Podcast Addiction

Guest post by Dear Hub - the Podcast Addict

In the fall, I was introduced to the Serial Podcast. It was narrated by Srah Koenig detailing a tragic murder of a young high school senior in Baltimore, MD in the late 1990s. It was fascinating to listen to the well written podcast. It included details of the trial, facts, evidence, where the evidence supports or does not support the case against the accused, and now convicted, Adnan Syed. The journalistic style brings the listener right into the case. I vascillated between "Guilty", "Innocence", "Poor Guy in the wrong place" as I empathized with the suspect. The podcast Serial created a surge in Podcast popularity. By the end of the series, I still had unanswered questions.

A few months passed, and I read about "Undisclosed" podcast and wondered if my unanswered questions would be answered. This is a unofficial continuation of the Serial podcast. While Serial has strong journalistic traits, Undisclosed is narrated by three legal experts. I am not a lawyer, but I do like mystery, the unexplained, and figuring out puzzles.

So, if you haven't listened to Serial and Undisclosed, you can stop reading now and go find thee podcasts. Listen to Serial first, then listen to Undisclosed.

Undisclosed, from a legal standpoint, brings to light several "holes" in the prosecution's case, asserts inconsistencies in legal proceedings, and really places doubt into criminal investigation and police processes. It has a whole episode failure of medical examiner and gruesome details about autopsies and methods/stages of death. Another episode describes the technology around cell phone towers, cell phone records, along with RF engineering.Most of this technology, medical information, and legal information is translated into layman terminology that is detailed enough but not difficult for the average listener.

Here are the possible conclusions
-Adnan is guilty regardless of the "Undisclosed" facts
-Adnan is innocent, but guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
-Adnan is innocent in reality, but the police/legal case was a "solution looking for a problem" for the detectives.

My plausible conclusion is he is likely innocent, and a victum of a miscarriage of justice. I await more episodes... In he meantime, I have the following questions/observations:
-The police methods are called into question by Undisclosed. The question remains regardless of whether Adnan is guilty or innocent: Does the "Means ever justify the ends"?
-If Adnan is completely innocent, then "who committed the crime and why"?
-Will we ever know the truth?
-I am sure there are other wrongfully convicted people in the criminaal jusice system... How many people are wrongfully convicted? How do we, as a society, correct this problem?

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