Sarah Street

13 December, 2016
AP Language and Composition
Mrs. Hunt
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
On January 13th, 1999, a seventeen-year-old high school student, popular and well-liked among
her peers, disappeared. Six weeks later, after her body turned up, her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, also a
high school student, was arrested and put on trial for the crime. Syed was soon convicted and put in
prison on life without parole after being testified against by a friend and known drug-dealer, Jay, who
admitted he participated in the crime, yet got off without any government punishment whatsoever.
However, the case against Adnan has a lot of holes. Big, gaping holes. Due to the lack of incriminating
evidence, the misuse of evidence in trial, and the discrepancies in the stories of witnesses, Adnan Syed
should have been ruled innocent for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
Although Jays story directly incriminates Adnan, there is little evidence that proves Adnan was
the killer. Adnan was unaccounted for for roughly 25 minutes directly after school on the day Hae
disappeared and that is when the police believe she was murdered. Given he didnt have an alibi, it made
sense that it could have easily been him. Yet, a high school student, Asia McClain, remembers seeing him
and talking to him during those 25 minutes. When she found out Adnan had been arrested for Haes
murder, she wrote him two letters, one of March 1st and one on March 2nd. She explained that she
remembered talking with him at the library after school and was willing to testify on his behalf. At the
time, McClain says she did not know the state theorized the murder took place just before 2:36 p.m.
Whats strange is even after writing this letter and offering a testimony, no member of the defense team
ever contacted her. It wasnt until 2012, after hearing prosecutor Kevin Urick, that Asia gave an affidavit
confirming what she had previously said in the letter, remarking, At around 2:30 p.m. I saw Adnan Syed
enter the library. Syed and I had a conversation. We talked about his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee and he
seemed extremely calm and caring. He explained that he wanted her to be happy and that he has no ill
will towards her [...] [I] left the library around 2:40. Syed was still at the library when we left (McClain).
It would be impossible for Syed to have committed the murder at 2:36 when McClain confirms being

with him from 2:30 to 2:40. While it may seem like she could have simply said this to help Adnan, she
was not close with him or Hae. Essentially, she had nothing at all to gain from giving this information
except to help Adnan, as she believed, due to her experience that day, that he was innocent. Plus, as she
did not initially know the timing of the murder, its impossible for her to have lied about them being
together at that time. Outside of simply Asias testimony, a lot of the case against Adnan was that the
prosecution was able to correlate Jays story with the cell towers triggered by Adnans phone. However,
there is no way to directly pinpoint where Adnan was at any time as cell towers pick up calls from miles
away. Not to mention a call cannot be tracked unless it is outgoing from a phone, not incoming (Source
B). Therefore, there are giant holes in the location tracking as there were [] incoming calls and []
outgoing calls. On top of that, neither Jay nor Adnan every denied that for a good portion of the day, Jay
had Adnans phone. Given this, there is no evidence Adnan was present even if his phone was. It simply
could have been Jay by himself. Ultimately, while Jays story could be accurate, due to the innocent until
proven guilty ideology in the U.S. law system, his story should not have been enough without real
incriminating evidence.
Due to misuse of evidence of trial, Adnan was incriminated on unjust terms. Because of its
inconclusiveness, the map book with Adnan's partial handprint was used wrongly in court as the defense
should have had a stronger argument against it. The map book found in the back of Hae Min Lee's car
post-death was the "most incriminating piece of physical evidence against Adnan..." (E.6). The
prosecution made the case that since a page of the book including Leakin Park was ripped out and part of
Adnan's handprint was on the book, he was the obvious killer. What they failed to include was that
Adnan's print was not the only one found on the book. In fact, thirteen other unidentified prints were also
discovered, meaning any of those other thirteen people could have ripped out that page. In addition, the
page of the map ripped out did not only include Leakin Park, but also, "it showed their whole
neighborhood, the school, the malls, probably ninety percent of where they most often drove. And that
page didnt have Adnans prints on it. His palm print was only on the back cover of the book" (E.6).Thus,
in essence, although his partial handprint was on the book, there was no evidence whatsoever that Adnan

