Over the course of a year, police have gathered evidence for the case. Phone records were

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Eleanor Scarlett Thomas
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1 Stephanie English 200 On February 28 th, 1999 Adnan Syed was arrested for the murder of Hae Min Lee. He was charged with her kidnapping and first degree murder. He was sentenced to life, plus thirty years. Over the course of a year, police have gathered evidence for the case. Phone records were obtained, along with testimonies from various people. This wasn t much to convict someone with first degree murder but the jury thought differently. Adnan Syed has been in prison for the past seven-teenears due to miscarriages of justices and an unfair trial. Adnan Syed went from having a good life to imprisonment in the blink of an eye. Syed was born May 21 st 1980 in Baltimore, Maryland into a Muslim family. His mother, Shamim Syed, and Father Rahman Syed. They were religious and established a strong ground of religion in their home. They had three sons Tanveer, Adnan and Yusuf. Adnan was a good son. He got straight A s. In high school Adnan was playing on the varsity football team, had good grades, worked for a paramedic service, and was also crowned prince at his homecoming dance. But, on the other side of things, Adnan s mother did not want him indulging in such things as homecoming dances. She did not want him talking to girls and hanging out with shady people. She feared Adnan would drink, smoke illegal substances and have sex with girls. This goes against the muslim religion. But on February 28 th 1999, Adnan Syed s life had made a big turn that would impact his life. When Hae Min Lee goes missing, Adnan Syed becomes the main suspect in the police investigation. Hae Min Lee s family had reported her missing on January 13 th after she had failed

2 to pick up her cousin from school between 3:15-3:30pm. Police had contacted family and friends of Hae. On February 9 th 1999, Lee s body was found in Leakin Park, in Baltimore, Maryland. Police say she had died of strangulation. A man who people called Mr. S was driving when he stopped to urinate in Leakin Park. There he found Lee s dead body and calls the police. The police call Phillip Buddemeyer, a surveyor, to get measurements of the body. He found Hae s body buried under a log and is very hard to see for Buddemeyer. He recalled saying I get down really close and I m looking and I say that doesn t look like an ankle to me (Buddemeyer) 3 days after Hae s body was found the police receive an anonymous phone call which said look at the ex-boyfriend. Adnan and Hae had broken up a few weeks before she had gone missing. She started dating a new guy she worked with named Don Cliendinst. To some people, this meant that Adnan had motive to kill Hae out of jealousy. Later that February Jay Wild, one of Adnan s friends is interviewed. He told the police that Adnan had killed Hae and that he had helped him and the location of Hae s car. During the second interview with the police he says that Adnan told me, he said, almost jokingly, I think I m gonna to kill her, yeah, I think I m gonna kill her (Wilds). The police charge him with the murder of Hae Min Lee, with jay s testimony stating he was a witness to the aftermath of the murder. Jay told the police. The police get a print out of phone records from AT&T, listing all outgoing and incoming phone calls from Adnan s phone. They link Adnan to the murder of Lee. Around 5am on February 28 th the police arrive at Adnan s house to take him into custody. Syed s court case was not successful in claiming his innocence. During Adnan s second trial in January 2000, Jay s testimony stood stood in the courtroom. Jay wild told the jury that

3 Adnan had admitted to killing Lee and showed him her dead body as well as asking him to help him bury her. Jay had told the timeline of events for January 13 th 1999 in grave detail. During that day, Adnan had borrowed Jay his car to get his girlfriend Stephanie, a birthday gift and Adnan gave jay his phone as well so he could call him later. Jay says Adnan called him at 2:36pm from a payphone in the Best Buy parking lot saying that bitch is dead, come get me according to Jay, he picks up Adnan at the best buy parking lot. Later in the evening jay says that the two of them went to Leakin park to bury Hae s body. There are two calls on the call long that match jay's story. The calls 7:09pm and 7:16 place Adnan in the park at those times. Adnan Syed was found guilty by the jury and was sentenced to life to 30 plus years in prison. Nearly eighteen years later, the evidence in Syed s case is overlooked. As of June, 30 th 2016, Adnan Syed was granted a new trial. It was believed by the judge that Adnan did not have a fair trial when he was convicted. The cellular tower expert had not been cross examined at the time so the information that would link Adnan to the cellular phone towers is not proven to be true. A few other documents of evidence were not presented in court when Adnan was convicted in But he had an alibi during the time that Hae went missing. Asia Mccain, a classmate of Adnan, says in a letter she wrote to Adnan, I m not sure if you remember talking to me in the library on January 13 th, but I remember chatting with you (Mccain). Adnan has spent nearly half his life in jail. He is currently being denied bail and awaits his new trial. The police investigation and court case for Adnan was not done properly; because, there were miscarriages of justice. The first miscarriage of justice was when Adnan was arrested based on the testimony of Jay Wilds. The cell phone records pinpointing Adnan to the locations that

