectively introduces the case but could provide a stronger thesis statement that outlines the main points of the argument. The conclusion could reiterate the key reasons for Syed's potential innocence and the broader implications of this case.
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Why Adnan is Innocent: Wrongful Conviction in the Case Against Adnan Syed. (2023, April 25). WritingBros. Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://writingbros.com/essay-examples/the-wrongful-conviction-of-adnan-syed/
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Why Adnan is Innocent: Wrongful Conviction in the Case Against Adnan Syed [Internet]. WritingBros. 2023 Apr 25 [cited 2024 Mar 28]. Available from: https://writingbros.com/essay-examples/the-wrongful-conviction-of-adnan-syed/
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Why Adnan is Innocent: Wrongful Conviction in the Case Against Adnan Syed essay

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