Just a few months ago, at the beginning of October 2014, the first two episodes of Serial were released as a double feature by the creators of the award-winning radio program This American Life.
What transpired in the months to follow was a pop-culture phenomenon so in vogue that it transcended the podcast platform, becoming akin to appointment television despite being a strictly auditory experience. Far and away the most downloaded podcast of all time, Serial has grown to be a household name in an industry that lays claim to very few of those, if any at all.
This is mainly attributed to the fact that everything about Serial is nonfiction; Hae Min Lee really was murdered at the age of 18, Adnan Syed really was her ex-boyfriend who ended up getting charged with first-degree murder, and Jay Wilds really was an insufferable primary witness for the prosecution, frustrating listeners with his consistently inconsistent testimonies.
Even though Serial left fans with plenty of uncertainties, the begrudging consensus was that a podcast had almost no chance of influencing the state of Maryland’s legal system into action. That impossible dream was realized on Friday when Adnan Syed was granted an appeal hearing to revisit his case on the grounds that his lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, provided “ineffective council” at the time of his first trial back in 2000.
Among other things, a possible motivating factor for the court’s decision to revisit the case is the fact that Gutierrez was disbarred in 2001 after it was found she had mishandled client funds. Regardless of their reasons for doing so, Adnan Syed’s appeal hearing is scheduled for June of this year.
Adnan Syed has spent the last 15 years toiling in obscurity at the North Branch Correctional Institution. The shoddy circumstances surrounding his conviction have also remained relatively ignored, but both Syed and the questionable guilty verdict handed down to him have finally been thrust into the public eye.
Sarah Koenig, the host and executive producer of the Serial podcast, is to thank for the sudden revival of one of the more puzzling murder cases in recent memory. Her first words of the first Serial episode emphasized her dedication to uncovering the truth about Adnan Syed:
“For the last year, I’ve spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for an hour after school one day in 1999. Or, if you want to get technical about it – and apparently I do – where a high school kid was for twenty-one minutes after school one day in 1999.”
Her tireless work on the case has not gone unrewarded, but all the recognition she has earned comes from more than her skills as an investigative journalist. The production value of the Serial podcasts are masterful, which is a nod to both Koenig and the people at This American Life.
It’s strange to consider that if Koenig and her gang of producers hadn’t stumbled upon this case, a man who may very well be exonerated this summer would otherwise have been facing the prospect of spending his entire adult life locked up. The most recent request for an appeal is not the first made on Adnan Syed’s behalf: his original appeal was denied in 2003. By no means is Adnan Syed in the clear, but without the Serial podcasts he would have never even sniffed the opportunity of having his case heard for a second time.
