Opening Statement For The Trial Of Adnan Syed

Christina McBarron Ms. McManus English II Honors 5 April 2023 The Unprofessional Case of Adnan Syed Adnan Syed was only seventeen years old when the police visited his home in the middle of the night and violently shook him awake and removed him from his own bed. With officers haranguing him saying, “We know what you did”, the defenseless teenager was bewildered. Adnan never saw this coming, as he had no idea what he was being arrested for. He was later tried and found guilty of the first-degree murder of Hae Min Lee.

Adnan Syed is a 36 year old who had been convicted of first degree murder at the age of 17 on February 28, 1999. Adnan’s friend Jay Wilds testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae Min Lee’s body back in 1999, but Adnan Syed mentions he had nothing to do with Hae’s death. Adnan was convicted with evidence of his cell phone call logs, Asia’s letters to him, and Jay’s description of the route they took during the day of Hae’s death. Adnan Syed is granted a new trial. Not only has there been mistrials, delay, and not enough evidence but also there has been a conviction towards Adnan resulting with doubt after more than 1 decade later.

How many judicial cases are overturned because of bad evidence? Producer Sarah Koenig tells us about the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old high school student from Baltimore county, Maryland. Her body was found six weeks later in a shallow grave in a local park. Her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed was convicted of her murder the following year on what many consider thin evidence and is now serving a life sentence in prison. Adnan Syed should not have been convicted for the murder of Hae Min Lee.

Over the past few months there has been another visit into the 2000 murder trial of Adnan Syed, who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, and is currently serving a life sentence at a Maryland state prison. The case was covered in a twelve part podcast by the name of “Serial”. The podcast which is hosted and produced by Sarah Koenig goes through the evidence behind the conviction of Syed to attempt to come to a verdict of her own. After listening to the Serial Podcast in its entirety and after carefully examining the evidence for the case against Adnan Syed it is in my professional opinion that Jay Wilds was in fact guilty for the murder of Hae Lee. Jay Wilds was the key witness in the case against Adnan and was involved

Those who have been accused of a crime can be proven innocent with evidence through helpful witnesses. In January of 1999, Adnan Syed was accused for the murder of his ex girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, whose body was discovered in Leaken Park by a man we address as Mr.S. Adnan was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The proof and evidence aiming towards Adnan’s guilt, is outweighed by the evidence and time alignments in which he is innocent. Syed did not kill Hae. The police have no physical evidence of Adnan being the killer.

A Bowl of Serial On January 13th 1999 Hae Lee went missing after school, some time between 2:15-2:36. Her Ex boyfriend, Adnan, was accused of strangling her. A kid named Jay testified against her ex-boyfriend Adnan, saying he had evidence that Adnan did stangled Hae Lee and was put in jail for it. I believe Adnan is innocent and did not kill Hae Lee, because Jay seemed to be the guilty one with his inconsistent stories and admitting that he lied. While being interviewed by the police multiple times , he admitted that he did not tell the truth when speaking to the judge about the case.

Adnan Syed's case remains an ongoing and complex investigation of a typical teenage romance breakup, spanning an extensive 24-year period up to the present day. Adnan's case led to continuous disagreements over his conviction on February 25, 2000, being charged with first-degree murder, Kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery. Some say that his conviction should be overturned, and some say that Adnan's conviction should be maintained. Evaluating the evidence, the evidence being used against Adnan shines a bright light on Adnan committing the crime. Based on the evidence, Adnan should keep his conviction, serving 30 years of prison.

Jay does not have any general truthfulness at all. As I previously mentioned he was lying almost from the get go. He changed his story of where Adnan showed him the body, when he knew Adnan was going to kill Hae, and he had switched his story of how that day played out many times. His defense for his lying was trying to keep himself out of trouble. That’s not a very sound argument especially when you are saying that you are trying to help the police.

Adnan isn't guilty for committing murder in the Hae Min Lee case, due to questionable evidence, plus bias judgements. Furthermore, the importance of having substantial evidence tQhat is very reliable, and not questionable. There have been

On February 9th, 1999, Hae Min Lee’s body was found buried in a shallow grave in Leakin Park––death by strangulation. Later that year, an innocent man by the name of Adnan Syed was convicted on an extremely shaky case for the murder of this young girl. However incriminating the call records may appear at first glance, Adnan Syed, with an alibi to prove his innocence, had no motive to kill Hae Min Lee. To put it simply, Adnan Syed had no reason to murder Hae. After the couple split up, multiple witnesses confirmed that Adnan did not seem to be ridiculously or unusually upset; it was merely another high school breakup.

This was quite the battle for Adnan Syed, a young oriental male who was accused of murdering his long-time girlfriend in January of 1999. Hae-Min Lee, Adnan’s girlfriend, went missing in January and her body was found buried in a local park 3 weeks later. Adnan Syed is innocent of killing Hae-Min Lee because of three reasons: Cristina Gutierrez, Adnan’s lawyer, failed to put him in a position to win the trial, Jay is not an effective witness, and the window of time does not match up. Adnan is not at fault

Anya Schultz, the author of a review titled Serial: A Captivating New Podcast, works to show how multiple narratives and stories can be manipulated and sometimes vastly misinterpreted. Serial, an intriguing, enthralling podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, tells the story of Hae Min Lee, a young, beautiful, high school senior who was murdered in 1999. Lee 's case, as Koenig and Schultz point out, has a few missing pieces of information that were never accounted for. For example, how did the jury come to the conclusion that Lee 's ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was truly guilty? Why did Syed 's lawyer forget to mention the letter from his acquaintance Asia McClain that could have polished his alibi?

Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, opposing counsel, my name is Piper Travis, representing the defendant in this action. My client Adnan Syed was wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. He was imprisoned for 15 years for supposedly murdering his former girlfriend, eighteen-year-old Hae Min Lee even though there was no proper evidence to convict him. One of his friends at the time, Jay, claims that Adnan killed Hae, but the inconsistencies in his story should make him more of a prime suspect in this case rather than Adnan. He states that Syed killed Lee and later showed him the body inside a Best Buy parking lot, and they later buried the body at Leakin Park.

And Jay, also said he lied because he was associated. Jay either lied to protect himself or he lied about Adnan killing Hae and is mixing up his story. If there were cameras at Best Buy, that should help prove Adnan kill Hae, right? And he has been associated ever since he took Adnan’s cell phone and car. If he was really there when he saw the body, he should not have any problem remembering where he saw the body and where the murder happen.

She states “A year after Adnan was arrested and the case came to trial, Jay walked up to the witness stand. There’s a moment when Adnan muttered something to him” (45). By Adnan calling Jay pathetic he showed that he couldn’t believe Jay would rat him out. This incident shows that Adnan is a liar and is mad at Jay for going to the police, showing that he is guilty. Even after controlling himself through the whole case he snapped when he saw the man that betrayed him.