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Jie Gresham
Professor Urie
English 1213
September 25, 2016
Who is the Real Criminal
Since Serial starts to air, gain nationwide popularity, 5 million people download to listen
and trace a bizarre case which is controversy and most listeners think the murder was wrongfully
accused. At same time, this podcast recruits a lot of blackish also. From “shamelessly
explitative,” to “ trawling through a grieving family’s pain as a form of entertainment.” (Silman)
Sarah Koenig presides this serial podcast, she is a reporter for the Baltimore Sun for she “had
written about a well-known defense attorney in Baltimore who’d been disbarred for mishandling
money. The attorney was the same person who defended Adnan, her last major trial, in fact.”
(Serial 4) Sarah Koenig is strongly pleased by a lawyer, Rabia Chaudry, “knows Adnan pretty
well for her younger brother is Adnan’s best friend. And they believe Adnan is innocent.” (Serial
3) Rabia hopes Sarah can help Adnan who was a Muslim boy now is a man to reverse a verdict.
16 years ago, Adnan was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend-Hae Min Lee and announced to
the life sentence to the jail. Adnan and Hae were Woodlawn high school student in Baltimore
Country, both of them were born in America, Adnan’s parents came from conservative Pakistan,
Hae’s parents came from Korean. Under same immigrant background, both of them bear same
strict rules from their culture, religion. Especially Adnan as a Muslim boy, he should “no
drinking, no smoking, no girls.” (Serial 6) But “they are all healthy American teenagers who are
doing what teenagers to do.” (Serial 7) Because of their foreign background, the prosecutors
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arbitrarily claim Adnan has a dual standard twisted personality that in one side Adnan seemly is
an “honor roll student, on another side, Adnan smokes weed, has sex with girls and is a drape.
After Adnan and Hae had eight months’ relationship, Hae broke up with Adnan and started to
have a relationship with a white man, Don is a psychological teacher. During Hae and Don love
period, one normal afternoon, as Hae was hurried to leave school to pick up her cousin from
kindergarten, she disappeared. One month later, her body was found “by a maintenance guy who
stopped to take a leak on his way to work in a Leakin Park and Hae’s death was manual
strangulation. (Serial 3) Adnan as the critical suspect was arrested to interrogate. Because of
Adnan’s religion, the state accused Adnan is a liar and a pride of Muslim man who can’t bear
abandoned by a woman, revenge to kill Hae. Adnan couldn’t give proper explanation that
between the key 21 minutes what and where he is doing. Under incomplete evidence and with
