The prosecution appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state. That podcast was downloaded more than 100 million times before June 2016. But his version of the day of the murder, January 13, 1999, contains key, recurring plot points in many versions of the story. "Why did they sit on this information? Heightened emotions, the constant need to see them yet feeling your heart flutter when you do, that inability to go to sleep or eat, the hiding from your parents, the first touching of your hands, the first kiss, you get the pict By the end, The wait is over: Netflix has finally commissioned a second season of Wednesday. March 10, 2022: Baltimore City prosecutors agreed to new DNA testing that Syed's lawyers believed could clear his name. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Aside from the arguably significant timeline discrepancies put forth by Jay, his perception of Adnan and Haes relationship is dramatically different from the way it was described by Hae in her diary, as well as Adnan and Don, Haes boyfriend at the time. EGAD he cannot keep his lies STRAIGHT #FreeAdnan #ThanksJay! He left in his car and I was trying to collect myself at my [grandmother's] house. The court heard testimony from a number of key witnesses including Asia McClain and Gerald R. Grant, an expert witness on cell phone technology. I'm being manipulated into what's being done right now.'". "I didn't trust him at first, since he wasn't like the people I knew pot smokers you know? Syed's legal representative, Erica Suter, handed his case over to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office on October 2, 2021, the day the statute came into force. As reported in Serial, Lee had last been seen by several fellow students at Woodlawn High School that afternoon, leaving school after lessons had ended for the day at 2:15 p.m. Lees body was discovered in Baltimores Leakin Park by a passerby, partially buried in a shallow grave. Those are questions you should be asking the attorney general.". On Tuesday, September 27, ID is scheduled to re-air an updated version of its special, titled Adnan Syed: Overturned, following Syed's release from prison after nearly 23 years. He changed his timeline, and many details, and offered an explanation for his lies (his fear of implicating his grandmother and friends; his fear of getting busted for selling drugs). Hae's car could have been in the parking lot, but I didn't know what it looked like so I don't remember. This is the same day Adnan was arrested - at the age of 17. Adnan Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was arrested and eventually convicted of Why wasn't it discovered?" Many of these are excusable. While host Sarah Koenig expressed significant doubt as to whether Syed was guilty, and did state that she felt he should not have been convicted based on the evidence presented at trial, the podcast wasn't able to reach the clear conclusion that legions of obsessive listeners had hoped for. Wilds alleged that Syed had told him he had murdered Lee. Jay also impresses upon the reader how scared he was of the cops as a weed dealer, one that was running a fairly elaborate operation rather than managing a few nickel bags. L.A. He might really have just been bullshitting at the time. All rights reserved. Tho part about wanting to protect grandma rings true https://t.co/NTNeVnbqqS, Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) December 30, 2014, This sounds totally plausible; I believe Jay. Koenig also tore holes in the timeline Wilds offered at trial and finished the podcast on a note of intense skepticism, saying that she would not have voted to convict Syed if she had been on the jury. As Adnan says: I want to shoot myself, if I hear someone else say, I dont think he did it cause youre a nice guy. You can't start drawing conclusions like that. Freevees new series will determine whos the greatest reality-TV contestant across. But the fact that Wilds' story shifted so much has many "Serial" fans saying he wasn't ever a credible witness. Now he's given us a whole new timeline of the supposed events of that day. Here's that new story compared to the facts we know. Jay says: He went to the mall alone. Syed was previously sentenced to life in prison. The Court of Special Appeals' said that Syed's counsel failed to contact a potential alibi witness who could "have raised a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror. And if it was a Friday, In 2003, Joel (Pedro Pascal) wakes up on his birthday like every other morning, sitting down for breakfast with his 12-year-old daughter, Sarah. I don't know if she said something he couldn't handle, and he went off the edge or if he had been seriously speculating about it. Jay Wilds, who swore he helped Adnan bury Haes body. One of his classmates, Jay Wilds, claimed that he confessed to the killing. The police confirm to the press that they are investigating her death as a homicide. Feb. 25, 2000:The jury found Syed guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment and robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 30 years. He knew I was afraid of that. "Because the moment that we discovered it, we turned it over. The Potential 2023 WGA Strike for Dummies. He calls me and says 'I'm outside,' so I come outside to talk to him and followed him to a different car, not his. Syeds conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee was the subject of the This American Life spinoff podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig, which aired this fall. Koenig never comes remotely close to articulating this latter option, but the thought has probably crossed every listeners mind (and certainly is a theory espoused over Reddit). The enigma who at best gave inconsistent testimony and at worst put an innocent teen behind bars, says Serial doesnt change what he saw: I saw Hae dead in the trunk of the car.. Reportedly, prosecutor Marilyn Mosby commented on the situation, saying. The groundbreaking podcast Serial, which re-investigated the 1999 murder of Baltimore high schooler Hae Min Lee and subsequent conviction of her former boyfriend Adnan Syed, ended on an ambiguous note. As Wilds begins to retell the sequence of the events that purportedly led to Lee's killing is when his previous known narrativesas collected by Koenig and Serial through court documents, police records, and trial testimonybegins to divert. Maryland Attorney Generals Office spokeswoman Raquel Coombs said in a statement that these results "in no way exonerate" Syed. (Jay says he left that part out of his testimony to protect her. Tune in to Adnan Syed: Overturned on ID this Tuesday, September 27, 2022, at 9 pm ET, to learn more about the on-going case. