I don’t mean it in an unseemly romantic way. Koenig clearly nurses an affection for Adnan.
#Serial podcast episode 7 deidre enright serial
(Although Deirdre Enright, the head of the Innocence Project Clinic at University of Virginia Law School, who dropped a mysterious serial killer into the mix at the end of the series, is on the case.) As the end of the project neared, Koenig pleaded for Adnan to recover a memory to help her exonerate him-“I still want to know what you were doing that afternoon.” He has nothing for her.Īs a journalistic moment, it’s not pretty. But that’s why trials have two lawyers, rather than a single advocate.Īnd after more than a year of investigating, fact is, Koenig was unable to unearth any useable exculpatory evidence. Koenig does a good job of raising reasonable doubt in the case. But you’d have to believe all of those things-and more-happened in the same case. You’d have to believe his lawyer was negligent and that the district attorney was, basically, corrupt. You would have to believe that he was a victim of a string of improbable incidents-or, perhaps, that he was set up. To believe Adnan was innocent, you’d have to believe he was one of the most unlucky people to ever set foot in Baltimore. The jury convicted him of murder after deliberating for a mere two hours.
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“I nurse doubt,” adds Koenig, as she’s wrapping up her year-long investigation, “I don’t like that I do, but I do.”ĭetectives were sure Adnan did it. There was the pretense skepticism hovering over the narrative, but the driving force of Serial is Koenig’s advocacy-which is one of those big flapping in the breeze red flags of journalism. As if anyone expected another conclusion.
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“As a juror I vote to acquit,” Koenig states near the end of the final episode. Because by episode six, I couldn’t trust Koenig to tell it. Maybe someone will even revisit this one.
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Hopefully, the show’s success means that other journalists will be given similar space and time to explore gripping stories. And Koenig’s conversational style coupled with her exhaustive reporting is a compelling format. Serial is a critical and commercial sensation. If you haven’t yet listened to the near-universally acclaimed podcast, here’s a short synopsis: Serial is the story of an inquisitive and affable public-radio journalist named Sarah Koenig who sets out to prove the innocence of a man named Adnan Syed in the 1999 murder of Baltimore County high school student named Hae Min Lee-and fails.