Serial: S01 Update: Day 02, Adnan Syed’s Hearing

February 5, 2016 9:40 AM

Sarah and Dana discuss Day 2 of Adnan's post-conviction hearing. We learn about how the prosecutor cross-examined Asia McClain, and how the cell phone data might not hold up.
posted by radioamy (5 comments total)

I sorta take back what I said yesterday about thinking they should've waited to do these. It's a very different sort of show this way, but hearing the real excitement and interest as Sarah talks over what happened at the hearing is kind of - charming? I guess is the word I want. (Although it kind of brings up the specter of "making entertainment out of real peoples' lives" in a negative way maybe.)
posted by dnash at 12:10 PM on February 5, 2016

Yeah, I would prefer a more curated version of this. Let the hearing happen, sum it up for us (which I feel pretty confident they're going to do anyway), explain what's likely to happen next. Gushing over how beautiful a potential alibi witness in a murder trial is... that's just gross.
posted by Etrigan at 12:18 PM on February 5, 2016

Washington Post article, AP is updating this in real time:

"2:30 p.m.
An attorney has told a judge that a witness who could have provided an alibi for the convicted killer at the center of the popular “Serial” podcast would have been “critical” in the man’s first trial, had she been contacted by his original defense team.
David Irwin said Friday that the failure of Adnan Syed’s attorney to call Asia McClain to testify crippled his defense.
McClain, now called Asia Chapman, testified Wednesday and Thursday in a hearing for Syed, who was convicted of killing his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 2000.
Syed’s attorneys are asking for a new trial on the grounds that his counsel was ineffective by failing to contact Chapman.

12:30 p.m.
A former librarian says there were security cameras at the library where an alibi witness said she saw murder suspect Adnan Syed during the time prosecutors said Syed’s girlfriend was being killed in a case profiled in the “Serial” podcast.
During a Friday hearing, Michelle Hamiel testified that there were security cameras at Baltimore’s Woodlawn Public Library. However, Hamiel also said the footage was erased every month. Syed was arrested roughly six weeks after Lee was killed.
An alibi witness testified earlier that she spotted Syed at the library on the day prosecutors say he killed Hae Min Lee at a different location. He was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison. Today is the third day of a hearing to determine whether Syed gets a new trial.

11:45 a.m.
An investigator says he located 41 possible alibi witnesses for the defendant in a murder case profiled in the podcast “Serial,” but only four told him they were contacted by the original defense team for the 2000 trial.
Sean Gordon testified Friday as a hearing continued for Adnan Syed, who was convicted of murdering his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison.
Gordon testified that out of 83 potential alibi witnesses, he was able to reach 41. Of those, he said, only four said they were contacted by Cristina Gutierrez, Syed’s original lawyer, and none were asked to testify.
Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah presented memos that showed members of Gutierrez’s team did, in fact, contact some witnesses on the list.
Syed is asking for a new trial, arguing that his counsel was ineffective.

4:30 a.m.
As a hearing enters a third day for the convicted killer at the center of popular podcast “Serial,” the focus of testimony has shifted away from an alibi witness toward cell tower data that defense attorneys contend was misleading.
Prosecutors used cell tower data during the first trial of Adnan Syed, saying it placed him at the scene where the body of Hae Min Lee was found in 1999.
Attorneys for Syed, who was convicted of killing his high school girlfriend in 2000 and is serving a life sentence, have said the data was given to a jury without a fax cover sheet warning that it referred only to outgoing calls, and any information about incoming calls is unreliable.
Syed is seeking a new trial.

posted by jenfullmoon at 12:55 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's important to remember that Sarah and the producers, and the way they reacted to what they learned, absolutely became part of the story of season 1. I never viewed it purely as a story about Adnan and whether he did or didn't do it. It's a story about Sarah investigating whether Adnan did or didn't do it.

From that perspective, doing this day by day and hearing how the production team is processing the new developments makes total sense to me.
posted by dry white toast at 6:05 AM on February 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Undisclosed podcast, day 2.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:36 AM on February 8, 2016