BOOK 202: ADNAN'S STORY: THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE AFTER SERIAL: RABIA CHAUDRY

In early 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners

But Serial did not tell the whole story. In this compelling narrative, Rabia Chaudry presents new key evidence that she maintains dismantles the State's case: a potential new suspect, forensics indicating Hae was killed and kept somewhere for almost half a day, and documentation withheld by the State that destroys the cell phone evidence -- among many other points -- and she shows how fans of Serial joined a crowd-sourced investigation into a case riddled with errors and strange twists. Adnan's Story also shares Adnan’s life in prison, and weaves in his personal reflections, including never-before-seen letters. Chaudry, who is committed to exonerating Adnan, makes it clear that justice is yet to be achieved in this much examined case.

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41021355-adnan-s-story)

MY REVIEW: I read this book as I was a fan of Serial (and true crime in general). But it’s so much more than just a follow up to a podcast. I found Serial to be quite sad to listen to, I find stories of even possible miscarriages of justice to be very troubling, this book made the story much, much more of a tragic tale.

A lot of people have listened to Serial - season 1 episodes have been downloaded more than 68 million times. That’s a crazy amount of people! And a lot of those people have an opinion on whether Adnan did or didnt murder Hae Min Lee on January 13, 1999.

The story is told by Rabia Chaudry from her point of view with a smattering of direct texts from Adnan Syed himself. The story doesn't start from the Serial podcast - that’s somewhere in the middle - it starts from when Hae Min Lee disappears. The first time that Adnan becomes involved in the story is when, as her friend, the family of Hae and eventually the Police ask if he’d seen her. He later becomes a suspect and is arrested for her murder once her body is found half buried in a park. Rabia Chaudry does an excellent job of letting us see the ripples that these events have, not only on Adnan and herself and his family but also the community in which they live.

Adnan’s religion was a main focus of the prosecutors in his case but it is also one of the main themes of this book. Every chapter starts with a religious quote and the community and Adnan’s faith is almost like another character in the story. Rabia Chaudry also makes the book semi-autobiographical - we see her going through law school, marrying and having a child, getting divorced and fighting with her conscience over whether she should be getting the media involved in Adnan’s case (in the form of Sarah Koenig) and how she is treated by her community for seemingly sticking up for Adnan’s rebellious ways (at some times it seems like the premarital sex is more shocking than the murder to some people.)

Rabia clearly sees the media as a double edged sword - she takes us through her thinking of how it’s great that Serial was so popular and that so many people are aware of Adnan’s plight but also is not happy that Sarah Koenig is not 100% sure Adnan is innocent.

And here’s where I tell you what I think, because a review of a book about Adnan Syed isnt complete without someone putting in their 2 cents. I don’t believe he did it. And as unsure as I was about it when I finished listening to Serial, the things I learnt later is Rabia’s podcast Undisclosed, and also written in this book made me think that he is innocent. But these words I use are believe and think. I don’t know that he didn't do it and there are very few people who do know for sure. Adnan knows if he did it or not and if he didnt then the person that did do it knows. But the problem is that the evidence did not prove that he did do it. Not without reasonable doubt which is the standard of the law. And the fact that Adnan Syed is still in prison and that nobody has looked at this case - nobody that can do anything about it anyway - and said hang on this just isn't right - is shocking and painful to me. Adnan Syed - despite all the efforts of himself and his family and his community and many lawyers and millions of supporters - is still in prison. And he doesn't look like he’s getting out any time soon. He’s not given up by all accounts - I mean he sounded chirpy in ‘Serial’ and he’d already been in around 15 years at that time - but he’s made a life for himself in prison, which is the best outcome for such a heartbreaking story.