Case Adnan Syed: Racial Profiling, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia in a Lawsuit

Adnan Syed is innocent The defendant, in this case, is charged with first-degree murder. This is for the premeditated murder of Hae Min Lee, that was strangled and burned in a park “leaking park”. In the Trial of Adnan Syed for the murder of his lover Han Lee, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland a little over 21 years ago, her counsel, Christina Gutierrez, opened his dosing address to the jury in this simple yet highly effective and dramatic manner: Gentlemen of the Jury, the charge against the prisoner is murder, and the punishment of murder is death. Adnan's parents did not approve of dating so their relationship was a secret. Later on Hae then broke the relationship off, and her parents thought the breakup had caused Adnan to either be cool with it or sad, then he would want to kill her. Although Adnan confessed she was heartbroken, but enough to want to kill her. He loved her and would never hurt her. 

If Adnan has witnesses saying he loved her then he wouldn't have killed her. Their love was like a fairytale romance so it would have been impossible to kill someone you loved that much, even though Hae broke up with him. In my opinion, I don't think he could have killed her because the storylines do not match up. On February 28, 1999, Adnan Syed was arrested for the murder of Hae Min Lee. He was charged with her kidnapping and first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life, plus thirty years. Over the course of a year, police have gathered evidence for the case. Phone records were obtained, along with testimonies from various people. 

Adnan Syed has been in prison for the past twenty-one years due to miscarriages of justice and an unfair trial. Adnan Syed went from having a good life to imprisonment in the blink of an eye. Syed was born May 21st, 1980 in Baltimore, Maryland into a Muslim family. His mother, Shamim Syed, and Father Rahman Syed. They were religious and established a strong ground of religion in their home. They had three sons Tanveer, Adnan, and Yusuf. Adnan was a good son. He got straight A’s. In high school, Adnan was playing on the varsity football team, had good grades, worked for a paramedic service, and was also crowned prince at his homecoming dance. But, on the other side of things, Adnan’s mother did not want him to indulge in such things as homecoming dances. She did not want him talking to girls and hanging out with shady people. She feared Adnan would drink, smoke illegal substances and have sex with girls.

This goes against the Muslim religion. The police investigation and court case for Adnan were not done properly because there were miscarriages of justice. The first miscarriage of justice was when Adnan was arrested based on the testimony of Jay Wilds. The cell phone records pinpointed Adnan to the locations that supported Jay’s story. He stood for a bail hearing on the day after his arrest, and the court system had his date of birth wrong. Adnan was 17 years old when he was arrested, although the court system had him listed as an 18-year-old. He was a juvenile at the time but charged as an adult. There was no factual evidence that was held against Adnan throughout the whole case. Hae Min Lee had died of strangulation and her body was found in Leakin Park, Baltimore Maryland. At that hearing, Adnan wasn’t seen as a straight-A student but as a foreign Pakistan. Adnan was from Pakistan, so that was counted against him at his bail hearing: “the state argued that there was a pattern in the United States of America where young Pakistani males have been jilted, have committed murder and fled to Pakistan and we have been unable to extradite them back” (United States Circuit Court). 

The state feared that if Adnan was released on bail then he would escape to Pakistan. The police proceeded with their investigation, with no evidence of Adnan committing the crime. They believed he was the suspect because of his motive. Hae was dating someone else, was Adnan jealous? Or if he couldn’t have Hae then neither could anyone else? In the podcast called “Serial” produced by journalist Sarah Koeing she states that prosecutor Kevin Urick said to the jury during the trial, “He became enraged. He felt betrayed that his honor had been besmirched, and he became very angry, and he set out to kill Hae Min Lee”. This aspect was brought to the table when the police were looking at suspects. The three factors that direct Adnan to the murder of Hae was the motive, phone records, and Jay’s testimony. Jay Wilds's story didn’t match up correctly. The second miscarriage of justice was when Jay had changed his story of the events on January 13th, 1999. He had a total of four police interviews where the story has transitioned differently from the last one. 

During the first interview, Jay says Adnan had called him to pick him up after track, Jay recalls him being at his own house. In the second police interview, Jay says he was at his friend Cathy’s house when Adnan had called him. The cell phone tower by Cathi’s house does not correlate with Jay’s story because the tower is nowhere near Cathi’s house, making this part of Jay’s interview incorrect. The police never questioned whether Jay is telling the truth or not. This was another example of injustice in Adnan’s investigation. Adnan’s first trial was not successful. The third miscarriage of justice was during Adnan’s second trial. The first trial ended in a mistrial due to the judge believing that Adnan’s lawyer was lying about seeing the phone records. Jay Wilds told the jury the events for January 13th. He describes that Adnan had killed Hae at 2:36 pm and called him from a pay phone in the best buy parking lot. However, there was never a pay phone that existed in the Best Buy parking lot.

When Koeing did her investigation, she pointed out that: “the Best Buy employees I talk to did not remember a payphone back then. They dug up a photo of the store, from 2001, with no phone booth or payphone, though lots of public phones did come down between ‘99 and 2001. They looked up the blueprints of when the store was built in 1995, but nothing. The manager also said there is no record of a service agreement between Best Buy and any pay phone company at that store. Truly guilty or innocent without a doubt Adnan Syed did not get a fair due process. This is a critical right for any one of us to live in a free and just society. Adnan's bail hearing alone should be criminal considering they used racial profiling, xenophobia, and islamophobia to deny a kid brought up in America with no prior criminal or violence record bail. That alone should be one of the most appalling and saddening things about the whole ordeal.