The Case Against Adnan Syed

Newsman: Eighteen-year-old Hae Min Lee disappeared on January 13th

after leaving Woodlawn High School.

On February 9th police found her half-buried body

in Baltimore's Leakin Park. She had been strangled.

Key details they had withheld as they sought out a suspect.

They now have one in custody.

The police suggest the suspect had a motive

in the form of a fatal attraction to his victim.

Newsman 2: The subject is identified as Adnan Masud Syed,

17 and a former football player who is described

as an A-student, friendly to everyone.

Newsman: News of Syed's arrest is met with disbelief

by the community in Woodlawn.

They can't believe the boy who had so much promise

now faces a murder rap.

Newsman: Adnan Syed is getting another chance.

He is in Baltimore court now

hoping to win a retrial for the murder of his ex-girlfriend,

Hae Min Lee.

-(man speaks) -Oh, I'm fine. Nervous.

No. But we're ready.

Rabia Chaudry: We are nervous, but hopeful.

I mean, I think we haven't had this much hope,

um, for success in a long time.

It is kind of, or also at the same time, our last best shot.

I feel a sense of desperation to keep the story alive until we can get him home.

And that's why I'm almost always tweeting about it,

I'm writing about it, I'm talking about it,

because I just want resolution.

Newsman: Outside the courtroom Thiru Vignarajah,

arguing for the state, read out a statement

from Hae Min Lee's family.

We believe justice was done

when Adnan was convicted in 2000,

and we look forward to bringing this chapter to an end.

But we are grateful for all the people who are there to give Hae a voice.

She is the true victim.

Rabia: Reliving it over and over is hard,

and right now, I'm just looking at the court and saying,

please just do your job, so we can get off this rollercoaster.

Asalaam alaikum. I'm at the Dunkin' Donuts.

If you come up to the courthouse and make a right...

I can be in the building. What am I'm going to do in the building?

I'd rather sit in the Dunkin' Donuts.

Uh, so what happened was the prosecutor said,

"Well, before my opening I have, um, some preliminary matters."

And then he turned and looked at me and turned around

and said that "We want to sequester witnesses."

The prosecutor started reading off the names of Justin's witnesses.

My name's on the list, like six, seven people.

So Justin stood up and said, "Well, we're not going to be calling Ms. Chaudry.

And the prosecutor said, "Well, I reserve the right to call her,

so I'm asking she be sequestered anyways."

It was just a dirty move. I am--

I can bet the barn that he's not going to call me.

If he did, I'd be surprised.

I don't think-- I would be a hostile witness.

I would be a very, very hostile witness. (chuckles)

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's fine.

I think it was just kind of a move

to demoralize Adnan's family and Adnan.

Having me removed from the courtroom

might make the prosecutor feel better,

but it's not going to help his case any.

And so this is just a way to...

I don't know, maybe get me back.

I've been pretty harsh on the state in public,

and I don't have any regrets, so...

-Thank you. -Yeah, thank you. Thank you, guys.

-Newsman: Take care. -Thank you.

Newsman (over radio): Syed, now 35, appeared in a prison jumpsuit

in a courtroom packed with family members.

The hearing is expected to continue

until at least next week.

(Pakistani pop song playing over radio)

Rabia: I wasn't there at all for the first trial.

I didn't have a lot of bandwidth

to deal with what was happening with Adnan,

because of the stresses in my own personal life.

My older daughter was about two at the time.

I was in law school.

I got married very young, and I got married into a family

that was very culturally Pakistani.

And they expected us all to live in one big joint family, and me,

as the eldest daughter-in-law, would be responsible

for, like, cooking and cleaning for, like, ten people.

And it was just like a culture shock to me,

'cause I wasn't raised like that.

It was an abusive marriage at times,

and that's why I came to visit my parents every weekend,

because I just had to get out of there

and that was my excuse on the weekends.

Would you guys like some tea or juice?

Anwar Chaudry: We feel bad if someone leaves us

without even a cup of tea.

