New Serial Podcast not Quite What it Seems, Someone Tell PBS

I was a bit astonished to read this story over at PBS about the new podcast for supposed Serial fans. It has been picked up and circulated as “continuing where Serial left off.” Yeah, no.

If you’ve been following the podcast, or the case, you know there are two sides to the story. What you will be getting is one side. Where Sarah Koenig and her team worked tirelessly for a year on the case of Adnan Syed, at the behest of Rabia Chaudry (Adnan’s longtime friend and most fierce advocate and fundraiser) they were not able to find anything to exonerate him. They dug deep and found the investigators work to be solid, the defense (while not ideal) certainly not corrupt – and that cell phone ping up at Leakin Park in the evening when Syed said he was nowhere near Leakin Park. At the end of Serial, Koenig concluded that the state did not prove its case and thus, she could not have found Syed guilty as a juror. But did that mean she thought he was innocent? No, it didn’t. She said she harbored doubts, despite her own clear inclinations to see him as innocent of the crime of murder of Hae Min Lee.

Where Koenig ended up is where many Serial fans continue to reside. They loved Serial for that very thing, its back and forth between guilt and innocence. The new podcast, be warned, is no such thing. It is clearly on the side of Adnan’s innocence, with hopes to help overturn Syed’s case on appeal. They are also raising funds, up to about $90K right now. So if you are one of those who are on TeamAdnan, this podcast is for you. Unfortunately, though, you are going to find the so-called lawyers involved in the case to be essentially working exclusively for the defense, poring over every tiny detail to exonerate Adnan.

The Innocence Project has not yet been able to find anything to exonerate him, nor did Serial, nor have these lawyers on Rabia’s team to free her friend who has been behind bars for 15 years and has virtually no internet con

The only problem here is that the media, specifically PBS, is reporting the story like it is really a deep dive into the case – when it is not that. It’s nowhere near that. Flavorwire and a few other outlets are reporting the story truthfully – this is an “exonerate Adnan Syed no matter what” podcast.

Chaudry was unhappy with how Serial concluded thus she has been tirelessly working on Adnan’s behalf to undo the damage the show caused. Whether it did damage or not is yet to be determined, however. So far there is no smoking gun that has been revealed. Syed still has no explanation for where he was that night and the evidence still points to his guilt. On the other hand, this team led by Chaudry is very persistent – they are smart lawyers and the law is easily exploited, especially with a case like this one where there were not only errors but significant problems.

I’m not interested in an informercial on the case of Syed. After months and months of research into it, after Serial’s year-long exploration, if the Innocence Project can turn up something, or if there is a DNA test that can exonerate Adnan, nothing concrete has turned up so the defense team (self-appointed) is trying to break apart things like autopsy and cell phone records — there are experts on the other side of things who will say the opposite. You won’t hear that on this podcast, which is one sided.

The only thing left – besides someone coming forward and confessing (or Adnan himself confessing) is the DNA, which the defense did not elect to test at the time of trial, neither did the prosecution. Syed had reportedly wanted the chance to plead out but his lawyer did not give him that chance. Unless more witnesses come forward or another perp is discovered, Syed’s best bet is to get out on a technicality – for the courts to find so much fault with his case to begin with they throw it out and he is freed after 15 years in. Chaudhry and her team are hoping with enough publicity generated and enough of a fan base they can pressure the court to overturn the case. They are even selling “free Adnan” t-shirts.

From the outside looking in, if you didn’t really know this case well, you would think it really was a clear cut case of wrongful conviction. Usually when you look at a case, like the filmmakers did with the teenagers in Memphis accused of killing those young boys, you can see glaring flaws. Not so with this one. It seemed as though Sarah Koenig was hoping to stumble upon flaw, that she was getting close, but she never got there. She never hit the one thing that would prove no way could he have done this. Even the alibi witness brought up on Serial is iffy for a couple of reasons that listeners of Serial never found out about because they weren’t featured on Serial. Even Chaudry was upset with how Serial turned out, the show did seem to mislead listeners into thinking the case against Syed was weaker than it actually was. Trial transcripts, police interviews all paint a much different picture of the case than even Serial did. It seems as though we in the media are programmed to lean towards innocent no matter what, which could turn out to be case here. So far, though, nothing concrete can prove it.

Most people believe they don’t know the answer to whether or not Syed is guilty. They are waiting for something. After reviewing the writings in this case by the lawyers involved in the new podcast, it is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing so far. But if I were invested in Syed’s innocence I would definitely listen. I am not. Just disappointed that the media is pretending it’s another Serial. There will never be another Serial. There are a few good true crime podcasts around, like Criminal with Phoebe Judge – and the backlogs at This American Life.