Justin Wolfe Trial

Justin and Adnan, both in jail, and both are serving a sentence for a crime that the link is a witness who's trying to get a lesser punishment by testifying they were in it either by word or actually helping. The jury's first judgement, guilty. But now, 10 years later, they rethink whether they are guilty or innocent and if he is innocent. Did they ruin an innocent man's life?

Justin Wolfe was "convicted of murder and sentenced to death." (Lindsay 1) His dual life started when he smoked pot for the first time in eighth grade. During high school, he started selling pot. Then, he started selling chronic later, which is a high-grade marijuana but sweeter and more expensive. His parents, teachers, and even the cops never suspected he did drugs

Using the fact that Adnan led a 'dual life', he is easily found guilty since everyone already thinks of him as shady since they found out he did drugs. But anyone who knew Adnan, knew he wasn't shady. "He was like the community's golden child.", "He was an honor roll student, volunteer EMT. He was on the football team. He was a star runner on the track team. He was the homecoming king. He led prayers at the mosque. Everybody knew Adnan to be somebody who was going to do something really big." (Koenig episode 1 5) But after Hae Lee was killed, 3 to 6 weeks later, the police take Jay in for questioning, "In the picture Jay drew, it's cold. I mean, he's not describing a crime of passion here. This is something much darker-- to methodically map out the death of your friend, to strangle her with your own hands so close up like that. That would mean Adnan wasn't just a killer, but a master liar and manipulator, a psychopath, probably." (Koenig episode 1 14) With no physical evidence, and a 'star witness' who keeps changing his story, they build a case against Adnan to put him in jail for the murder of Hae

"A circuit court judge in Baltimore has denied bail to Adnan Syed, the man whose conviction for a 1999 murder was the subject of the podcast Serial. Syed will remain in jail while he awaits a new trial. Syed was convicted in 2000 in the killing of his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee, and sentenced to life in prison. A judge vacated that conviction last June." (Wamsley – The Two-Way) Even though everyone believes Adnan is no threat to the community, the court denied Adnan bail in case he decides to flee. ""Syed has now served more than 17 years in prison based on an unconstitutional conviction for a crime he did not commit. He has no history of violence other than the State's allegations in this case, and if released he would pose no danger to the community. He is also not a flight risk; it makes no sense that he would run from the case he has spent more than half his life trying to disprove."" (Wamsley) Syed's attorney argued. Because of how poorly Adnan's original defense attorney handled his case. "Rabia was writing to me because, way back when, I used to be a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, and she'd come across some stories I'd written about a well-known defense attorney in Baltimore who'd been disbarred for mishandling client money. That attorney was the same person who defended Adnan, her last major trial, in fact. Rabia told me she thought the attorney botched the case-- not just botched it,