You know, if Adnan and Jay were in it together, they came close to pulling off the perfect crime. Jay takes a plea deal and walks, but makes sure that his story is so shifty that his testimony isn’t enough to convict Adnan. Happily ever after. There’s a bad crime novel plot for you. Of course, if that was the plan, which it wasn’t, it didn’t work out that way.
[QUOTE=Daily Scoop]
Ink has already been spilled about the audience’s obsession with some sort of clear and satisfying resolution.
[/quote]
This is the real issue with the podcast’s large listenership, and in general with “true crime” dramas. The audience wants everything to be wrapped up in a neat little package with a bow at the end, with a clear-cut “bad guy,” and a Perry-Mason revelation of the “truth.” It wants to turn the criminal justice system into a made-for-TV movie, as though the courts served only as entertainment for consumption and nothing more. But that’s not really how the criminal justice system is designed–that’s not its purpose.
I haven’t spoken to anyone who expects any kind of real resolution. It will be interesting to see if there is any significant backlash after the podcast is over.
It’s fundamentally stupid to think your anecdotal experience speaks at all to the statistical claim that you made.
You can feel as confident as you want. That has nothing to do with whether your statement is supported by evidence. It’s not, so stop pretending it is.
I give it the weight any anecdotal evidence deserves which is dependent on the source.
Well, Jay is a prosecution witness so they are not really comparable. Asia is completely unreliable for a few reasons. First, we know she recanted which makes her a terrible witness in the present day. However, even back then there were numerous reasons to doubt her story.
- Her letter says: “…I will try my best to help you account for some of your unwitnessed, unaccountable lost time (2:15 - 8:00; Jan 13)…”
This is completely nonsensical. If for no other reason than Adnan’s dad, who she visited before writing the letter, says Adnan was at the Mosque before 8. Additionally, her and Adnan are not close friends. The idea that she is offering to either play amateur detective or would vouch for him herself during that time period is very problematic.
- She goes to his parents’ house after he is arrested like some deranged fan. She says in her letter she “doesn’t know him very well” and that:
“We aren’t really close friends, but I want you to look in to my eyes and tell me of your innocence”
Who says that? Keep in mind that she has NO idea when or where the murder was alleged to have happened, and thus has no idea whether her alibi is significant, yet she goes to a virtual stranger’s house the day after their son is arrested to tell them how calm he was that day?
- Her supporting details are incorrect. She says it snowed that night and that why she remembers the day. The issue is that the snowstorm was the prior week. The week of the murder there was an ice storm, not a snowstorm. That discrepancy alone would be forgivable, but she says she went to her boyfriend’s house and they got snowed in so she had to sleep over. The issue is that the night of the ice storm, it didn’t start raining/snowing until after 4am, so it’s highly unlikely the weather kept her at her boyfriend’s house. If you look at the weather reports, her account more closely aligns with the previous week.
Asia is just not reliable, and as we later know she completely recanted her statement. I could see the value in at least talking to her, but I can also see why a busy attorney may not bother wasting their time on something so clearly worthless.
But you have read this thread, haven’t you?
Yes.
Finally up to date.
I’m still not sure if Adnan did it alone, or Jay helped, or what. I do think that an adjoining cell should be prepared, right next to Adnan’s, for the guy who wrote the theme music.
Funny or Die has agreat Serial/Sarah Koenig parody up today. Really funny.
Just finished the finale. Won’t spoil anything but I think it was as satisfying as it could be.
I’m a bit bummed that it’s over. I feel like I’m not done with this thing yet. The facts of this case can still be made less clear! There are more muddled and contradictory accounts that can be be brought up! We can be made to feel even more confused and frustrated than this!
I’ll miss this podcast.
Agreed with the satisfying ending. I think SK did a great job in wrapping it up.
Koenig did the best ending she could, and exactly the show I thought we’d get. It was an excellent podcast, overall.
However, I would never in a million years use the word “satisfying” to describe an ending to a murder mystery that isn’t any closer to a resolution now than it was in Episode 1.
Well, satisfying in that it was messy like real life, not Hollywood with a surprise ending. How could there be a pat solution to the case?
I agree completely. She did the best ending possible for this story. Not satisfying, because there’s no truly satisfying end that I can imagine, but it was good. It was a very good first season, and I’ll be interested to hear what they do for a second season.
I guess I should say that it wasn’t satisfying, but that I’m satisfied. If that makes sense. I think it was the best wrap-up to this we could really hope for.
I liked that SK came out at the end and said that she wouldn’t have convicted him if she were on a jury, and that she thinks he didn’t do it - but that he could have. And she admits that his charm may be swaying her opinion on the matter.
Dana was the real star of the finale, I thought, laying out the numerous instances of bad luck Adnan would have had to have had happened to him all at once.
I didn’t expect a pat ending, which is why the ending wasn’t particularly satisfying. Especially since I think Adnan did it, and he’s already in jail for the crime.
But, to answer your question, I would expect additional information in the future that will get us closer to a satisfying ending than we have right now. At least, I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.
By the way, I’m listening to TAL Ep #352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar
Great little mystery.
So, the Innocence Project lady says “big picture Sarah” when SK throws out there that this new possibility doesn’t make sense because we know Jay was involved in some way. That’s it? WTF does that mean?
I’m surprised you couldn’t hear my eyes rolling from clear across the country when she said that. That DNA test is a total waste of time. Though, I guess it’s about time they started on the forensics of the samples found at the scene.
Well, I think there’s about a .00001% the the DNA will tie the murder to the serial killer, but there’s always a chance that they might find DNA evidence tying it to someone else. Which could always help his appeal.
Honestly, I don’t think Jay did it anymore. He doesn’t seem smart enough to do this and then pin it on Adnan.
The only two options I see are:
A) Adnan did it just like Jay said
or
B) Someone else did it, Jay helped bury the body, and then this third party threatened Jay into saying that Adnan did it.
Setting aside all your reasoning above (which I won’t really argue either way), how could Gutierrez make the determination that she was a completely worthless witness without even calling her?
After listening to the episode about the trials, it was abundantly clear to me that Gutierrez didn’t really prepare any kind of defense at all. She knew how to act in a courtroom, and how to cross-examine witnesses, but she had no cohesive plan whatsoever for convincing the jury. She had a personal crisis, let her work suffer as a consequence, and Adnan got incredibly shitty representation. If she’d done even a competent job, I think he walks.