ENG4U

Is Adnan Syed Truly Guilty?

Using the timeline of the events that were said to take place on January 13, 1999, from Sarah Koenig’s Serial, as well as the video, Rabia Chaudry – Serial: Murder Case of State vs. Adnan Syed, I have been able to rethink my initial decision that Adnan Syed was rightfully convicted for the murder of ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. After analyzing these sources, I am able to see that there are several inconsistencies and unreasonable decisions that were made throughout the course of the case against Adnan Syed.

Adnan Syed And The Murder Of Hae Min Lee — The Full Story — “The Full Story Of Adnan Syed And The Murder Of Hae Min Lee”. https://allthatsinteresting.com/adnan-syed-murder-of-hae-min-lee

First and foremost, I would like to touch on the timeline provided by Serial. It is clear that when comparing Jay Wild’s first and second interviews and his testimony at Adnan’s second trial, the timeline changes with each interview, and not in Syed’s favour. Now, with the prior research I had done, I found that it was speculated that Jay was being coached by police so that his story had Adnan showing him Hae’s body at 3:55 pm (“Timelines: January 13, 1999.”, 2020). As his testimony continued, the timeline became further off from what he originally said during his first interview. Already, from Jay’s testimony at Adnan’s second trial, I feel uneasy. Perhaps there was a bias against Adnan一from the public, the police, Jay一tipping the odds out of Syed’s favour.

“Jay Wilds, Key Witness in Serial Podcast, Breaks His Silence For First Time Since Adnan Syed’s Arrest: Graphic Details”. Natasha Cooper-Vargas. https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/jay-wilds-serial-podcast-witness-breaks-his-silence-graphic-details-20143012/

The decision the court of law made to put Adnan Syed behind bars seems suspicious and lazy. Like every murder case, there is more to it than what is presented on the surface.

Logically, committing a murder in the middle of the day and waiting by the lifeless body for half an hour for a friend to pick them up makes no sense. In addition, considering that Lee, a fairly athletic person being on the lacrosse and field hockey teams, was a victim of manual strangulation, Lee would have most likely put up a fight attracting attention, especially around 3:30 pm in front of a Best Buy. Not to mention that Syed, being 17 years old, probably could not manually strangle someone his age by himself.

“Want more ‘Serial’? HBO docuseries ‘Adnan Syed’ has new evidence about famous murder case”. Syed Family. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2019/03/08/want-more-serial-hbo-adnan-syed-has-new-info-murder-case/3062591002/

Mentioned in the YouTube video, Rabia Chaudry – Serial: Murder Case of State vs. Adnan Syed, there was no forensic evidence tying Syed to the crime (Claremont McKenna College, 16:09-16:11). There were hairs on Lee’s body and 16 sets of fingerprints found within Lee’s vehicle that did not belong to Adnan, did not belong to Jay, nor to Hae, and instead of saying “Hey, maybe we’re looking for somebody else,” Syed continued to be prosecuted. (Claremont McKenna College, 15:27-17:05). Instead, Jay’s unreliable testimony and the fact that Syed was supposedly leading a double life because he had a girlfriend, smoked pot, engaged in sexual interactions, that he drank and attended parties一things his conservative Muslim parents did not know一were used against him in the court of law.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2020-04-16-at-12.20.15-am-1.png — “Rabia Chaudry – Serial: Murder Case of State vs. Adnan Syed” (13:30) Claremont McKenna College. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWKL6gsE9Gk

Now, I am no expert, I’m just an 18-year-old high school student, but if there is no forensic evidence tying him to the crime, why arrest him? I fail to understand why the police did not feel the need to investigate the hairs and 16 sets of fingerprints found on Lee’s body and in her vehicle but proceed to go through with the prosecution of Syed. These pieces of forensic evidence were not tainted or too weak to run tests on so it makes no sense to me why the police did not think to look into Lee’s life and more of her relationships rather than spending all their time trying to find something to pin Syed to the crime. It definitely seems as though there is a bias against Syed. There are several inconsistencies throughout Syed’s case and I believe that he was treated unjustifiably by the court of law and, considering there was absolutely no forensic evidence tying him to the Hae’s murder, that he was wrongfully convicted.

Works Cited

Claremont McKenna College. “Rabia Chaudry – Serial: Murder Case of State vs. Adnan Syed.” Youtube, 18

Feb. 2018, https://youtu.be/cWKL6gsE9Gk

Simpson, Susan. “Serial: Evidence That Jay’s Story Was Coached to Fit the Cellphone Records.” Serial:

Evidence That Jay’s Story Was Coached to Fit the Cellphone Records, LL2, 18 Jan. 2015,

viewfromll2.com/2015/01/13/serial-evidence-that-jays-story-was-coached-to-fit-the-cellphone-r

ecords/.

“Timelines: January 13, 1999.” Serial. This American Life. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020,

serialpodcast.org/maps/timelines-january-13-1999.

Is Everything a Remix?

