After listening to Sarah Koenig’s podcast, of Serial, Sarah Koenig mentions the victim Hae Min Lee being murdered from approximately 2:15pm to 2:36pm as stated by investigations (Episode 5). It was interesting to know the timeframe of the murder was twenty one minutes. There are several explanations that discredit the case against Adnan Syed. According to Sarah’s narrative, it was virtually impossible to have committed murder within a twenty one minute window. On the contrary, Sarah recreates it and says it is possible if a person is sure of where they are going and what they are doing. There are certain facts worth considering. Although the facts might seem limp individually, when viewed as a cluster of details they combine into a credible and formidable opponent against the state’s case.
The first example is quite simple. The high school dismissal bell rings at 2:15. The parking lots are encircled by school buses and parents who meet their children. There are also students who drive home. There would simply be too much vehicle congestion during that time for a person to quickly leave the school grounds, murder someone, deal with the body and carry out the whole act in a 21 minute period. The twenty one minute time frame in which the State investigation contested that the murder of Hae Min Lee had occurred suggested a thoroughly planned murder. (Episode 5) This means that the accused murderer, seventeen year old, Adnan Syed would have no room for errors according to the facts of the case presented by prosecutors to the jury. Surprisingly, there are errors in the state’s case because they didn’t consider the credibility of certain details. For instance, in Sarah Koenig’s podcast investigators claimed the murderer was at the Best Buy parking lot between the times of approximately 2:15pm (the time during which the high dismisses students) to about 2:36pm at which the murder would have occurred.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"The 21 Minutes Between 2:15pm and 2:36 pm".
When Sarah Koenig in Episode 5 of the podcast tried to reconstruct the same route presumed to have been taken by Adnan from the high school to the Best Buy parking lot, she said it is physically impossible. Essentially, within that short time frame a murder would not have been doable. This leads to the question of how and why would a presumed guilty, 17 year old young man tried to kill in an open public parking lot? This was a place where there are people and cars moving around and can be easily spotted. Secondly, how was Adnan (who has never had any legal or criminal charges) able to execute this killing by strangling a young, strong athletic girl? There would have been less than two minutes left of the 21 minute time frame. Sarah shared these details in Episode 5 during her reroute trip at Best Buy.
Trying to walk the same route that Adnan was accused of using in his murder was impossible. However, it was only one of the ways to show that he is innocent. In the twenty one minute time frame suggested by state investigators that Hae Min Lee was killed, discrepancies in the investigations indicate that it was not a thorough investigation. The investigators did not work hard enough to gather substantial evidence to confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that Adnan was the murderer of Hae Min Lee. If convicting someone of murder there must be no reason to question the prosecutor’s case. However, the handling of the investigation certainly creates more than doubt. It creates suspicion of fowl play. To summarize the problem with the investigation, the court turned a blind eye to the fact that there was absolutely no biological evidence linking Adnan to the murder. There were no mud or dirt tracks matching his shoes, there was no DNA on the body that matched Adnan. Strangulation by hand should have left the murderer’s DNA (or skin cells) on the victim’s neck. If the killer wore gloves, there would have been fibers that perhaps could have been linked to Adnan’s belongings. A few of Adnan’s finger prints were found in Hae Min Lee’s car, but they were not considered to be plausible evidence since they were dating before. Overall, there was no physical, chemical or biological evidence whatsoever. If the investigation was indeed thorough, then lack of evidence should have strengthened Adnan’s case. If it was poorly conducted, then that should have helped his case because the burden of proof is on the prosecutor since the law says a person is innocent until proven guilty.
A third problem with this case is the strong stench of racial discrimination. Syed was portrayed by the prosecutors as a Pakistanian U.S. citizen and not as an American-born child with immigrant parents. Even if it is not boisterously stated in court, the way he was labeled could have been purposely crafted to create a negative image of him in the minds of the jury. In addition, Adnan likely did not have a jury of his own peers which is how the judicial system claims to operate. If every person on the jury was white and under the media influence of negative portrayal of Pakistanians, their labeling of him as anything other than and American- born person was intentionally hurtful. It is possible to make an inference about the ethnic make-up of the jury based on how Adnan was labeled in court. It seems as if he was racially profiled, which is often the case with young men of color no matter where they are from geographically. Once again, Adnan was portrayed to the jury by the prosecutors as an Islamic teenager who killed his ex-girlfriend because she had apparently betrayed him. The last and only story told was that Adnan was a seventeen year-old boy who killed his ex-girlfriend to guard his honor because he had sacrificed everything for her, his family and his religion.
There were 21 minutes passing from the Best Buy parking lot to Hae Min Lee’s shallow grave. The evidence leveled against Syed was not concrete (Episode 6). Cell phone records were inconsistent and therefore not helpful. The only piece of evidence which was magnified and used against Adnan was the story of a boy named Jay. Jay was the only principle witness for the prosecutors to present in court. Jay’s story-telling proved to be as equally inconsistent as the phone records. He seems to take pride in being a street thug. He should have been thoroughly investigated because surely he stood to gain something by telling the elaborate story about Adnan. Jay’s multiple inconsistencies should not have been overlooked in a delicate murder case such as this. Jay lied so many times that his credibility should have been scorched.
In conclusion, episode 5 of Sarah Koeing’s podcasts, “Serial”, indicates how it would be difficult for anyone to have committed this murder when using the state prosecutor’s timeline for which the murder. Also in episode six, there was further confirmation that no significant evidence links Adnan to the murder of Hae Min Lee. The incessant racial bias coupled with the other mountain of details left Adnan room to still claim his innocence. The lack of thorough investigations indirectly supports an alibi for his defense. The 21 minute time frame does not hurt Adnan’s case (although it was successfully used against him in court), it helps. All Adnan needed was an intelligent, non-biased, investigative law firm to crack the case and finally reveal the true murder of Hae Min Lee. Lastly, the significance of 21 minutes is more than just the fabricated time frame of the murder. It must surely be the number of minutes devoted to recognizing the evidence. The evidence against Adnan is weak. The lack of evidence proving his guilt makes his case strong.
