What would you do, or how would you feel if you were accused of something you know nothing of, especially something that could affect your life in a bay way?

What would you do, or how would you feel if you were accused of something you know nothing of, especially something that could affect your life in a bay way?

Well, that’s the case of a teenage boy, Adnan Syed, accused and served time for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee that happened in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 13, 1999 (Anon, 2020). The lack of persuasive evidence they have against him even though his friend Jay testified against him makes me personally think that he did not commit the murder. Could Jay be the murderer and tried to frame his friend knowing that they split and decided to use that at his advantage and made it looks like Adnan murder her because of the breakup and his pride? Well, only one person could help if she can really and ready to testify in favor of Adnan.

“Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both before we commit ourselves to either,” Aesop said. Three main people, two different stories, and a controversial topic first appeared in a podcast, “Serial,” in 2014 (Anon, 2020). After this program released, it made a big hit in the United States as it has been downloaded and streamed more than 5 million times from Apple’s iTunes store. What makes it so attractive, or why so many people addicted to this podcast? It is because the case in this program is full of contradictions. In 1999, a 17-years-old boy, Adnan Syed, was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae. Besides, Adnan’s friend and the most significant witness, Jay, provided a story that is the foundation in this case. After 15 years, the producer of Serial, Sarah, was requested to detect the truth. While Sarah dug deeper into this mystery, so many contradictions were discovered, and the whole thing became more complex. The public divided into two views: Adnan was innocent or guilty. For me, it is hard to make a final decision as it has too many suspect parts in this case. After I considered both sides of the truth by tangible evidence, motive, and witnesses’ story, I believe that Adnan was innocent.

First of all, and most importantly, it was a lack of evidence that can prove Adnan was guilty. For instance, the State didn’t discover any physical evidence, such as DNA, fibers, hairs, so it means nothing was linking him to this crime (Anon, 2020). Even though he got enough motive (obsessed with his ex-girlfriend) for this murder, it is too subjective and unfair if people make a decision only by one’s motivation. Also, physical evidence is the most substantial support for one’s guilty because it shows the relationship between the suspect and the crime directly. Additionally, Asia (Adnan’s friend) can provide an alibi for him. As she was impressed by several things that day, such as her boyfriend’s late and the first and robust snow, she got an in-depth recollection of that day, and she sure she met Adnan in the library. Secondly, unlike what the State claimed, Adnan didn’t have enough motivation to kill Hae. Some people think Adnan killed Hae because of his obsession with her; however, that is incorrect. He already dated multiple girls after they broke up.

Similarly, while the others allege that Adnan felt enraged and humiliated after he betrayed his family and religion for her, he was not that religious. To be specific, he was already going to clubs, having sex with girls, and smoking weed before and after he met Hae. Likewise, he was a likable and well-liked kid that he was active in different categories. Therefore, it didn’t make sense that he would like to ruin his beautiful future for revenge for his ex-girlfriend. Lastly, it was almost impossible to finish the murder. According to Sarah’s experiment, although they finally finish the entire route before the deadline (21 minutes), both of them agree that it was farfetched (Anon, 2020).

Furthermore, it probably is a minimum time, which means Adnan must only use a minute and a half to kill Hae, Hae must run like Sarah did too, and there was no traffic problem happened. For me, I think even the other thing can be finished correctly, it is no reason for Hae to rush the time as they did. As a result, it got a super low possibility for Adnan to finish the murder.

On the other hand, some people argue that the cell phone records can certify Jay’s story, which means Adnan was the murderer like what Jay said. It had many “holes” that didn’t make sense while it was compared to Jay’s story. For example, a call was recorded at 2:36 pm which was supposed about Adnan called Jay to get him from BestBuy; however, Jay said he got this phone call at around 3:40 pm which is too different between the records (Anon, 2020). Moreover, this technology was still developing and improving in that period so that it might make some mistakes. Also, other people debate that Adnan had bipolar personality, so he must be a controlling boyfriend and the killer. For instance, he was a good boy at home and a bad kid outside. While that is true that Adnan had different behavior in a different situation, it is just the universal conduct of normal teenagers. In particular, most people will act as a good kid at home to trick their parents into avoiding some troubles while they play and have fun with their friends outside. Likewise, even he had bipolar personality; it doesn’t mean he will murder someone; those two ideas don’t have any causal relationship.

Although the truth of Adnan’s innocence or guilt is still mysterious, after comparing two different views, the theory of Adnan’s integrity is more reliable. As far as I concerned, the lack of evidence, motivation, and implementation capacity can prove his incontinence; though he looks guilty by the phone records and his bipolar personality, that was not such a strong objection, and it was quick to refute. After I read this case,  I learned that when we listened to two different sides of the story which conflict with each other, we could get a bigger view of the whole story, which can help us to analyze and organize the truth. Adnan and Jay told us two different stories, and then we can link up the consistent events and detect the differences for the discovery of the liar. Therefore, if we have to deal with a contradiction, we should listen and understand both sides for an objective view. If we only know either one’s story, it causes an overgeneralization because the opposite side may likely to discredit the others. Thus, we should look at both sides of the truth before we make any decision to trust either one.