A Trial Full of Errors
Lexi Herman
*Full Disclosure – I am a little bit behind on the times I guess. I had never listened to a podcast before this past week, but I am glad I took the leap into the 21st Century!
This past week I started listening to the Podcast Serial. In case you haven’t heard of it, here is a little background. Reporter Sarah Koenig tells the story of Hae Min Lee’s murder in Baltimore County, Maryland in 1999 in weekly installments. More specifically, she tells Adnan Syed’s story, Hae’s boyfriend who was convicted of her murder. Every week Sarah wades her way through the evidence that was used to convict Adnan. I must say, with every passing episode I am more and more surprised by the evidence the prosecutor’s office relied on to get the conviction and the defense Adnan’s lawyer presented.
I realize we are all still law students and do not have the experience that practicing attorneys have, but I am interested to see how others feel about this case. Are there are things that you would have done differently, either as the prosecution or the defense? Or do you think that you would have handled the case in the same way?
To get the conversation started, I thought I would give you an example of something I have been struggling with while listening to Serial. (Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!!) The bulk of the prosecution’s evidence comes from a convicted drug dealer named Jay. Apparently, he and Adnan knew each other through their love of marijuana and Stephanie, Jay’s girlfriend and Adnan’s good friend. Jay is not the most reliable guy and that comes across in his taped interviews with the police. First, he knows nothing about Hae’s disappearance. Then suddenly he says Adnan had told him he was going to kill Hae that afternoon. Later Jay says that Adnan had told him a couple days before Hae’s disappearance he planned on killing her. By the time the trial started he reverted back to the story that he only learned about Adnan’s plan that afternoon.
However, these are not the only inconsistencies in Jay’s description of the events surrounding Hae’s disappearance and murder.
Jay also forgets whether he helped to bury the body. His story fluctuates: Either he did not help to bury Hae’s body at all or he and Adnan shared the burden of burying the body. Yet this is still the evidence the prosecution seems to rest its hat on to get the conviction. Given the circumstances, I am not sure I would have felt comfortable putting Jay on the stand. One of the first things I learned in law school was never ask a witness a question if you do not know what his or her answer will be. In my opinion, Jay is the epitome of a wild card witness – you just never knew what he was going to say.
Now you know one of the things I would have done differently if this had been my case to prosecute. I’m interested in finding out what you think! Leave your response in the comments section.