Episode 10 Due 6/24

6/20/2016

In Episode 10 Sarah Koenig touches on the idea that the case was driven by prejudice. However, she isn't sold on this idea that "the cops and prosecutors in this case were driven by anti-Muslim feeling, by racism, and by racism alone. That [she] found very hard to believe. And [she] still do[es'n]t believe that by the way. "

What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel that Adnan was given a fair shake without anyone looking at his culture, heritage, or religion?

Feel free to look into Baltimore history leading up to 1998. Feel free to pull in current events that may bring forth the same stereotypes. Please cite where you got the information. For the sake of this activity simply put the URL at the end of your post where you have pulled information. If you have more than one then simply number them in your post and at the bottom. 1) I would put information from my first site here. Please don't copy and paste; just summarize the information. If you do copy and paste, you need to place the information in quotation marks. If you then explain this information and want to add more, simply add a 2) and give the remaining information.

Pay attention to the sites you are using. There are MANY that will be slanted, and you need to understand "who" you are quoting. If there was a question about history would you rather quote Mrs. Fallert or Mr. Zenker. Don't use Wikipedia! When you get to a site you can Control F and type in certain words that may help narrow your search.

1) https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/02/obama-at-islamic-society-of-baltimore-muslim-americans-keep-up-safe
2) http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,185647,00.html

17 Comments

Macy Sample

6/21/2016 07:43:30 pm

When Adnan was first arrested it was because of the story that Jay had told them. Jay's "theory" was not true and he also lied many times, but the jurors thought he was telling the truth. So you have all of these things that Jay is saying and none of it was adding up, but the jurors still believed him because they said "he wouldn't be here saying all of these things if it weren't true." When Jay lies this much about where he and Adnan were and what happened on the day of Hae's murder, who would believe anything he said? Well, when you have the choice of saying the NON-muslim is guilty or saying that the muslim is guilty (even though all signs point towards Jay) they chose to say Adnan was guilty. So no I do not think Adnan was given a fair shake in his trial.

Alexis Alford

6/21/2016 11:00:28 pm

It was very convenient when Jay pointed the cops toward Adnan. He told them that he knew almost every detail about the death of Hae and most importantly he knew who committed the crime, Adnan. It was convenient because Adnan was already the last recent ex-boyfriend and the cops would be suspicious of him already. Add on the fact that he is from a family that practices the Muslim faith, where the men supposedly have the right to beat the women if they ever disobeyed them, and apparently that makes Adnan guilty of killing another human being. It is these two big reasons that Adnan was convicted of killing Hae so no, Adnan was not given a fair shake in his trial.

Taya Allen

6/22/2016 10:22:03 pm

The cops immediately took Jay's story because Adnan was Hae's latest ex- boyfriend. That is where almost anybody, including the police, would automatically place the blame. So right away, there is this prejudice that Adnan killed Hae to get back at her for breaking up with him and is dating someone else. However, through further questioning, the police find out that he and his family are devout Muslims. Adnan's parent's believed that Adnan was too young for relationships with girls. So when the cops found out that this golden Muslim boy was in a secret relationship with a girl, who broke up with him, they knew they found their main suspect. Not the guy who knew exact details of a murder that had to be changed constantly to point at Adnan but at the guy who had no clear memory of that day. I do believe that Adnan had prejudices against mainly, but not only, because he was Muslim, but also because he was Hae's ex- boyfriend. Jay had no direct ties to Hae (only through Adnan) and was Non- Muslim. I do not think Adnan Syed had a fair shake at winning this trial.

Madison Fuller

6/23/2016 05:13:04 pm

At the very start of the case Sarah said when a woman is murdered the first people they look at is the boyfriend or the ex-boyfriend. Since Adnan just so happens to be the ex-boyfriend I don't think it's unusual thtat Adnan would be a main suspect of the case. I also don't think race was involved since Adnan was the ex-boyfriend. However I do think that religion plays a big role in the evidence for this case. Since Adnan and Hae's religion both did not believe in the whole dating aspect of a relationship they had to keep their relationship a secret. Adnan had told Hae that he was sinning when he was dating Hae. The prosecutors used that against Adnan saying since he was "sinning" while dating Hae he needed to get back at her. So Adnan's religious beliefs were used against him in this case.

