It seems that the majority of the reviews here are based on people who turned the show off within the first 10 minutes of the first episode, or after watching just the first episode and those who have heard the original podcast! But for people like me who have never heard the podcast or even the story before, I'm very glad I watched every minute of every episode! One reviewer here "The Jury Has Spoken: Guilty" goes off on Adnan's families religious beliefs saying "He killed his ex-girlfriend because he didn't have the guts to stand up to his parents and their medieval religious beliefs." Wait, what?! So none of us are or have been or know any other teenagers no matter what race they are or what religion their family practices in America has ever had to hide who they are dating because of their parents disapproval for one reason or another, this only happens to kids with Muslim parents?! The same reviewer then goes on to say "There was no mention in the series about the incident when his parents actually dragged him out of a dance at school because he was with a girl. This was when she decided to break away from him and his fanatically religious family." Wait, what?! Sorry you must not have kept watching because they absolutely DID mention the incident in this series and the girl was Hae Min Lee and her ACTUAL reaction was read from her own diary and his was given in the phone interviews. So thanks for reading her mind for everyone and giving your own opinion about how she felt about "his fanatically religious family." Which I'd like to add here that Hae Min Lee had many of her own family issues because of their Korean practices and values, so badly in fact that she never let ONE friend of hers past the front doorway of her home! As for Adnan and Hae breaking up, the friends closest to each of them said they broke up and got back together a couple of times, as teenagers often do and the last break up was in fact not after that particular dance! In fairness to that particular reviewer they do say "I'm not some ignorant bigot: I'm the polar opposite of that." Ummm wait, what?! How can you say that after saying that you believe Adnan's motive for murdering Hae Min Lee was "because he didn't have the guts to stand up to his parents and their "medieval religious beliefs"? Sorry double quotes definitely needed for that sentence! Even the horrid one-sided line of laser focus that Adnan was guilty by the Baltimore Homicide Detectives and Prosecutor Kevin Urick who actually dissuaded and misled Adnan's alibi witness Asia McClain for where he was at the time of the murder never even illuded to his parents religious beliefs as being the reason Adnan killed Hae Min Lee! For the record I am a white Caucasian female raised catholic, so believe me when I say many people can point at many young teenagers parent's religions and disagree or call them into question but that does not make 17 year olds turn to murder! BTW let's say for arguments sake there is know Asia McClain that swears under oath of perjury in a sworn affidavit saying she was with Adnan in the library at the time of the murder, I'd like to ask who decides to go to a parking lot of a busy business like Best Buy at 2:30pm in full daylight to strangle someone in a car and then place their dead body in the trunk of their car and there's not one witness or video surveillance showing anything? Jay Wilds says this was all premeditated by Adnan Syed and the police need him to say this to force their square peg in a round hole to make everything fit into their case against Adnan, but for everyone saying how smart this young man was, I can't believe even the dumbest of people would choose a busy parking lot in board daylight to murder someone in a car! Yes Adnan and Hae went to that same parking lot, but they only went there very late at NIGHT to make out! So if he did ask Hae to give him a ride home with the intention to kill her what reason would he have to talk her into driving to the Best Buy parking lot at 2:30pm and even if he did ask her to do that why would she comply when she needed to hurry to pick up her young cousins from school?!?!
Now let's talk about the case that was based on 2 things! One man's testimony, Jay Wilds who changed his story too many times to count, and has his own close friends say multiple times "Jay lies about everything and especially if he could get himself out of trouble"! His FRIENDS say that! Then the second thing the case was based on was the cellphone records which the prosecutor conveniently left out the cover page from ATT saying "incoming calls could not be used as reliable data" when showing the records to their cellphone data expert they called to testify and when that gentleman was later given that information he wrote and signed a written and sworn affidavit recanting his testimony saying it was not accurate and would have been completely different had he'd been given the full report from ATT! Those two things Jay Wilds' testimony and the testimony regarding the cellphone records are what convicted Adnan Syed in the one and ONLY TRIAL he was given to be judged by his peers!
Lets talk about things we do know as facts starting with the autopsy findings where the blood lividity shows Hae Min Lee died face forward or was strangled and immediately placed face forward fully prone on the ground with two large diamond shaped objects on her back and had to be left in that position for at least 8 to 10 hours after her death! Which means she could not have been strangled in her car then immediately placed in the trunk and then buried in the short period of time which is what Jay Wilds testified Adnan Syed did and said he assisted him in doing or that he said happened in his mix of so many different versions of those events! The autopsy also showed no other scratches, bruises or trauma of any kind on Lee's body which means she could not have been strangled in her car because in such a struggle in a small confined space the autopsy expert would expect to see some other kind of bruising or trauma on her body and there's zero physical evidence in the car showing it to be the place Hae was killed. We also know Asia McClain wrote letters to the family, Adnan, and then through an attorney stating the day and time Adnan was supposed to have killed Hae Min Lee she was with him at their school in the library and it's known right after that he was also at school for sports practice! We also now know she called and spoke to State's Prosecutor Kevin Urick who dissuaded and convinced her Adnan was guilty because of the overwhelming evidence they had against him including DNA evidence which was an outright lie because they had not even bothered to take any physical eveidence they had in police custody related to Hae Min Lee's murderer for DNA testing!!! Doesn't that strike anyone as downright criminal including Hae Min Lee's own family?! Then in turn Kevin Urick lies to others dissuading them to use Asia McClain's affidavit of her being with Adnan Syed during the time of Hae Min Lee's murder saying she told him she wrote the letter due to overwhelming pressure from Syed's family, which Asia herself says not only never happened she also had never told Kevin Urick it happened and "it made her sick to her stomach to think she could have helped this case so many years ago!" If everyone involved in this case including the bewildering attorney Thiruvendran Vignarajah that decided to stay on the case during the years of the appeals process even though he was just an attorney by then and no longer a DA which has never happened in any case before, really wanted justice for the victim HAE MIN LEE wouldn't EVERYONE want all pertinent evidence brought forward without lies or mistakes?! Full autopsy findings, the affidavit from Adnan Syed's alibi Asia McClain, Jay Wilds' friend Kristi Vinson's school records showing she was in class on the day of the murder meaning Jay and Adnan couldn't have been at her house the day of the murder which was very relevant to the State's case, the affidavit from the State's cellphone data expert recanting his testimony or more than anything else THE DNA FINDINGS THAT WAS FINALLY TESTED from Hae Min Lee's body, DNA found on the rope used to strangle her and the one fingerprint lifted from the rear view mirror in her car THAT DID NOT MATCH ADNAN SYED!!!! They also compared the fingerprint with the prints of 10 law enforcement officers that handled Hae Min Lee's car and there was no match! So to really get justice for Hae Min Lee don't we need to know who's DNA and fingerprint those belong to?!
I don't know anyone in this case or involved in the making of this series, but it had me in turns, rivited, dumbfounded, shocked and disgusted! It did it's job of being a great documentary for a story I had never heard of before and seeing it has me thoroughly convinced justice for Hae Min Lee's murder has not been satisfied and a new trial should be given to Adnan Syed with all the real facts and evidence stated above presented! If he is found guilty in a new trial with all evidence and testimony shown as it really happened, that's more than fine by me, however if he is found innocent then there should be new detectives with fresh eyes and minds who specialize in old or cold cases given this case to give Hae Min Lee and her family the justice they deserve and the real murderer a conviction he or she deserves no matter who it is!!! Great documentary, that I can't give 10 stars to only because I don't believe 4 separate episodes were needed! Luckily that's what waiting and binge watching is for!
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