Laura's recollection of Best Buy payphone - The first piece of information is from Laura who tells SK that there were never any payphones at Best Buy. Remember Laura is the friend of both Adnan and Jay who had the wonderful, flabbergasted quote in Episode 8. Laura tells SK that she went to that Best Buy frequently... to steal CDs. She said there weren't any outside, and the only place there would be payphones were near the entrance. Her explanation why she is sure is that because she went there to shoplift, she was very aware of surroundings. Laura speculates that the police didn't pay attention to the payphone because it was such a small detail. SK is indignant about this and insists it isn't a small detail.
This seems like a weird thing to make up, so Laura seems to be certain about her recollection. It makes sense that she would be aware of her surroundings inside the store. But I don't know if that would extend to the exterior of the store. The fact that SK has not been able to find confirmation of the payphone tends to support Laura's recollection as well. But if you look on the Serial blog, there is a map that Jay draws, which shows the payphone by the corner of the store. (Incidentally, Jay butchers Adnan's name as "Ahnand," which seems to show how little they knew one another. Misspelling it is perhaps understandable but he completely butchers it...) And this would be a weird, specific detail for Jay to make up. It would be the type of thing that could easily be checked, so it would be dumb to lie about something like that.
As for whether the police followed up on this, maybe they did, maybe they didn't. If they did and there was a payphone like Jay said, then that could have helped verify his story (although why they wouldn't have subpoenaed the records is another matter). If they checked it out and found no payphone, then they very well would ignore it as a small detail because it doesn't fit with their case. This is where SK's little outburst seems a bit naive. She's viewing it from the perspective of someone who has spent months trying to find the truth. But that's not how the police were approaching this. At this point, they are convinced (for some reason) that Adnan is their guy. They already arrested him and decided to side with the drug dealer who led them to the victim's car. That takes a pretty high level of certainty, and operating within that framework, verification bias would be strong. If they investigated and found no payphone, they very well could have dismissed that as a small detail, if they felt the big picture (i.e., Adnan killed Hae) was intact.
Summer's story of seeing Hae - The second piece of information comes from Summer, who was a student at Woodlawn. She contacted SK to say that is the prosecution was claiming Hae was dead by 2:36, that was impossible because she spoke with Hae at school later than that. Summer was friends with Hae (not that close, but they had classes together) and Summer joined Hae as a manager of the boy's wrestling team. On that day, she was getting ready for the team's trip when Hae came by and said she wasn't taking the bus with the team and would meet them at the location. Summer recalled this because she was new to this and was not comfortable keeping score. Hae told her that she would be there, but she had to pick up her little cousin. Summer says they spoke for about 10 minutes and this happened around 2:30 to 2:45. Summer says she was positive this was the day because Hae obviously never showed up and she was mad at Hae for ditching her. It appears the police never spoke to Summer.
Summer's story is corroborated by other witnesses. Becky said she saw Hae right after school. Debbie said she saw Hae inside the school near the gym around 3pm (which could fit Summer's story). The one witness who contradicts this would be Ines Butler (the concession lady) who had told SK that Hae asked her to tell the team bus to wait for her. But SK notes that Ines' statement to the police said that Hae was not getting on the bus.
At this point, SK asserts that the 2:36 call was not the "it's done, come get me" call made from the Best Buy as the prosecution argued. And if there never was a payphone at Best Buy, then maybe the murder didn't take place there at all. Chris said Jay told him the murder took place at the Woodlawn Library parking lot, but that place is even more impractical due to the number of people near there. SK wonders if Hae was still alive then, could the 3:15 call be the "it's done" call? If then, there are severe timing problems as Jay's testimony is all messed up.
Summer's story is interesting. The timing seems to be that she contacted SK after hearing about the podcast. So she is either telling the truth or making this up to get attention and interject herself into the story. It's impossible to evaluate what she's doing, but the fact that Debbie and Becky also said they saw Hae at school, and given the details provided and the explanation for why she remembered that day, it seems like a plausible story. Besides, no one actually believes the prosecution's insane theory anyway. But even if Summer is right, does it really change anything? Perhaps if Adnan was at track practice, that narrows the time window in which he could have committed the murder. Rather than a 90-minute timeframe from 2:30 to 4:00 pm, now it becomes a 45- to 60-minute window. This doesn't mean Adnan is necessarily innocent, but it does make things more complicated.
