I know for sure whether or not Adnan Syed was responsible. Syed, who has simply had his conviction overturned after serving virtually 23 years for the 1999 homicide of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, as soon as stated that solely he and her assassin might be 100% sure whether or not Syed was harmless – however nope, sorry, I do know. I’ve listened to Serial – the 2014 podcast that popularised Syed’s case – twice. I’ve spent numerous hours on Reddit boards devoted to all the pieces the podcast missed. I’ve noticed telling remarks made in telling tones. I’ve learn the doodled diary extracts of a strangled teenage lady. I do know whether or not Syed is a assassin. Do away with judges, juries and executioners: change them with me.
I’m being facetious, clearly – there’s a motive I haven’t advised you whether or not I’m so positive of Syed’s innocence or of his guilt. It’s because I do know, logically, that the understanding that surges in my chest is not any such factor in any respect. Clearly I don’t know whether or not Syed dedicated homicide greater than twenty years in the past; clearly I don’t know whether or not he was framed by corrupt detectives on the Baltimore Police Division. I’m simply considered one of 340 million listeners, and about as geographically and temporally faraway from the case because it’s attainable to be. However nonetheless, I’m sure – and I’m troubled by that, and troubled by different individuals’s certainty too.
True crime invitations us to take a position, rating factors and take sides. I’ve watched the web divide itself into “guilters” and “innocenters” who gleefully name one another deluded and rejoice like sports activities followers when a brand new piece of proof advantages their “staff”. Enormous swaths of individuals spend their days cosplaying as detectives, digging into strangers’ lives, studying their diaries, even driving previous their homes. And so lots of them – like me – are so, so sure that they’ve bought it proper. So lots of them are unwilling to confess that they really know little or no in any respect.
Syed’s conviction was vacated on 19 September as a result of the state did not share exculpatory proof about two potential suspects that would have helped his defence at trial (this is named a Brady violation). Syed has been positioned on house detention. The 41-year-old was not launched from jail as a result of he has been discovered harmless – fairly, investigators are awaiting the outcomes of DNA evaluation earlier than deciding whether or not to hunt a brand new trial. What has been proved, nonetheless, is that Syed’s conviction was wrongful and his rights had been violated – the state was “morally compelled to take affirmative motion”, because it had “misplaced confidence within the integrity of the conviction”.
Whether or not or not there may be one other trial, it’s attainable that there’ll by no means be a smoking (or smokeless) gun on this case. The identification of the killer could also be a type of issues that the broader world can by no means know for sure – Serial host Sarah Koenig not too long ago advised the New York Occasions that, “there was no manner” for the present’s producers “to say definitively what occurred”. As a substitute, Koenig stated: “What we had been stating in our story was that the timeline of the case and the proof within the case had critical issues …
“This child goes to jail for all times at 18, primarily based on a narrative that wasn’t correct. That’s what we wished individuals to consider: even setting apart the query of Adnan’s guilt or innocence, are we OK with a system that operates like that?”
In fact, nobody desires to “put aside the query of Adnan’s guilt or innocence” – nobody ever has. When Serial first aired, some listeners had been disillusioned that the ultimate episode didn’t characteristic a surprising, spine-tingling revelation that would put the case to mattress. As a substitute, it was a narrative concerning the failures and flaws of the US justice system – booo-ring! For a lot of, it was much more enjoyable to don a deerstalker and spend the following eight years changing into so, so sure about whether or not Syed did or didn’t do it.
Frankly, we must always all be ashamed. This isn’t a sport – the individuals we’re speaking about aren’t characters on TV. Addressing the courtroom earlier than Syed’s conviction was overturned, Hae Min Lee’s brother, Younger Lee, stated: “This isn’t a podcast for me. It’s actual life that may by no means finish. It’s been 20-plus years. It’s a nightmare.”
Serial paved the way in which for numerous true crime podcasts and documentaries, and whereas Koenig stopped in need of declaring whodunnit, different producers have been much less scrupulous. I keep in mind a sickening feeling creeping over me after I listened to a podcast on a pal’s suggestion shortly after ending Serial. The host authoritatively declared within the remaining episode that the individual on the coronary heart of the case had certainly dedicated the crime – they made a giant, grand present a few second they sensed they had been chatting with a assassin. However we are able to’t sense something. Our hunches are simply hunches. As ProPublica reporter Pamela Colloff has identified: these are the identical biases that result in wrongful convictions within the first place.
Can true crime thrive with out inviting viewers to take a position? Most likely not. The style invitations us to be entitled – it welcomes us with heat arms to the worst moments of different individuals’s lives. However as viewers and listeners, we should resist certainty – we should resist black and white pondering and assured declarations of innocence and guilt. We should always settle for that we’re simply spectators; that we all know little or no in any respect. If we don’t – if we proceed to belittle one another, stalk strangers and depart boastful feedback about our instincts – then we should settle for that the one guilt that we will be sure of is our personal.
-
Amelia Tait is a contract options author
-
Do you might have an opinion on the problems raised on this article? If you want to submit a letter of as much as 300 phrases to be thought-about for publication, e-mail it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com
