Courtesy: SerialListening to the Serial podcast has been known to cause a whirlwind of emotions. For many, feelings swung from sympathy for Adnan Syed to frustration with his lawyer, the late Cristina Gutierrez, to complete dismay at the fact that Syed can't seem to remember one freaking thing. And then there's the whole wondering-if-Sarah-Koenig-really-has-a-crush-on-Adnan thing.
Most upsetting of all is that a young woman, Hae Min Lee, had her future stolen away from her when she was cruelly murdered, her body dumped in a park. For her family, that kind of pain surely never goes away.
But since Serial is a real-time show about a real-time case, things are bound to get messy—and messy they became. In the five weeks since the podcast wrapped, there have been several court filings and witness interviews that have thrown a wrench in, well, the sense that the story was over. It goes without saying that it's up to the court—and not the listeners—to decide what all the developments mean, but it's only natural to want to speculate. Below is an update on the story's twists and turns, but be warned that reading may only serve to frustrate you more. (All together now: Get it together, Maryland!)
Jay gave an interview to The Intercept.
At the end of December, the elusive Jay Wilds broke his silence about the murder of Hae Min Lee. While he had declined to go on air with Sarah Koenig and the Serial producers about his alleged role in the crime or the inconsistencies of his testimony (though he did speak with them), Wilds seemed to contradict the timeline that he gave during the original case. While still maintaining that he did in fact pick up Adnan at the now-infamous Best Buy, he told The Intercept that he actually didn't see Min Lee's body until later in the day, in front of his grandmother's house.
This brings up questions: Most obviously, what to make of the change in timeline? As trivial as they may be, these tiny inconsistencies in the details of the day Hae went missing make some wonder about the rest of the case. Additionally, what was Jay's motivation for opening up to The Intercept and not to Serial? What's going on?
Prosecutor Kevin Urick gave an interview to The Intercept.
In a second semi-blow to Serial, Urick also spoke out after the podcast wrapped. The resulting story was a much-hyped affair, but ended up being relatively benign as far as revelations go. But the prosecutor did make the interesting claim. He maintained that he wasn't contacted by Serial until near the end of the series to answer questions about the case (namely, the prosecution's assistance in securing a lawyer for Jay Wilds, who ended up taking a plea deal).
Koenig mentioned the show's attempts to contact Urick, and in response to The Intercept, reps for Serial reiterated that they began reaching out to Urick nine months before the podcast first aired.
Asia McClain filed another, even more confusing affidavit.
And now for the real doozy. One of the biggest WTF moments of Syed's case are the so-called Asia Letters—why lawyer Cristina Gutierrez apparently failed to investigate Adnan's classmate's claims that she saw him in the school library during the time that Hae allegedly went missing. During the original rounds of trials, McClain created an affidavit about those claims, but then seemingly backed off them—according to the prosecutor's testimony (during a post-conviction appeal—are you still with us?) that Asia only wrote the affidavit because she was getting pressure from Adnan's family.
Yesterday morning McClain filed a new affidavit that says Urick's testimony at the appeal was false, and that she did see Adnan in the school library that day. Apparently she claims the reason for all the back-and-forth is that she was encouraged not to testify by Urick. Syed family crusader and BFF Rabia Chaudry outlined all of this in an article for The New York Observer.
For his part, Urick denied all of Asia's new claims in an interview with The Blaze.
So, what does this all MEAN?
We're not sure. And that's the honest truth. But yesterday Syed's lawyer submitted a petition along with Asia McClain's newest affidavit asking for the case to be sent back the circuit court to investigate whether the Asia Letters really did belong in the original trial.
It's all impossibly confusing, but isn't that why we love Serial in the first place?