4 supported Jay s story. He stood for a bail hearing on the day after his arrest, and the court system had his date of birth wrong. Adnan was 17 years old when he was arrested, although the court system had him listed as an 18-year-old. He was a juvenile at the time, but charged as an adult. There was no factual evidence that was held against Adnan throughout the whole case. Hae Min Lee had died of strangulation and her body was found in Leakin park, Baltimore Maryland. At that hearing Adnan wasn t seen as a clean straight A student but as a foreign Pakistan. Adnan was from Pakistan, so that was counted against him at his bail hearing: the state argued that there was a pattern in the United States of America where young Pakistani males have been jilted, have committed murder and fled to Pakistan and we have been unable to extradite them back (United States Circuit Court). The state feared that if Adnan was released on bail then he would escape to Pakistan. The police proceeded with their investigation, with no evidence of Adnan committing the crime. They believed he was the suspect because of motive. Hae was dating someone else, was Adnan jealous? Or if he couldn t have Hae than neither could anyone else? In the podcast call ed Serial produced by journalist Sarah Koeing she states that prosecutor Kevin Urick said to the jury during trial, He became enraged. He felt betrayed that his honor had been besmirched, and he became very angry, and he set out to kill Hae Min Lee (Koeing). This aspect was brought to the table when the police were looking at suspects. The three factors that direct Adnan to the murder of Hae was the motive, phone records, and Jay s testimony. Jay Wilds story didn t match up correctly. The second miscarriage of justice was when Jay had changed his story of the events on January 13 th He had a total of four police

5 interviews where the story has transitioned differently from the last one. During first interview Jay says Adnan had called him to pick him up after track, Jay recalls him being at his own house. In the second police interview, Jay says he was at his friend Cathy s house when Adnan had called him. The cell phone tower by Cathi s house does not correlate with Jay s story because the tower is nowhere near Cathi s house, making this part of Jay s interview incorrect. The police never questioned whether Jay is telling the truth or not. This was another example of injustice in Adnan s investigation. Adnan s first trial was not successfull. The third miscarriage of justice was during Adnan s second trial. The first trial ending in a mistrial due to the judge believing that Adnan s lawyer was lying about seeing the phone records. Jay Wilds told the jury the events for January 13 th. He describes that Adnan had killed Hae at 2:36pm and called him from a pay phone in the best buy parking lot. However, there was never a pay phone that existed in the Best Buy parking lot. When Koeing did her investigation, she pointed out that: the Best Buy employees I talk to did not remember a payphone back then [...] They dug up a photo of the store, from 2001, no phone booth or payphone, though lots of public phones did come down between 99 and They looked up the blueprints of when the store was built in 1995, nothing. The manager also said there is no record of a service agreement between Best Buy and any pay phone company at that store. (Koeing). Gaining awareness of Adnan s wrongful conviction will help him to get exonerated and released. The first step in the plan for Adnan Syed s exoneration and release is to raise money. There are currently existing funds that are raising money to help release Syed. A current one is