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything. Wilds was Syed's classmate at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore. Finally, a Serial timeline that does not include cell-phone records or Leakin Park. "From the way he carried himself, at least, it looked like he had never lost anything before. On December 23, he posted on his Facebook profile that he was ready to be interviewed to answer the question of the people who I hope are concerned with the death of Hae Min Lee (the person whos paid the ultimate price for Entertainment) and to out this so called reporter for who she truly is.. Wilds is a free man who now lives in California. It was supposed to be a mental lull for Serial devotees and conspiracy theorists, before the gap between podcast fandom and real life court system machinations collided. When did you two get closer to each other? Jay shared an email from Koenig written after this encounter that certainly suggests an earnestness to give Jay the chance to tell his side of the story. Unfortunately for Syed, it's not that simple. 2023 Met Gala Carpet Is Approved by Your Dentist. "I stonewalled them [police]until they told me they weren't trying to prosecute me for selling weed, or trying to get any of my friends in trouble," Wilds told the Intercept. The most gripping TV drama of the year is happening behind closed doors. As described on the Serial podcast, Lee and Syed dated for much of 1998, and had broken up towards the end of the year. Marrying the Ghost of Karl Lagerfeld at the 2023 Met Gala. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What about the content, the facts, the evidence? What happened to track practice? "Why did you agree to help Adnan bury Hae?" But look, if we start speculating what he was thinking that far ahead I don't know. Only a small percentage of us will know the t, I grew up in the golden age of the Disney Channel. He had no idea it was going to be a 12-part series over three months (and, obviously, he had no idea it would become the most downloaded podcast of all time). Wherever her car was at the time I picked him up from Best Buy, it probably stayed there until he picked me up later that evening. Most significantly, Brown argued that Gutierrez failed to investigate or call a potential alibi witness in Asia McClain, a classmate of Syeds who claimed that she saw him at school on the afternoon of January 13, at the exact time Lee was allegedly killed. Albert Samaha is a senior culture reporter at BuzzFeed News and author of two books, "Concepcion: Conquest, Colonialism, and an Immigrant Family's Fate" and "Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City." Oct. 7, 2022:The MarylandAttorney General's Officejoined Lee's family in calling for a pause to circuit court proceedings for Adnan Syed. (And to followers of the podcast, Wilds' version would also appear to place Adnan in possession of the phone during the ballyhooed Nisha call. Jay believes Adnan was bitterly angry at Hae. As fans of Serial might expect, Jay reiterates the same basic story he told at trial Adnan killed Hae alone, then Jay helped him bury her body with a few changes to the timeline that could either mean everything, or nothing. Jays post-Serial interviews with The Intercept: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Where was Hae's car? For people who want closure, there may not be closure.". Feb. 1999:Police built a case against Syed, largely on the testimony of a man named Jay Wilds, who at the time had more than 20 run-ins with police -- including aggravated assault against a former girlfriend. "In part because they occur later in time than the original testimony, and because they are going up against testimony that was under oath.". On Twitter, reactions were split. Wilds never spoke on tape with Serial's host, Sarah Koenig, but after the podcast's final episode, he granted an interview to The Intercept, published in three parts last week. Afterwards, Julie and I felt like wed walked into a strangers house, lobbed a grenade onto his living room carpet and then waved goodbye, Koenig says in Episode 8, The Deal with Jay. She adds that they continued to email, but finally, in so many words, he declined to be interviewed., But Jay appeared to change his mind after the series ended. She then criticized Frosh and investigators for their handling of the case. The judge ruled that Gutierrez's decision not to call McClain as a witness was part of her defense strategy rather than an act of incompetence. Sept. 19, 2022:Syed wasreleased from prison after his murderconviction was vacated by a judge. They imprisoned the wrong man. But it seems that no one else is liking the minty-fresh look. He was accused of choking Lee to death and then burying her remains in Baltimore's Leakin Park with the assistance of a friend. The court ruled in a 4-to-3 decision that while Syed's defense lawyer had been "deficient" in not calling Asia McClain to testify, her deficiency was not enough to "prejudice" the outcome of the trial. Here, we lay out the essential facts. Syed was granted a new trial more than two years ago, yet he remains in jail. I was talking to one of my friends, who had just recently gotten over a drug addiction, who she tried to talk to about this case. Later that month, Syed was arrested, largely because an acquaintance, Jay Wilds, told police he had helped Syed bury the body. Syed has consistently maintained his innocence. And when his new trial rolls around, a former classmate will testify that she was with him at the library when the murder happened. All rights reserved. I saw the ATF and DEA take down guys in my neighborhood for selling much less than I was at the time. Following a rare 2014 interview with Natasha said Drizin. But after a conviction, the burden of proof shifts to the accused.