English Language Inbox 1

ANSWERS: Serial Episode 1: The Alibi

PART 1: 0:00 - 4:08

• Why does Sarah say the search felt ‘invasive’?

It felt invasive because of the types of things she had to ask about teenagers’ personal lives: they sex lives, their drug habits, their relationships with their parents, and so on.

• What does she say about difficulty accounting for time? What do her discussions with the teenagers show?

She says that it’s really hard to account for time in a detailed way. If something significant happened on a particular day, you remember that and the entire day much better. However, if nothing significant happened, then the answers get very general.

The discussions with the teenagers demonstrate how terrible and unreliable their recall was.

PART 2: 4:08 - 5:15

• What do we learn about Hae Min Lee?

She disappeared on January 13, 1999. She was a senior at Woodlawn high school in Baltimore County, Maryland. She was Korean. She was smart and beautiful. She was a great athlete; she played field hockey and lacrosse. She was responsible.

• What happened to her?

After school on January 13, she was supposed to pick up her little cousin from kindergarten and drop her home, but she didn’t show up. Her body was found about a month later (Feb 9th) in a big park. Someone had strangled her by hand.

• Who was arrested for the crime?

Hae’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for her murder. He has been in prison ever since then. English Language Inbox 2 PART 3: 5:15 - 9:02

• Who is Rabia and why did she write to Sarah?

Rabia is the one who wrote to Sarah about the case. She is a lawyer and member of Baltimore’s Pakistani community. She knows Adnan well, as he is her younger brother’s best friend. She believes in Adnan’s innocence and has been working since the trial to prove it. Rabia wrote to Sarah because she’d found some old articles Sarah had written about the defence attorney who had represented Adnan (her final case) and who had been disbarred for mishandling client money.

• What do we learn about Adnan’s lawyer?

After Adnan’s trial, his lawyer was disbarred for mishandling client money. Rabia thought that this lawyer had purposely lost (“botched” / “thrown”) the case so she could get more money for the appeal. The lawyer had died a few years later.

• What do Rabia and Saad say about their friend Adnan?

Rabia said he was an especially good kid - smart, kind, goofy and handsome. People who knew him were stunned when he was arrested for murder. He was the community’s golden child. He was an honour-roll student, a volunteer, a member of the football and track teams, the homecoming king. He led prayers at the mosque. He was known to be someone who was going to go on to do something really big. (Sarah later found some inaccuracies in these statements.)

PART 4: 9:02 - 12:50

• What was the state’s case against Adnan? What was the story presented in court

He and Hae had been going out since junior prom, but Adnan wasn’t supposed to be dating. (His parents are conservative muslims.) Adnan had to keep the relationship secret.

• How did the state use his secret activities as a teenager against him?

The state said Adnan’s secrecy was proof that he was a liar., which was proof of bad character. They also used it to say that he had taken a huge risk by having the relationship, so he couldn’t handle it when she broke up with him. English Language Inbox 3

• Why does Saad say that he was ‘in the same boat’ as Adnan? What does he mean to imply?

Saad is saying that he did all the same things as Adnan. Trying to be normal American teenagers and then lying to their parents is normal for children of immigrant parents.

• What does Sarah say about physical evidence?

There was none. There was nothing linking him to the crime, apart from fingerprints in Hae’s car, which he had been in many time.

• Who is Jay, and why is he important in the story?

Jay is the person whose testimony led to Adnan’s sentence. He was a friend of Adnan’s, though they weren’t super close. Jay sold weed and he and Adnan used to smoke together.

• What was it about the story that captured Sarah’s interest and made her want to pursue it?

Sarah is interested in the fact that someone is lying - either Jay or Adnan - and she wanted to figure out who.

PART 5: 12:50 - 19:30

• What does Jay say in his testimony? What are the key points?