For this activity, I obviously chose the blog post rather than create a remix of my own. More specifically, I chose to focus on the utilization of the Star Wars theme opening within “Everything is a Remix Part 1” video. Now, this theme was used to introduce the idea and definition of the word “remix”. “Remix” was at the top in the big, yellow, block, capital letters, while the definition followed in the ascending yellow text. (Ferguson, 2011.00:04-00:10). Classic.

“References” *Everything is a Remix*. 23 Mar. 2020.

When I dive a little deeper into the background of this video, I am taken to the website, “Everything is a Remix, The site about the Ongoing Video Series”. Here, I found a tab entitled “References” where I found that the creator, Kirby Ferguson, did indeed give credit to the apps or programs used to mash-up the utilized sounds and the other features within his videos as well as references to information supporting his argument.

“Samples” *Everything is a Remix.* Accessed 23 Mar. 2020.

Having watched the video through and through several times, I did not notice any kind of attribution for the Star Wars theme opening. However, when taking a look at the “Samples” page on his website, I did find that he did give attribution for the font that he had used to mimic the Star Wars themed opening.

Now that I see Ferguson has given attribution for the font, I am curious why he did not give credit to, say, the graphic designer for the Star Wars franchise? Did he not need to? Has he changed it enough to not have to give credit? So I did some digging…

After doing some research as to whether or not the Star Wars opening crawl needed to be credited or not, I found the concept of Fair Use Copyright. Fair Use entails that if one is using copyrighted material for the following reasons, commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship, they are safe to do so without crediting the creator(s)/owner(s) under the Fair Use Copyright Law.

“Connected Learning: Fandom and Fair Use” *YALSA*. Accessed 24 Mar. 2020.

When relating the definition of Fair Use Copyright back to how Kirby used the concept of the Star Wars opening crawl to introduce the idea of a remix for his video, I believe that Kirby did not have to give credit as he parodied it. He did not use the words from the Star Wars opening but only the graphic design to fit his video. Considering the topic of the video is “remix” and demonstrates how original ideas are played off of to create something not completely new, but different, I believe that is exactly what he did, perhaps to demonstrate his point. I wouldn’t consider this a rip off of the original Star Wars opening crawl, but a variation. As Kirby says in Everything is a Remix Part 2, he is essentially appropriating the Star Wars opening crawl and transforming it into something new, something he can use for the purpose of his video series.

To avoid creating a rip-off in general, I believe that all creators need to realize that, even if they believe they have created something completely unique, there is always a possibility that it has stemmed from a preexisting idea. Whether it be the bass line of a song, the graphics for a film or video, etc., it is always good to do your research to see if an idea already exists and cite or give attribution to the source.

Work Cited

Ferguson, Kirby. “Samples.” Everything Is a Remix, http://www.everythingisaremix.info/samples.

Ferguson, Kirby. “Watch.” Everything Is a Remix, http://www.everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series.

“How To Give Attribution.” Creative Commons, creativecommons.org/use-remix/attribution/.

McNair, Kate. “Connected Learning: Fandom and Fair Use” YALSA Blog, 24 June 2014, yalsa.ala.org/blog/tag/2014-ala-annual-conference/.

Ferguson, Kirby. “References.” Everything Is a Remix, http://www.everythingisaremix.info/references.

S, Rachael. “Star Wars: Copyright and Fair Use.” Star Wars: Copyright and Fair Use | DTC 101 -Spring 2013, 12 Feb. 2013,dtc-wsuv.org/wp/dtc101-sp13/2013/02/12/star-wars-copyright-and-fair-use/.

Response to Serial: Season One: Episode One: The Alibi

Serial, a podcast by Sarah Koenig, supported by WBEZ Chicago and This American Life, is a crime podcast that takes the time to explain a new crime story, week by week. For the sake of ENG4UV Unit 2, Activity 1, the story of Hae Min Lee’s death would be the focus.

Serial Podcast Logo. BBC, 2015.

When I initially read that we were going to be listening to a podcast, I wasn’t exactly intrigued because I had attempted to listen to an audiobook in the past and I just couldn’t focus on the story. I would constantly zone out and find myself rewinding it because I would miss sections of the story as I couldn’t focus. Considering that I would be listening to this podcast for school, I would have to try my best at attentively listening to the story to be able to fully understand it and I was afraid that I would have difficulty with this activity. However, after listening to the first episode, I was very intrigued by the murder of Hae Min Lee and the possibility that Adnan Syed could have been wrongfully convicted of the crime. I actually thought that explaining such a story through the medium of a podcast provides variety. There are plenty of crime shows on television such as The First 48 where the crime reporter just sits across from the interviewee talking about what they recall about the incident. Not very exciting to watch. The idea of a podcast provides you with the information the reporter is trying to deliver while allowing the listener to visualize their own images of the information given. For example, Koenig says, “He talks to me from a bank of eight pay phones in the rec hall, a pretty large room where other guys are sitting at tables with metal seats attached to them playing chess or cards or using the microwave or watching TV. It can get a little loud sometimes.” (19:34-19:45). The listener can visualize the Syed’s fellow inmates in the rec hall, chairs scraping against the floor, the show they’re watching on TV, maybe the inmates are talking loud, having an argument. It’s all up for interpretation.