Kate Pasley

6/23/2016 09:07:13 pm

Adnan wasn't given a fair chance at trial because of his religion and ethnicity. His mother believes that part of the reason why Adnan is in jail is because he is a Muslim. She also stated that she believes the police thought Adnan was an easy target because of his religion and he was a minority. She completely believes that the cops and prosecutors were driven by anti-Muslim feelings and racism alone. She's correct actually. When hundreds of Muslims showed up at Adnan's trials to support Adnan the prosecutors used that against him. The prosecutors told the Jury that he was Pakistani and that there is a history of Pakistani Muslim men being dumped by American women and then the men murder them. She brought up a case from Chicago where this happened and the suspect was released on bail and he fled the country. She used the fact that Adnan had so many supporters from local muslim community that he had the means to flee the country too. It was also brought up that Adnan felt dishonored and that he killed Hae to because of his muslim culture. The fact that Adnan was an American citizen wasn’t portrayed, all they saw was his heritage of being a Pakistani and his religion of Muslim. The jurors may not feel that they showed racial bias but in a lot of their comments it can be heard. One of the jurors even said that Adnan must have killed Hae because she dishonored him and women are treated as second class citizens in Muslim countries. I don’t feel that Adnan was any different from any other American teenager with strict religious parents.

Lizzy Parrish

6/23/2016 10:22:18 pm

I do not believe that Adnan was treated fairly in trial, but not because of race. I think race plays a major role in this particular case but that's not the reason Adnan was convicted. The prosecution uses Adnan's and Hae's ethnicity against Adnan. They say that Adnan killed Hae because he gave up everything for her and then she just dumped him for another guy.

Kendall Runzi

6/24/2016 09:38:42 am

I do not believe that Adnan got a fair chance at trial. I understand that they look to the boyfriends, past and present, as suspects first, but I believe that because of his race, he was treated unfairly. The state's main case against Adnan was that he was taking back his pride when he killed Hae. He broke the rules of his religion for Hae, and she dumped him. They also made the point that the Muslim religion allows men to control the women's actions, or "eliminate them" all together. But in all reality, Adnan was a rational thinker, and wasn't truly involved in his religion until he was in prison. Why would he kill Hae because of his religion if he wasn't devoted to it in the first place? It just doesn't add up, which leaves me with no reason to explain why he is in prison. I can only think that because of his religion, they automatically assumed he would do this.

Anna Heacock

6/24/2016 10:12:05 am

Adnan did not have a fair case at trial. The cops assumed that because Adnan was Hae's latest ex boyfriend that he was the one who murdered her. There was no near enough evidence to prove Adnan guilty. Many of the jury members used Adnan's culture or race against him. Many of the jury members were saying " We don't know how his culture treats women. In some cultures women are considered second class." They were using his culture against him even though it had nothing to do with the case.

Adam Rushing

6/24/2016 01:40:03 pm

Adnan was not convicted due to racism. He was convicted because he was the only person anyone could find evidence against. Evidence was brought up against Jay as well as Adnan. There has been history of racism against black in the city of Baltimore, and since Jay was black, if there was racism against Adnan, there likely would have been racism towards Jay as well. If racism played a role in the case, Jay could have as easily been the one found guilty for the murder. I believe that they didn't they didn't think they had enough evidence to bring a case against anyone else, so they just put the blame on Adnan.

Jake Edington

6/24/2016 02:50:47 pm

It is very obvious to me that Baltimore's police force isn't the most fair racially, but I do not believe racism was involved in Adnan's case. In my opinion there was never any real showings of racism during the trial. I believe that it was due to laziness in the Baltimore Police Department Adnan was convicted. The detectives never dug deep into evidence that could've helped Adnan. The easiest thing was to take Jay's word and leave it at that. There were so many incidents during the investigation that the police didn't question further, even though it seems logical to us that they should have. They should've questioned Jay and Mr.S much harder than they did, delved deeper into the investigation instead of just assuming it was Adnan just because Jay said so, or at least, questioned Asia. I believe that the Baltimore Police Department took the easy road and just wanted to have an easy conviction.