He Jay’s story is basically this: had been shopping with Adnan. Adnan said that he was going to kill Hae. Jay said he didn’t take it too seriously. On the morning of the 13th, Adnan left school and drove to Jay’s house. It was Jay’s girlfriend Stephanie’s birthday, and Jay needed the car to go and buy her something. Adnan came to pick him up and they went shopping at the mall. After they left the mall, Jay dropped Adnan back at school. He left his cell phone in the car and said he’d call. Jay says this was because Adnan was going to go and kill Hae, and he wanted Jay to pick him up afterwards. English Language Inbox 4 Later that afternoon, Adnan called and said Hae was dead and to come and get him at BestBuy. Jay meets him there at the BestBuy car park. Adnan shows Jay Hae’s dead body in her car boot. They both leave in Adnan’s car and hang around together for a few hours as if nothing had happened. Then Jay drove Adnan back to school so he could be seen at track practice. After track practice, Jay picks up Adnan and they drive around. Hae’s family calls. After the call, they go get some shovels and collect Hae’s car and drive around before getting to Leakin Park, where Jay buries Hae’s body. Jay says he helped dig the hole but didn’t help bury her.

PART 6: 19:30 - 27:56

• What surprised Sarah when she met Adnan the first time?

She was struck by two things: he was way bigger than she had expected, and he has giant brown eyes “like a dairy cow”.

• What is his response to Jay’s story?

He said none of it was true at all.

• How does he say he felt about Hae?

He loved her in the highschool way but also got over her once they had broken up. He said he was sad but not obsessed. He says he had no ill will towards her at all. He said he felt love, friendship and respect for her.

• Why can’t Adnan refute Jay’s story? What’s his version of what happened that day?

Adnan cannot refute Jay’s story because he can’t remember enough specific details of the day.

• What’s the crucial window of 21 mins? (2.15-2.36) Why is this problematic for Adnan?

The state says Hae was killed during this period. Adnan couldn’t account for his specific whereabouts. His memories become non-specific. English Language Inbox 5 • What does he say about his memory of the day? Why does his memory ‘play both ways’?

He says that day was a completely normal day, so most of his memories of the day are not specific, or they are informed by what other people remember. It plays both ways because if he’s innocent, it makes sense that he wouldn’t remember particular details, but if he’s guilty, it seems very convenient - because he has no specific story, nobody can fact-check him.

PART 7: 27:56 - 35:00

• What is revealed in Rabia and Adnan’s conversation following his conviction?

He mentioned that a girl he went to school with, called Asia Mclean, had written him letters and gone to visit his family because she specifically remembered him being in the library that afternoon straight after school. His lawyer had said they weren’t useful.

• What’s shocking about Asia’s statement?

The most shocking element is that she has never been contacted by any attorney regarding the information she had given. There is proof that the attorney saw the letters. The case desperately needed an alibi witness, and yet Asia was not contacted.

PART 8: 35:00 - 38:10

• What happened when Adnan’s family tried to contact Asia for a second trial?

Asia’s fiancé says that the investigator they hired could not speak to Asia and that he believed that Adnan was guilty and deserved his punishment. The fiancé later calls and says to leave them alone.

• How did Asia undermine her initial statement?

She undermined her statement by staying that she wrote the affidavit only because she was being pressured by Adnan’s family.

PART 9: 38:10 - 49:08

• Why did Sarah become fixated on finding Asia? English Language Inbox 6 Because the whole case relied on her memories of that afternoon. If Sarah can talk to Asia, she thinks she can solve the case.

• What do they find out at the library?

They found that the things that might have been useful to them - the security tapes and the sign-in list - did not exist anymore.

• Did Sarah learn anything from Gerard or Derek?

No - neither of them could remember the details.

• What does Asia say about it when she was tracked down?

She says she trusts the court system. Because she was never questioned, she assumed they did everything correctly. She got spooked when she got the knock on the door from the private investigator.

• What does she remember about the library?

Adnan said that he and Hae had broken up. He seemed pretty chill about it.

• Why does she say she remembers the afternoon well?

She says she remembers being really angry (pissed) about Derek being late, and she also remembers because of the snow storm.

• How does she reflect on the outcome of the case?

She doesn’t think that Adnan did it based on his composure and personality, but she acknowledges that sometimes people who seem nice can do terrible things. When she hears that her statement could have changed the outcome, she sighs heavily.

English Language Inbox 7 PART 10: 49:08 - END

• What surprised Sarah about Adnan’s reaction?

He doesn’t sound excited, whereas Sarah thought he would be.

• Why is he ‘heartbroken’?

He’s heartbroken because it’s too late now for this evidence to be useful.

• What are Asia and Sarah on the same page about?

They both feel the same say about Adnan. From what they know of him, they don’t think he could have done it, and they hope that he is proven innocent. However, they both have doubt. They know it’s possible that he is a really good liar and did actually do it.