Serial’s Adnan Syed Released from Prison

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Gianna Ventre, Reporter/Editor

Adnan Syed, a man arrested at 17 for the murder of his ex girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was released from prison due too the state violating its legal obligation too share evidence that could have helped Adnan’s side of the case. This was after almost two whole decades of him behind bars. High School students at Belvidere North learned and debated this case during their freshman year. This was because of the podcast, Serial. Serial was a true crime podcast that had shared the confusing death of Hae Min Lee. Even though the children at Belvidere North don’t actually know the people in this case, it’s a big part of their high school experience. Andrea Woldman, a teacher at Belvidere North shares her opinions on the case, and how the release has, and is going to affect teaching this unit, she stated, “I had gotten so many messages from former students who were making sure I knew he was released, I feel like these things just stick with them.” and “Well have to wait out the next thirty days and see how it plays out, before we make any big changes to the unit,” Syed is now 41 years old, waiting the next thirty days to see if the court wants to have another trial or just drop the case. The court is waiting for DNA tests to come back before making a final decision. The family of Hae Min Lee are dealing with a lot of hardships right now, as the court has let out who they know to be the killer of their daughter. Mr. Lee, Haes brother, has talked about what their family is dealing with at this time, he says, “This is not a podcast for me, it’s real life, a never ending nightmare for twenty plus years. Whenever I think it’s over, it ends, it comes back. It’s killing me, and it’s killing my mother” Mr. Lee felt betrayed and blindsided by the release of Adnan, and said they had never been notified beforehand of the release.
After researching this case, we had 39 students at Belvidere North decide if they felt Adnan
was guilty or innocent, innocent won with 89% vs 10.4% guilty. Jasmyne Dukala, a sophomore at Belvidere North who said guilty, shared her opinions on the case, she said, ”I think Adnan’s guilty, but I don’t think he did it all by himself. There’s clues pointing to his old friend Jay. Either way Adnan shouldn’t have been the only person getting arrested” At this time, we are watching to see the court’s decision on Adnan, and waiting to see if this changes Belvidere North’s unit in this case.