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‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossed

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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was 50/50 after the podcast but Jay's interview after the podcast heavily swayed me towards Adnan's guilt. Jay was't a suspect, but definitely knew about it and where the body was. He gave conflicting testimony to the police because he was dealing drugs out of his grandmother's house and didn't want himself or his family in prison. (Using these hostile testimonies to undermine the official one entered in court is v…

I don’t remember whether Jay had an alibi. Did he? One question I always had is why he was not a suspect.

I’ve always had that as a question as well. I never remember hearing an alibi or why he wasn’t a suspect.

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

#92
post #22

For a hilarious lampooning of true crime podcasts, check out The Onion’s podcast “A Very Fatal Murder”. Truly a great piece of satire: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-very-fatal-murder/id...

Not a podcast, but there's also the Netflix mockumentary series "American Vandal".

American Vandal may be my favorite piece of satire ever made. It mocks true crime shows... by being an extremely good true crime show. It demonstrates well that it's not the content, but the presentation that makes it so compelling.

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

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "accomplice who's story had checked out" I'm not sure that's how i would put it. He changed his story several times until it fit.

The first few times police interviewed him he thought they were going to go after him on drug charges. After he had a plea deal and a lawyer his story was pretty straight. He even pointed out where the evidence was. And this is the testimony that was offered to the jury and scrutinized on cross examination. The entire sub-plot in the podcast about his testimony was somewhat misleading on Serial's part.

I don't find that to be a very convincing argument. His story could have become more consistent because he stopped lying, or it could have become more consistent because he had more practice telling his lie. Lying is hard at first, but once you've gone through a few takes and once you have the advice of a lawyer to keep you from saying anything stupid, it becomes much easier to tell a coherent story.

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously subjective, but a YouGov poll in the UK found that 47% of pelt required 99% accuracy or higher to be considered beyond reasonable doubt. Only 12% set the bar below 90%. Source: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/1...

20% said they would require 100% certainty, which is equivalent to stating that not even the most obviously guilty person in existence deserves to be convicted. I'd posit that this is more so evidence that the general population's knowledge of probability is abysmal.

Can you statistically evaluate such a thing? Its all black swan.

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

#95

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…

[deleted]

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

#96

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…

I was 50/50 after the podcast but Jay's interview after the podcast heavily swayed me towards Adnan's guilt. Jay was't a suspect, but definitely knew about it and where the body was. He gave conflicting testimony to the police because he was dealing drugs out of his grandmother's house and didn't want himself or his family in prison. (Using these hostile testimonies to undermine the official one entered in court is v…

Isn't there a rather large, obvious reason for Jay to continue lying after all these years?

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

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously subjective, but a YouGov poll in the UK found that 47% of pelt required 99% accuracy or higher to be considered beyond reasonable doubt. Only 12% set the bar below 90%. Source: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/1...

20% said they would require 100% certainty, which is equivalent to stating that not even the most obviously guilty person in existence deserves to be convicted. I'd posit that this is more so evidence that the general population's knowledge of probability is abysmal.

Or their concept of “certainty” or “doubt” is different from yours.

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

#98

'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…

Serial is the original true crime podcast, and IMO, nobody since has done it as well as they did. And holy shit. What an incredible piece of news. I think, though, that if the state vacates a conviction, then they lose the right to prosecute you again. Being let out and then having to relive your nightmare trial with the possibility of going back? That’s sadistic by any definition.

They haven't set aside the conviction - just released Adnan Syed from prison until the competent authority can decide whether they want to retry him or look elsewhere for the killers.

Basically, the equivalent of declaring a mistrial after the prisoner has been convicted and sent to prison. Adnan is out of prison but under GPS monitoring for now.

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

#99

'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…

Serial is the original true crime podcast, and IMO, nobody since has done it as well as they did. And holy shit. What an incredible piece of news. I think, though, that if the state vacates a conviction, then they lose the right to prosecute you again. Being let out and then having to relive your nightmare trial with the possibility of going back? That’s sadistic by any definition.

In the UK there is a limited Double Jeopardy. If they conclude that there's significant new evidence, they can re-try you for certain serious crimes, including murder, rape and armed robbery with their new evidence. There is an extraordinary case where somebody was tried, convicted, had the conviction quashed (for procedural reasons) then was tried again and convicted again twenty years later.

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

#100

'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…

This assertion has always been strange to me. This American Life was releasing their episodes as podcasts for something like 7 years before they decided to do Serial. Shows like Adam Corolla, WTF with Marc Maron, the BS Report, Joe Rogan Experience, etc were all very successful before Serial. Major media companies like NPR, CBC, BBC were releasing podcasts and dedicated podcast companies like TWiT.tv had existed for…

In fairness I think Bill Simmons, Joe Rogan, Marc Maron and Adam Carolla have had their praise for moving podcasts along. Same with This American Life.

Serial was different, though in that it was a multi episode look at something. This American life had segments and still had to be designed with the radio listener in mind - who was probably only in the car for 30 min. I don't think Serial is that uniquely good - but it was different. We just are kinda dumb for having all of "podcasts" under one term instead of a bunch of genre terms.

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