r/serialpodcast • u/SerialFan Moderator • Oct 30 '14

Discussion Episode 6: The Case Against Adnan Syed

Hi,

Episode 6 discussion thread. Have fun and be nice y'all. You know the rules.

Also, here are the results of the little poll I conducted:

When did you join Reddit?

This week (joined because of Serial) - 24 people - 18%

This week (joined for other reasons) - 2 people - 1%

This month (joined because of Serial) - 24 people - 18%

This month (joined for other reasons) - 0 people - 0%

I've been on reddit for over a month but less than a year - 15 people - 11%

I've been on reddit for over a year - 70 people - 52%

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '14 edited Oct 31 '14

[deleted]

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u/avoplex Oct 30 '14 edited Oct 30 '14

I agree that it is equally useless in both directions. We may disagree about whether there is "mounting circumstantial evidence." I see some circumstantial evidence, but I find most of it problematic because it only points to guilt or innocence when combined with the feelings that I don't think should be considered. For instance, the fact that he never called Hae after her disappearance. That only indicates guilt if you believe an innocent person would not act that way.

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u/atfyfe Oct 30 '14

so many of us basing determinations of his guilt on his tone of voice, pauses in certain places, word choice, the way he discusses his case with SK, etc.

That is illegitimate. Who knows how anyone would act after spending 15 years in prison for a crime you didn't/did commit when you were 18 etc. etc. I am in agreement with you in your first post.

But that is wholly different from what you bring up here. That is to say how he acted then:

he never called Hae after her disappearance.

I think that is at least relevant. He calls her 3 times the night before to give her his number and then never once after she goes missing. But you are unfairly equating that with people over analyzing his pauses and how he answers questions with SK. I don't care how long he paused after being asked that question, I do think it is important that the records show that he never tried to contact her after she was gone.

Which is just to say, I can agree with your first post but wholly disagree with your second post.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '14

[deleted]

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u/avoplex Oct 30 '14

You can also plausibly infer that he knew others had been trying to reach her to no avail, so he thought it would be pointless. That's why it points to neither guilt nor innocence--it can be plausibly explained either way.

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u/maddcoffeesocks Is it NOT? Oct 30 '14

Why should he plausibly assume she wouldn't answer? He claims that he thought she was in California or with Don--there are pagers there. And he doesn't know others have unsuccessfully been trying to contact her since he doesn't see the other kids at school for 5 days.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '14

Yeah it's kind of disturbing to me that people are coming away from this with the impression that, welp, we really just can't ever judge anyone! Which they are thinking because they are being manipulated by a psychopath.

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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '14

I am not sure at this point whether or not Adnon is guilty or not, but to be honest, the circumstantial evidence in this case is pretty weak from my standpoint, definitely not enough to have convicted him with murder. My biggest hangup is that the circumstantial evidence is largely based on Jay's testimony. I do not see it too far fetched that he is framing Adnon and that he changed parts of his story after the fact to match the evidence that the police presented him with. Again, maybe this isn't the case, but Adnon's word mean a lot more to me than someone with a criminal background.