Our people, you tell them I'm sick, I cannot.

Even then you have to eat something.

Yeah, it's a must.

If you're dying, then they're just fine, but eat here.

Rabia: The divorce was ugly,

and my ex-husband made false allegations against me.

And so they took away my daughter for 90 days,

and they said, we're going to do this full investigation.

And that was devastating for me.

Oh no, no, no, no.

The whole thing's going to fall off.

For me to see how easy it was to manipulate the court,

simply by making a verbal allegation, with no evidence,

I was just shocked and stunned.

Cristina Gutierrez: The defense's next witness would be Detective Ritz.

Rabia: People lie all the time in court.

Witnesses lie, attorneys lie,

police lie, it happens all the time.

Gutierrez: Detective Ritz, you had an occasion

to interact with a man by the name of Jay Wilds?

Yes, ma'am, I did.

Gutierrez: And those interviews took place on the 28th of February?

Det. Ritz: Yes, ma'am.

Rabia: This is the Miranda and the cover sheet

for the interview that Jay gave

on February 28th, 1999.

This is where the case against Adnan begins.

Jay is the center of gravity in this case.

It all revolves around Jay.

Jay was a classmate of Adnan's,

and Jay is the one who told the story that convicted Adnan.

At trial, he said that Adnan killed Hae in the parking lot of Best Buy,

and then he also said that he helped Adnan bury her in Leakin Park.

The thing is that the story that Jay told at trial

is actually not the same story they told the police the first time.

Looks like him.

- Hey, Phillip how are you? -How you doing?

I'm Luke Brindle-Khym from QRI.

-Nice meeting you. -I'm Tyler Maroney. Thanks for coming out.

Our goal today is to kind of

have you walk us through what happened.

I got a call from the police department,

and, uh, they said that we need your services at Leakin Park.

He gave me the location, and we need you now.

Maroney: Phil, what was the purpose of

the measurement of the distance?

Why did they ask you to do that?

Buddemeyer: Just so when they have it on the record,

the location of the body in Leakin Park.

All right, Mr. Buddemeyer, let's have you recreate

the surveying job that you did.

I need somebody to hold the two on the chain.

Then we're gonna chain back.

You can just hold-- just right here.

-Just lift it up high... -Got it.

-...to avoid all that brush. -Okay.

I see the log.

Kevin Urick: After you saw Hae Lee's body,

did you want to help the defendant bury the body?

-No, sir. -Did you... help that man?

I helped him dig a hole, sir.

Urick: Nothing further.

Adnan (over phone): When I was initially arrested,

they had me initial a Miranda sheet.

It didn't register with me at all

as they put the paper in front of me, the Metro Crime Stopper paper.

It had Hae's picture.

The first detective, Ritz, he was saying, Hey man, look,

why did you do it? Da-da-da-da. Why did you do it?

And MacGillivary said, hey man, just tell us the truth.

Did you get mad, because, look, I had an ex-wife,

I get mad at her sometimes.

Once they gave me the charging document,

I was like, holy crap, man.

That's when I said, hey listen, you know, I want a lawyer.

And he was like, you want a lawyer? You got a lawyer?

I was like, I don't have a lawyer, but I want to speak to a lawyer.

Chris Flohr: I got admonished by my wife

to make sure I brush my hair.

Not a big fan of the long hair.

Basically, nobody in my family is a big fan of the long hair, so...

I just remember it being a gray

and sort of misty, raining day.

I remember going to the police station.

There was like an intercom kind of thing outside,

and I said, you know, my name's Chris Flohr.

I'm here to represent Adnan Syed.

I understand that you have him in custody.

I'd like questioning to stop immediately.

And he says, well, he hasn't asked for you,

and I said, he doesn't know I exist.

The family hired us, and I said, I'm representing him.

He said, well, you know, according to the Supreme Court,

we don't have to allow him access to you

unless he asks for access to you.

And that was it. I never got in the building.

I never got up to see him. No access. Nothing.