Throwing out 2:36pm as the murder time really narrows the time window. If Hae was at school until 2:45 to 3:00pm, and she was supposed to pick up her cousin at around 3:15pm, then she would have had to have been diverted in this 15 to 30 minute window. But, this also means Hae would have been in a rush, so it would have taken something pretty extraordinary to divert her attention. She no longer has almost an hour to get her cousin. Now it's she has to go pick up her cousin in 15 minutes. And I think that changes things.
Aisha Calling Around that Evening - The last piece of information relates to Cathy's observation that Adnan was "panicked" after receiving a phone call while he was at her apartment. SK notes that this call may have actually been from Aisha, who was calling around looking for Hae. This came from Krista, who told SK that Aisha was calling people and she spoke with Aisha at around 6pm. Aisha confirmed that she spoke with Adnan, although she couldn't remember if she called him or the other way around. It was a "super short" conversation and Adnan was annoyed with her for telling the police to check in with him. Aisha thought the conversation had occurred after Adnan had spoke with the police. But she can't be sure exactly when the call happened.
At this point, SK suggests Aisha could have been the 6:09pm call. So when Adnan says "what am I going to do? What am I going to say?" it isn't necessarily out of panic. It could have been the result of his annoyance for Aisha directing the police in his direction (like, "what do i know where she is. why did you have the police bother me?" sort of thing).
Of course, we can't be sure if this is what happened, but that sounds like a perfectly plausible scenario. I (and several others) really credited Cathy's testimony anyway. She had never met Adnan before. She made her conclusions about Adnan's behavior after he was already arrested. She's drawing conclusions from one side of a phone conversation. And her testimony pretty much requires there to be a third person, who no one has suggested.
Adnan's story - The rest of the episode is devoted to Adnan's experience in this. Lots of sound clips of Adnan speaking. Some useless observations about how Adnan seemed to be taking the news of Hae's death (and a statement from Jim Trainum saying that these statements are all useless). A couple of interesting bits here are: (1) Adnan called the police (Detective O'Shea) when he, Krista, Aisha, and Stephanie were together after hearing the news of Hae's body being discovered, and (2) Adnan reminding SK that he was 17 when this was happening and just couldn't process the implications of what was going on. Otherwise, there are some clips of Adnan speaking. Here's him on learning Hae was dead:
“Yeah, it was a complete it was
just a complete - yeah it was just a complete shock. There no way that you know that I... I’m
pretty sure they didn’t either... imagine that she would turn up, you know,
dead, murdered, and her body would be found.
So, no, I had never ever consider that.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t even think something bad happened to her
either. We just kinda thought that it
was some – there was some explanation.
You know, Hae was somewhere, you know with her father in California, or
with her new boyf- who knows. So, no.”
He sounds a bit flustered talking about this, but it could just be remembering an emotional time. I guess something I keep forgetting is that they are all 17-18. And teenagers do dumb things and they can be naive. It's easy to automatically fear the worst when someone disappears. But then again, I guess it's not unheard of for an 18-year old to run off with a boy or go somewhere. It really does seem like her friends were in denial that Hae was dead as well, so Adnan's reaction doesn't seem out of place.
Letters with Krista - SK spoke with Krista, who showed her letters exchanged with Adnan. Adnan wrote consistently, and they seem like he genuinely cares for her. He asks about Krista's life, prom, boyfriend, etc. He tells her about prison life. He notes other people who have written him -- Laura, Ju'an, Justin, Asia, Erin. SK notes he did not attach any significance to Asia's letter as a potential alibi. One interesting letter was right before his sentencing when Adnan sent Krista a photo from a magazine that looked like Hae. SK seemed a little concerned about this. Was this too nonchalant? Creepy?