Koenig begins Episode 1 by demonstrating how unreliable our memories can be with the help of her nephew, Sam, and his friends, especially if nothing significant happened that day. In my perspective, I often have trouble remembering what the date is after waking up from a nap. I only tend to remember the events that occurred if the date is important to me in some way. (i.e. Feb 21, 2020 is the day I got my braces taken off. My appointment was at 11am and I went back to my orthodontist at 4pm that same day to pick up my retainers).

I am reminded of the idea of rationalism in which I have been discussing in my 4U Philosophy class this semester. Rationalism is the theory that reason rather than experience is what certifies knowledge. Adnan takes a rational perspective on the events that supposedly took place on the day of Hae’s death, “Whatever the motivation is to kill someone, I had absolutely– it didn’t exist in me, you know what I mean?” (21:05-21:11). He basically states that he had no reason or need to kill her so how could he have killed Hae. In relation to Koenig’s point about memory, rationalism also describes that you must have reason to do something, you cannot rely on things such as memory to verify whether something is true.

While going over the evidence and interviewing all suspects and witnesses might help the case, having it be a popular public story might cause trauma for the victim’s family. Lee was murdered in 1999, that was twenty-one years ago, shouldn’t this story go to rest rather than be used as a form of entertainment in the eyes of the listeners? From an article found on Bustle, it was said that the Lee family would like the public to remember Hae and not the person who took her life. They are satisfied by Syed’s conviction and wish that this chapter of their lives would come to an end. (Maple, 2019).

Image result for hae min lee family — Hae Min Lee’s Family. Robinson, 2016.

As I continue listening to this podcast, I hope that Koenig will present more possible incriminating evidence against Syed. Like the Lee family, I do believe that Syed was rightfully convicted as his character seems very suspicious when Koenig interviews him considering that Jay remembered the events of that day well while Syed was very vague and chose to focus more on trying to clear his name than recounting the events that occurred that day. However, I’m sure that as the story continues, more theories will arise and I am curious to hear what else Koenig has to say.

To listen to Serial, click here.

Works Cited

“Adnan Syed from Serial granted appeal” BBC, 2015. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/31204503/adnan-syed-from-serial-granted-appeal

Maple, Taylor. “What Does Hae Min Lee’s Family Think Of ‘The Case Against Adnan Syed’? They’ve Spoken Out About ‘Serial’ & Syed’s New Trial” Bustle, 2019. https://www.bustle.com/p/what-does-hae-min-lees-family-think-of-the-case-against-adnan-syed-theyve-spoken-out-about-serial-syeds-new-trial-16815689

Robinson, Willis. “Family of ‘Serial’ victim Hae Min Lee say her convicted killer Adnan Syed ‘destroyed our family’ in emotional letter that slams the podcast’s fans for running to defend him” Daily Mail, 2016. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3437662/Family-Serial-victim-Hae-Min-Lee-says-convicted-killer-Adnan-Syed-destroyed-family-slams-podcast-s-fans-running-defend-him.html

Should grade 12 University level English be a requirement for entry into all university programs?

Before given this assignment, I have often pondered the question “Why are we required to take an English course all four years of high school?” and every time I ask a teacher or guidance counselor this question, I am told “Well, what language do you speak?” suggesting that because English is my first, or primarily used language, I am therefore required to take the course all four years of high school. I understand that it is preferred that we develop our use of the English language further, however, I have taken Academic or University level English all throughout high school and I feel that there is only so much that can be improved on with grammar, phrasing, formal compared to informal pieces of writing, etc. before the content of that courses get a little repetitive.

That being said, I am a perfectionist and I prefer to have my pieces of writing to be as accurate as I can make them in terms of grammar and such, but that is solely in classes such as an English or French class. Outside of these classes, I am often told that proper grammar, to the extent that one might use when submitting a formal piece of writing, for example, an essay, is not necessary in things like written labs in a chemistry or biology class, or when stating your final answer at the end of a math problem.

The point I am getting at here is that maybe we should start considering grade 12 University level English as a required course for those who are going into a Bachelor of Arts in English studies or Language studies of some sort because those fields of studies are focussed on the language while in other studies like a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, the focus is not whether or not you can put a comma in the right place, but what exactly you’re examining and your conclusions. I mean, when choosing your courses for grade 12, math is not a required course anymore, only if it is required by the undergraduate program you are applying for, so why can’t we treat English as the same? Therefore, I believe that grade 12 University English should become an elective so that, if the course pertains to the field of studies you are planning on going into, you have the option to take it but it is not required for everyone.

I would love to hear the different perspectives of my fellow classmates! What do you think?