6 called the Adnan Syed Legal trust. It has so far raised $219,050 out of a $250,000 goal, with 4,224 people supporting it. Our plan to help raise money for adnan s release and exoneration is to create a GoFundMe campaign. A GoFundMe campaign is a website for people to fundraise money for their own purpose. For this campaign to be successful we need to explain why we are doing this, what our goal is and what's the purpose of it. We want to help Syed get exonerated and released because there s enough to prove that he did not kill Lee. Syed was wrongfully convicted and has spent eighteen years in prison because of it. Syed s case already has a big following, but getting a bigger audience will help. The second step in the plan for Syed's exoneration and release would be to promote it. Our plan needs to get known about so people can donate money to our campaign. The fastest and most effective way to reach people would be through social media. The plan is to advertise our campaign on facebook, twitter,instagram and reddit. Syed has a large number of supporters on reddit. After the release of the podcast Serial in 2014, Adnan Syed s case became very well known. There are thousands of discussions located on a Serial blog: Truly guilty or innocent without a doubt Adnan Syed did NOT get a fair due process. This is a critical right for any one of us to live in a free and just society. Adnan's bail hearing alone should be criminal considering they used racial profiling, xenophobia, and islamophobia to deny a kid brought up in America with no prior criminal or violence record bail [ ] That alone should was one of the most appalling and saddening things about the whole ordeal ( Attorney: New Trial Granted for Adnan Syed )

7 If Adnan could get a new trial then that would be the key to getting him exonerated and released. The third step in the plan for Adnan Syed s exoneration and release is to request a new trial. Syed s trial was weak from the beginning. There was never any evidence like DNA that linked Syed to the murder of Lee. The court system was also warned against using the cell phone records against syed because they weren't proven accurate. This subject is an important aspect to this new trial. It doesn't pinpoint Adna to a certain location especially since Jay Wilds had Syed s phone that day. Another important aspect to this new trial would be the alibi Syed had. When Syed was first sent to prison in 1999 he received a letter from a classmate of his named Asia Mccain. In this letter Mccain describes that she had a conversation with Syed during the time that Lee went missing. I remembered chatting with you. Throughout your actions that day i have reason to believe in your innocence (Mccain). The letter from Mccain was never brought up by Syed s lawyer. At the upcoming trial we plan to bring these items to the surface. We want the lawyer to reverse the fact that the cell phone records that the court used against Syed, and to prove the fact that the phone records do not qualify as evidence for the case. In June 2016, Judge Martin Welch overturned that conviction. He granted Syed a new trial. Welch said Syed s defense attorney, Christine Gutierrez, did not adequately defend Syed against cell phone evidence used to convict him (Lepola). It would be fair to Adnan to get a retrial. Adnan Syed deserves a retrial because the case that was built against him in 1999 was not strong enough to sentence him to life in prison plus thirty years. Syed should be released and exonerated for the murder of lee. His name should be

8 cleared. Before Syed had been convicted, he had a clean name and a overall good life. We plan to help Syed restore his life starting with raising money, gaining awareness and a strong retrial. Works Cited

9 Attorney: New Trial Granted for Adnan Syed of Serial. Reddit, 29, Mar _adnan_syed_of/ Boyles, Tony. Storify. Tony Boyles Campbell, Colin. Retired Baltimore Surveyor Retraces steps of Serial murder investigation. Baltimore Sun. February 29, story.html Koeing, Sarah. Serial, Season one, Episode one. Serial Podcast. This American Life. Lepola, Joy, Maryland s Top Lawyer: Overturn of Adnan Syed s Murder Conviction Abuse of Discretion Fox Baltimore, 28 Feb. 2017, er-conviction-abuse-of-discretion Mccain, Asia. Asia's Letters. Serial Podcast, Mar Ronson, Jon. Serial: The Syed Family on their pain and the five million detectives trying to work out if Adnan is a psychopath. The guardian The Break Up. Serial, Narrated by Sarah Koeing, Episode 2, This American Life, 2014,

10 United States, Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Motion for release pending appeal. CJ Brown Law. October 24, FI LED.pdf

The Escape by Lynda La Plante ********************************************************* Colin lay on his prison bed, staring up at the ceiling.

The Escape by Lynda La Plante ********************************************************* Chapter 1 Colin lay on his prison bed, staring up at the ceiling. He had never in all his life felt as depressed