Ben Bruce

AP Lang
Serial Synthesis Essay
Adnan Syed was a 17-year old teenage boy became a victim of the injustices in the
American court system when he was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
However, based on the Serial podcast, the evidence suggests that Adnan should have been found
innocent by the jury. Many pieces of evidence were not properly presented and even went against
the conventional method of the use of that type of evidence, an alibi that would clear him was
never brought forward because of questionable ethics of the defense lawyer, and the
prosecution's entire argument was based on the testimony of a sketchy drug dealer who claims he
helped bury the body, even though his description of events is at times is impossible.
The prosecution's argument against Adnan using his cell phone records and locations
were deeply flawed and based on the usage they should not have been allowed to be presented at
court. Typically, phone records are used to prove that someone wasnt where they say they were
during a trial. If someone claims that they were in town A and their phone records show that they
were actually in town B thirty miles away, it helps lend credibility to the case. However, phone
records do not give exact locations, they just show what towers the phone pinged when it was in
the area. So, in a densely populated area where there a many cell phone towers in a small area
because of interference from landscape or buildings, of which there are many in Baltimore, the
phone could ping three towers at the exact same time, so there is no way to provide an exact
location. When the state requested Adnans phone records, the invoice from AT&T had a note at
the bottom saying that it was not a reliable source for exact locations. The prosecutor, however,
used the phone records to show the jury that Adnan was where a witness who was alleged with

him right after Hae was killed. The problem with this argument is that the phone records show a
general area, and not the exact location so in a small area that they were in with many cell
towers, Adana could have been on the opposite side of the towers range than where the witness
said he was, but there would be no way to prove it. Also, another problem with the phone records
that the prosecutor failed to argue properly was the call to one of Adnans friend when he
claimed that he did not have his phone. Adnan claimed that his friend Jay had the phone but the
records show that the phone was used to call someone that Jay would have no connection with.
The prosecutor hinged part of his case on this phone call, but the call was not long and could
very well have been pocket dial by Jay. The prosecutor did not argue his point well enough to
prove that Adnan had the phone, and therefore the jury should not have considered the phone call
when deliberating about whether Adnan was guilty.
Another failure in Adnans case was the failure of his lawyer to present a woman who had
an alibi for Adnan during and after the time of Haes murder. According to Asia, during the time
of the murder Adnan was at the library with her. She vividly remembers this because her
boyfriend was very late picking her up and she was chatting with Adnan while she waited, but
her boyfriend was angry at her for talking to another guy. Adnan had previously said that it was a
normal day for him and as a result, his memory of events is close to nonexistent. But, Asia
remembers meeting Adnan very clearly because of her boyfriends reaction to it. According to
the source with Asias testimony, there is no way that Adnan killed Hae because they were
together at the library at 2:30 pm. The failure on the part of Adnans lawyer was the fact that she
never contacted Asia. Soon after Adnan was convicted, his lawyer was found to be practicing the
law unethically. She was always asking for more money, and she was rumored to let clients go to
jail so that she could represent them at a retrial and make more money. Even when Asia went to

talk to the lawyer, she decided that her testimony was not reliable. There is no evidence of this,
and it would make sense that if the lawyer was trying to squeeze Adnan to let him go to jail when
she had an ace up her sleeve for the retrial. Unfortunately for Adnan, if that was her plan she
never got to enact it. Shortly after his trial, she was disbarred and only a couple years later she
died. Asias testimony would have given Adnan the perfect alibi because it was a crowded place
most likely with security cameras, and it would take up the crucial twenty-one-minute chunk of
time that is alleged to be when Hae was killed.
Another reason as to why Adnan shouldnt have been convicted of the murder of Hae
Min Lee is that the majority of the case against Adnan focuses on the confessions of a man
known simply as Jay. Jay was Adnans friend and drug dealer who claims that Adnan showed
him the body of Hae after he killed her. According to Jay, Adnan told him beforehand that he was
going to kill her because she broke up with him and that he would need a ride after he did it.
After Adnan had killed Hae, he and Jay drove to a park and buried her before going to track
practice. The only problem with Jays confession is that he changed his story more than once in
order to best fit the timelines that the police established, almost as if he was coached by a
detective on the police force to match his story. Also, Jay said that his confession was not
because he felt bad, but because he got busted for marijuana and he used this story as his get out
of jail free card. Jay did not come forward right after the murder happened as someone who was
guilted by their conscience would, he only gave up Adnan when he needed to get out of
something. Jay was a known small time dealer and he was a shady person at times, so based on
the changing of the evidence and how and when he told his story calls into question his whole
confession.

Adnan Syed was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee based off of
many pieces of circumstantial and unreliable evidence. The way his phone records were used
went directly against the directions that were on the invoice from ATT&T, he had a perfect alibi
that his lawyer refused to use, and the man who told the police about him was a sketchy drug
dealer who used his story to get out of a small marijuana charge.