was the one to rip out the page. For all the court knows, Hae could have done so herself. Most
importantly, however, is the fact that there is no timestamp on prints. Adnan had been dating Hae for a
very long time before their breakup and her eventual murder, meaning he had ridden in her car many
times. Therefore, while the prosecution wanted to make it seem like his print was fresh and was from the
fatal day of Hae's murder, the print could have been six months or even years old. The map book was not
a piece of evidence that should have been used in the trial at all, yet somehow the prosecution used it to
put him away. Had the defense had a stronger argument as to why the book was not incriminating, they
would have taken a huge chunk out of the case against Adnan, yet they didn't. In addition, initially, there
was one call Koenig, the woman who was reinvestigating Adnans case, couldnt get around. She called it
the Nisha call and the reason this is so important is for two reasons. One, its the only call in this stretch
of time thats to someone Adnan knew, rather than a friend of Jays. And, it puts Jay and Adnan together
in the middle of the afternoon, when Adnan says he was not with Jay, he was back at school (E5). The
reason this is so suspicious is because Adnan said that Jay had his phone, but they were not together. This
story would make sense since all the calls were to Jays friends, but Nisha was someone only Adnan
knew. Given this, it is understandable as to why the prosecution would have used this call to prosecute
Adnan, as at first look, there is no plausible explanation. Given Nishas number was programmed into
Adnans phone, he had always said that maybe it was a butt-dial. No one thought this was possible
though, because he was charged for it. However, after further investigation by Koenig, they found a
loophole in AT&Ts Customer Service Agreement and The loophole says AT&T wont charge for
unanswered calls unless the call isnt terminated within a reasonable time. So if you call someone and it
rings and rings and you dont hang up within a reasonable time, AT&T will charge you for that call
even if its unanswered [...] the unreasonable amount of time today is thirty seconds or longer, one
contract from 99 [...] specified sixty seconds or longer, so it stands to reason that two minutes were
probably covered. They probably did charge (E.12). At length, the Nisha Call is not a no way around it
call, as Koenig often said. Rather, there is explanation outside of Adnan being with Jay. It could have
been a butt dial, and therefore, Adnan should not be able to be put away on the grounds of this call. While

the call is not entirely convenient, it does not necessarily directly contradict with the fact that Adnan said
he was not with Jay during this time span. All in all, the evidence used to incriminate Adnan should not
have been used against him at all, for there are explanations outside of the Adnan is guilty realm.
Because of the many changes in stories and the discrepancies between them, there is no way to
directly tell what happened on the day of Haes death. First of all, theres Asias story. Asia McClain
wrote two letters and an affidavit to Adnan providing an alibi for Adnan during Haes alleged time of
death. She had no stake in the case and nothing to gain from lying, meaning her testimony is most likely
truthful. Her story differs from the story the prosecution givesthat he has no alibi, that no one knows
where he wascausing enough reasonable doubt that it cannot be said Adnan was with Hae at the time
they believe he was. Furthermore, Jays story changed far too many times over the course of the trial for it
to be trusted as the main source against him. Plus, some of it is not even plausible. According to the cell
tower map, the distance between I-70 Park and Ride, where Adnan allegedly left the body during track
practice, and Forest Park C, the place Adnan and Jay purchased marijuana after leaving the body, is long.
Also, Forest Park is not on the way back to school, but in the opposite direction. Given Adnan was going
back to school for track practice, this makes Jays testimony questionable (Source B). Ultimately, there
was not enough travel time to get from place to place in the time span Jay alleges. Conclusively, all of the
stories from person to person differ and have too many holes to put Adnan away.
Because of the lack of incriminating evidence, the misuse of evidence in trial, and the
discrepancies in the stories of witnesses, Adnan Syed should not have been convicted of homicide against
his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. While it is understandable why Adnan was the prime suspect, the state had
no right to put him away without real and just evidence. In a country that runs on a innocent until proven
guilty ideology, Adnan was guilty far before he was proven to be as he never really was. Too many
innocent people are put away and the state did not do a sound job on the case of the Homicide of Hae Min
Lee. For all anyone knows, her murdered could be walking the streets today.