Gracie Fish

6/24/2016 03:49:01 pm

Adnan was not treated fairly during his trial. Adnan was the only person that the police had some evidence against. This evidence was that he was the ex-boyfriend. Adnan's family and Hae's family practiced the same religion. Both Hae and Adnan broke rules in their religion to be with one another. When Hae broke up with Adnan he was filled with many emotions because he had broken so many rules and sinned so that he could have a relationship with Hae. This was the biggest thing that was held against Adnan in the trial. Religion did play a big role in this case.

Max Dougan

6/24/2016 04:35:21 pm

I don't think that Adnan was looked at by a jury with no stereotypes in mind. It's impossible to find a truly untainted jury in our day and age. This would be especially impossible since the state brought up information regarding how his religion treated women. Another issue is the fact that most people want to believe the police are right. Since they already thought that Adnan was guilty the prejudice already had a foothold in their minds. It might not have anything to do with the religion itself and more to do with what they think about how their culture works. If they thought he was a killer going in ideas that make him look like a savage are easily added to cement his conviction.

Kylee Binz

6/24/2016 05:11:20 pm

Adnan was not given a fair chance. Adnan was a muslim and I believe that played a part to him being convicted for killing Hae as well as being her ex-boyfriend. Hae had wrote in her diary that religion meant life to Adnan and that he would call her the devil. Sarah stated that what Hae said did not look good for him. He was also stereotyped that since he had pakistani heritage, he would then kill and flee out of the country.

Jordan Heacock

6/24/2016 07:30:30 pm

When Hae was murdered they obviously looked at the boyfriend and ex boyfriend first. Because Adnan's mother thinks it was because he was a muslim that he was arrested. Jay's story was never consistent but they still went with it. They thought that he wouldn't lie about what happened so they went to Adnan. Because he was a muslim, they had to keep their relationship on the downlow and he told Hae he was sinning for dating her so they used his religion against him.

Sydney Labruyere

6/26/2016 09:56:10 pm

People fear what they don't understand. It is human nature to team up with people who are like you, and avoid or conflict with people who are not like you. This happens in every country,in every city, and in every town all over the world. For example, Nazis in Germany, homosexuality which is a worldly debate, and riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. Not all are racially motivated, but it's still a group of people conflicting and clashing with another group of people. The result of these conflicts: stereotypes. Stereotypes are a huge contributor to racial segregation, and I think that is what drove this case and why it was so easy to convict Adnan. First off it is impossible to have a completely unbiased Jury. Secondly not a lot of people know exactly what the being a muslim truly is. They only see what is posted and portrayed by the media. I don't know about you, but I don't see to many media sites praising the Muslim community; However, that's today, not back in 1998-1999 when this case happened. Even so they don't teach religion in schools,unless you go to a private school, so the jurors probably had no idea that Islam is actually a very peaceful religion, and that they don't condone beating their wives and harsh punishments. Lastly Adnan being a muslim with a stereotype made it easy to assume that he was raised in a harsh, male dominated society. I think the cops saw it as a bonus, not only is Adnan the ex-boyfriend but he's also a muslim, and the jurors fell for it.

Cole Holdinghausen

6/30/2016 08:37:52 pm

Adnan's trial wasn't given a fair chance from the start when the cops only questioned Jay and one of his friends. The police only based their investigation off of what Jay said and it all fell into place from there. With Adnan religion and being the ex-boyfriend, didn't help his case.

Easton Null

7/18/2016 11:17:18 am

I think Adnans case was not fair at all. I think that just going off of what Jay said Adnan should never have been accused of the murder. Adnans religion I think could have played a role in the decision making, but I don't think they took it in to account that much.

Episode 10 Due 6/24

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