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‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

apnews.com

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Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#11

Post by robga »

Serial was blowout success, but flawed in many ways. For me, chief amongst these is not updating the podcast with new (and potentially exculpatory) information as it came to light over the years.

What really progressed the case was the Undisclosed podcast [0]. Rabia Chaudry, a childhood friend of Adnan and an attorney, first took Adnan's story to Sarah Koenig, who documented it in the Serial podcast. But in Undisclosed, Rabia and her colleagues Colin Miller and Susan Simpson dissected the case with scalpel, found new evidence, and ultimately set the groundwork for today's result.

Undisclosed stuck with it, and have covered other similar cases. Their twitter [1] says they've had 400m+ downloads, which is more than Serial, albeit over many series.

If you liked Serial, or even if you didn't but do like True Crime, go check out Undisclosed.

If long podcasts are not your thing, HBO's The Case Against Adnan Syed [2] is quite information rich across just 4 episodes.

[0] https://undisclosed-podcast.com/episodes/season-1/ [1] https://twitter.com/Undisclosedpod [2] https://www.hbo.com/the-case-against-adnan-syed

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#12

Post by bryan0 »

dayvid wrote: post #4
aardvarkr wrote: post #2

Just goes to show what can happen when you get featured in a viral hit podcast. That’s a great outcome for him but I shudder to think about what it tells us about our judicial system.

Serial is still one of the best true crime podcasts, because the case has so much more underneath the surface. One example is this podcast going over a cleared suspects apparently falsified alibi records (his mom who was a manager at his store chain and may have doctored his work record to prevent police going after him): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l6dApX2rIY The main summary points are here, taken from this re…

I listened this podcast when it first came out, so I’m probably misremembering this, but the key thing about the case to me was point 7:

They had detailed witness testimony which fit the evidence AND the witness was able to show the police the location of the victim’s car which backed up his story. So it is hard to explain another version of events where the witness was not actually involved in the crime. I’m curious if any of this new evidence points to him as being involved.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#13

Post by ryeights »

happytoexplain wrote: post #10
micromacrofoot wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His conviction is vacated but they can put him on trial again.

I thought there were no exceptions to double jeopardy? Is that a popular misconception? What makes it possible in this case?

Double jeopardy only prevents you from being retried after a not guilty ruling. Since Syed was initially found guilty, it does not apply in this case.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#14

Post by dwighttk »

happytoexplain wrote: post #10
micromacrofoot wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His conviction is vacated but they can put him on trial again.

I thought there were no exceptions to double jeopardy? Is that a popular misconception? What makes it possible in this case?

“Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense. She ordered Syed to be placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring. The judge also said the state must decide whether to seek a new trial date or dismiss the case within 30 days.”

He wasn’t ruled innocent… there was something technically wrong with the trial proceedings.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#15

Post by wowokay »

socialismisok wrote: post #6
aardvarkr wrote: post #2

Just goes to show what can happen when you get featured in a viral hit podcast. That’s a great outcome for him but I shudder to think about what it tells us about our judicial system.

Our justice system is pretty busted, to be honest. And it's end to end busted - we trust police too much and with too much power, we don't have enough public defenders to protect everyone, we have long backlogs of cases, court fees and fines can be unending even if you are innocent (to say nothing about civil asset forfeiture), people are goaded into plea deals for crimes they don't commit, our jury selection process…

To be honest I don’t understand how it’s thought that police have to much power. Especially since every case makes it’s way in front of a judge.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#16

Post by ziddoap »

wowokay wrote: post #15
socialismisok wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our justice system is pretty busted, to be honest. And it's end to end busted - we trust police too much and with too much power, we don't have enough public defenders to protect everyone, we have long backlogs of cases, court fees and fines can be unending even if you are innocent (to say nothing about civil asset forfeiture), people are goaded into plea deals for crimes they don't commit, our jury selection process…

To be honest I don’t understand how it’s thought that police have to much power. Especially since every case makes it’s way in front of a judge.

A case eventually making its way to a judge isn't really a counter-argument to how much power police have.

Things like asset forfeiture, qualified immunity, etc. are all pretty strong arguments that police have too much power. Not to mention all of the cases where someone innocent is killed by police, where the victim doesn't get to go in front of a judge because they are dead.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#17

Post by blobbers »

'Serial' was the podcast that launched all podcasts. It was the defining podcast. It isn't that it was hyper monetized or incredibly financially successful; simply it showed that the audience was there.

It has over 340 million listens as of 2018. With this eviction of conviction, I suspect that number will be over a billion.

It is fitting that it has come full circle and fulfilled the ultimate purpose of investigative journalism: to shine a light on a small part of the world that otherwise would be ignored... and maybe right a wrong.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#18

Post by neaden »

wowokay wrote: post #15
socialismisok wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our justice system is pretty busted, to be honest. And it's end to end busted - we trust police too much and with too much power, we don't have enough public defenders to protect everyone, we have long backlogs of cases, court fees and fines can be unending even if you are innocent (to say nothing about civil asset forfeiture), people are goaded into plea deals for crimes they don't commit, our jury selection process…

To be honest I don’t understand how it’s thought that police have to much power. Especially since every case makes it’s way in front of a judge.

Something like 95% of cases end in a plea deal, where a judges involvement is pretty minimal.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#19

Post by indigodaddy »

When I finished the podcast I was not at all convinced of his innocence. For me was 50/50 or even 60/40 against innocence. Just my takeaway/opinion of course..

EDIT However, reading both of the AP News articles on this now, it does serve to sway me more toward his innocence. Crazy that the prosecutors withheld this at that time.. Par for the course unfortunately I guess.

Seems as though the SA office is trying to do the right thing now, and appears they will continue investigating, and hopefully if appropriate, may deem that the next best step is to drop his case fully and prosecute the other now-uncovered suspects.

Re: ‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

#20

Post by jbpnoy6fifty »

blobbers wrote: post #17

'Serial' was the podcast that launched all podcasts. It was the defining podcast. It isn't that it was hyper monetized or incredibly financially successful; simply it showed that the audience was there. It has over 340 million listens as of 2018 . With this eviction of conviction, I suspect that number will be over a billion. It is fitting that it has come full circle and fulfilled the ultimate purpose of investigati…

If interested, there was an HBO documentary that covered his case after Serial.

“The Case Against Adnan Syed 2019 ‧ Documentary ‧ 1 season” on HBO max

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