This section was very nice storytelling. We get a nice picture of the good side of Adnan. He comes off as he was a good friend who had a genuine relationship with Krista. Not much to analyze here, but it is excellent storytelling. The one potential downside is SK really does paint a rosy picture of Adnan. I know SK is trying to be an impartial investigator here, but it seems like she does like him and hopes he really is innocent.
Sentencing - SK discusses the sentencing process. Hae's mother speaks, and at that point Adnan says he understood for the first time how people on the other side viewed him. Adnan's attorney asks the judge to consider it a crime of passion. Adnan is upset because the attorney is giving away his innocence. He wants to maintain his innocence but his attorney advises against it because that would anger the judge. Adnan gets a chance to speak and more or less bungles it.
The judge has some scathing words when she issues the sentence:
“I disagree with
you counsel. This wasn’t a crime of
passion. You planned it. You used that intellect. You used
that physical strength. You used
that charismatic ability of yours that made you the president or what was it
the king or the prince of your prom. You
used that to manipulate people. And even
today, I think you continue to manipulate even those who love you, as you did
to the victim. You manipulated he to go
with you to her death.”
Wow. This seemed very harsh coming from the judge. I can understand a juror or a layperson buying into the prosecution's story and convicting. But I am surprised a judge would listen to the evidence and basically call Adnan a sociopath. Unless we are missing some damning pieces of evidence, the prosecution's case was flimsy as hell and full of holes. Anyone paying attention to Jay's story should have spotted gaping holes. I just don't understand how you can go from there to making these comments. The judge seems to have genuine contempt for Adnan in these statements, and that took me by surprise.
Adnan Today - SK recounts how another prosecutor told her that of course Adnan can't admit he's guilty now with everything his family and friends have gone through and are doing. Adnan takes offense to that. He says his parents are the dearest people in the world to him and the thing that hurts them the most is the injustice of the situation. He says that if they found out he actually was guilty, they would feel better because they would know that he deserved to be in prison. They still love him but would understand he was being justly punished.
Interesting reaction. I suggested maybe that Adnan would be willing to maintain his innocence to protect his parents. I'm not willing to adopt Adnan's rationale here, but he does raise an interesting point.
The last notable thing is an exchange with Adnan about why he isn't angry or bitter. Adnan says he is lucky compared to many who are in prison. He has family and friends who care, visit, etc. Religion has helped as well and it made him a better Muslim. And he has a clear conscience because he didn't kill Hae.
Once he tells SK that he's in prison because of his own stupid actions. When asked about it, he says:
A:
Well I mean because at the end of the day man who can I – I mean... I
never should have let someone hold my car, I never should have let someone hold
my phone. You know. I never should have been friends with these -
with people, you know, who – I mean, who else could I blame but myself?
SK: Well, you could blame Jay if you think he’s
lying.
A:
I mean yeah but at – I mean – him, the police, the prosecutors. But I mean – I mean sure what happened to me
happened to me – I had nothing to do with this, right. But at the end of the day, I have to take
some responsibility. You know I mean you
don’t really know the things that my younger brother went through. You know, um what my family goes through, you
know I mean – at the end of the day if I had been, you know, like a good
Muslim, you know someone who didn’t do any of these things, you know what I
mean, then uh (pause) yeah it’s something that really weighs heavily on
me. I mean, no way, I had absolutely
nothing to do with Hae’s murder but I mean at the end of the day you know it’s
uh...I can’t (pause). Yeah.
So one of my biggest red flags about Adnan is his calm demeanor and lack of anger towards Jay. I suppose he really could have found inner peace thanks to religion. But this exchange still felt weird. He stammers all over the place. He doesn't even seem to consider blaming Jay until SK brings him up. And that would require an immense amount of self-assuredness to just forgive Jay to the point of not even considering him blameworthy.
He does sound like he has regrets, though. Maybe even feels some guilt. Not sure if it is guilt over what he did to Hae or if he is guilty about how this has affected his family. Throughout this process I have gone back and forth in deciding whether he did it or not. What I can say is I don't think he is a cold-blooded sociopath. I don't think this was premeditated murder. And I don't think he "continues to manipulate even those who love him."
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