Serial

Her statements about being on the fence do not ring true based on the way she has presented the story.

I have always disliked the loss of distinction between 'innocence' and 'not guilty.'

SK has been clearly consistent that she believes that Sayed should have been found not guilty. She alleges to be open, but I think her position has been clear.

She also alleges to be conflicted about his guilt or innocence. I can believe that, although I think she leans heavily toward innocence.

 

I'm probably projecting my own feelings onto SK, but I think she wants to believe Adnan is innocent (not just not guilty), but can't quite get there. Based on what I've heard about the prosecution's case, the defense provided as well as the opinions of lawyers interviewed on Serial and/or the podcasts about Serial, I believe he would have been found not guilty had he been better represented at trial. I also think this highlights the distinction between innocence v. a court finding of not guilty.

 

I agree, based on the info presented by the show.

Regardless of one's opinion about the criminal justice system, a person who is demonstrably 'innocent' almost never gets prosecuted. The issue is always guilty/not guilty.

It's funny that I am almost always polar opposite of the Slate people. They hated episode 7, which I found very illuminating. They loved episode 11, which I found boring and irrelevant.

 

I doubt she even chooses this case if she thought from the start that he was 100% guilty.

I think she has been pretty impartial. Last Thursday she basically begged Adnan's community to go on record about him and some of the crazy stuff she had heard.

 

I'm enjoying the show.

Last week was interesting in her decision to air some of those anecdotes.

I understand Sayed being upset about her bringing up the theft of the mosque donations. That's something normally would not be included in reportage.

However, it also supports the show well because it further illustrate's that he does not seem like a bad or evil person. He doesn't seem like a murderer because the worst we've learned about him is that he stole donation money at the mosque.

 

I think the most interesting thing about 'Serial' is thinking about where it falls on the continuum of journalism and entertainment.

 

To me, the story isn't so much about the murder or the trial but about the reporting and how Sarah fits into all of it.

For people who believe in we aren't the story, we are the story tellers, it has been a rough patch if they are also keeping up with Serial.

Her reporting has caused real world impact with the innocence project people coming aboard and might cause even more depending on how things play out.

My best guess is that people will hate the ending as it won't have a neat resolution. It will still be unclear as to what happened in Baltimore and that's not what people want.

I read some criticism of the show earlier today that reflected that and the writer argued that Serial broke a cardinal rule, that the reporter didn't know the final part of the series before starting the series. But that's reporting though.

The other great thing about Serial, to me, is that for anyone who has covered a big, complex case, you always get little nuggets that you want to check out and sometimes you and sometimes you don't but when you do they lead down a rabbit hole and you don't have time for that and are not always particularly germane to the story you are working on.

It is an interesting nugget that stays in your notebook.

But for Serial everything she hears, even the slightest rumor, she chases down and that has been terrific.

 

This thing probably ends with Adnan just breaking down and admitting he did it, which would be amazing to hear, or have Adnan saying he didn't do it over and over and we are left to judge if he did or didn't.

Either way, it's been fascinating.

 

Probably.

 

They cannot resolve an absolute on guilt or innocence.

The best they can do is sum up the reasons he should've been found not guilty.

But the jurors believed Jay. That's part of the system.

 

The jurors did believe Jay, but I think if the attorney had done a better job on cross and generally presented a better case by having an actual alternative scenario, she would have been able to get jurors to reasonable doubt. Even the little bit of the cross exam played was so grating and confusing to listen to, I wanted to vote guilty and get the hell out of there. As I've said, I still can't get myself to Adnan's innocence, even though I'd really like to. I expect to be in exactly this place Thursday morning after listening to the last episode.

 

I actually have never heard a more annoying voice in my life than the voice of Adnan's attorney.

Nancy Grace heard it and said, "That is one really annoying voice".