There's been a lot of discussion about the last episode, specifically criticizing the performance of Christina Gutierrez as Adnan's attorney. SK seems to offer a muted critcism that she Gutierrez tried but was ineffective. Rabia Chaudry's latest blog entry disagrees and criticizes SK for being too "charitable."
In this discussion of Gutierrez's ineffectiveness, the one inexcusable thing appeared to be her not checking Asia McClain and other alibi witnesses. As the podcast discussed in prior episodes, Asia wrote a letter to Adnan saying that she spoke with him in the library right after school. But she was never contacted until Rabia tracked her down after Adnan's conviction a year later. Naturally, if the prosecution's theory was that Adnan killed Hae by 2:36pm, having someone vouch that she was talking to Adnan until 2:40pm would be highly relevant. In Episode 9, SK discussed how Summer spoke with Hae at school at around 2:30 to 2:45pm (but she never spoke with the polce). And apparently Debbie and Becky had told the detectives that they saw Hae at school before 3pm as well. So if Hae were alive and at school after 2:36pm, that would also contradict the prosecution's theory. So why weren't these people found and their stories checked?
Then I realized that it appears that the prosecution did not narrow the time window for Hae's murder to 2:36pm until trial (or shortly before). Remember, Jay's statements to the police consistently say he was with Jenn until around 3:45pm, at which point he meets Adnan who shows him Hae's body. SK notes that it was the prosecutor who argues the 2:36pm call was the "come get me call" and that nobody testified to that effect. But if Jay is the only witness, and he said that Adnan called him after 3:45pm, that means until trial, the relevant alibi window would have been around 3:15 to 3:45 pm, not 2:15 to 2:36. If Adnan allegedly called Jay at 3:45pm, it would stand to reason that the murder occurred shortly before then. He wouldn't sit around for an hour with a dead body before calling Jay.
Given that the relevant alibi window during the investigation phase was 3:15 to 3:45pm, then things make more sense. Asia could vouch for Adnan from about 2:20 to 2:40pm. But that doesn't help because Adnan could have left the library, met Hae, and killed her around 3:30pm. Sure enough, Asia writes in her March 1st letter that she will "try my best to help you account for some of your unwitnessed, unaccountable lost time (2:15 - 8:00; Jan. 13th)." Having people say they saw Hae at school before 3:00pm doesn't help because she could have left school at 3pm, met Adnan, and was killed at around 3:30pm. So during the normal investigation stage, the focus should have been finding alibi witnesses for 3:15-3:45pm, and there wasn't anyone (the we're aware of) who fit.
Once the prosecution narrows the window to 2:36pm at trial, everything changes. Now all those discounted witnesses become relevant. But trial is a crazy, hectic time and it's easier to see how such details could be missed during that time. Ideally, Gutierrez's law clerks would be aware of all the facts and would have realized that after the prosecution changes the time window for the murder. Ideally, someone would have remembered Asia's letters and how her seeing Adnan at 2:20 to 2:40 is now relevant. How the notes from the police interviews with Becky and Debbie seeing Hae at school are now relevant (the police never spoke with Summer and they would not have been aware of her). Clearly this didn't happen, but things get missed at trial.
Of course, by the 2nd trial, the defense should have been aware of the time window. But given the indication that things were going well (from polling the first jury) and that the second trial started about 3 weeks later (which isn't much time, especially with the holidays), it's conceivable that this wasn't picked up in the interim.
With the benefit of hindsight and the time to process the information that is presented, this seems like a clear error. But when viewed in the moment and considering the circumstances, this could have been a more understandable mistake.
EDIT: Adam pointed me to Susan Simpson's View From LL2's excellent entry dissecting and eviscerating Jay's statements to the police. And as an added bonus, her very last note offers the same suggestion that I ended up noting here. Her November 23rd entry is an excellent description of the cell tower phones and towers and presents the scenario in a clear format (with pictures) and also suggests a potential Jay/Jenn did it scenario.
No comments:
Post a Comment