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    Pope AlexanderAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 11:59am

    The way Hae’s life and death were treated by the podcast and its fans remains bizarre to me. Whether or not you think Adnan is guilty, this girl is still dead and that death is still a tragedy.

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      AllieCat ❤️'S hats on cats-is probable weirdoPope Alexander
      2/08/16 12:09pm

      Of course it is a tragedy for her and her family. The podcast presented her as a bright, beautiful, well-loved girl whose death rocked a community.

      But if an innocent kid was put behind bars for that crime, then there are two families with tragedies here. It’s hard to say for sure but at the very least, there were huge problems with the police and trial. Wanting justice for a kid treated so unfairly in his first trial is not the same as not respecting Hae’s family. It’s awful that they have to go through more pain, but there’s a possibility he’s innocent. So what’s the alternative? Ignoring it?

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      mazzieDPope Alexander
      2/08/16 12:14pm

      What exactly is wrong with how her death was treated? Did anyone on the podcast state that she deserved to die, or somehow that it wasn’t a big deal? Did any fans state that she deserved to die? I think it’s pretty clear that the legal system failed Adnan, and that is also a tragedy. It doesn’t take away from the tragedy of her death, and if he is innocent that means that the person responsible hasn’t been brought to justice. And I doubt Hae would be happy that someone who by all accounts was her friend had his freedom taken away while her killer roamed free.

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    LockeboxAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 11:58am

    I feel for the family, but Syed did not get a fair trial and there is a lot of evidence that appears to show that he may not be guilty at all. There was police misconduct, and misleading evidence was presented at trial.

    The correct person should be in prison for Hae’s death. Hopefully Lee's family and Adnan get the justice they deserve.

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      RoseRevolutionLockebox
      2/08/16 12:06pm

      this is basically my feeling on it. Like, I don’t think Adnan should be in jail simply because his trial was so borked beyond reason. But I also understand that the family is going through absolute hell over this (and I don’t think that the podcast did a great job at providing their side of the story either)

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      AP BearLockebox
      2/08/16 12:07pm

      I will give you “Syed did not get a fair trial”.

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    JillAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 12:37pm

    I am a big fan of Serial. I don’t believe he got a fair trial and he deserves one. I don’t believe the prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

    But after listening to the entire season, going through the up’s and downs of “but there was no payphone at the Best Buy” and “but how did Jay know where the car was?” and “what about the Isha call?” and “how could he not remember the day the cops came looking for his ex?”, by the end of the season, it seemed pretty clear to me that he did it (especially after they found that Best Buy payphone). Sure, he still deserves a fair trial but Serial fans are like yes! Finally innocent Adnan is going to be set free. And no.

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      pedal-forceJill
      2/08/16 1:02pm

      You should listen to Undisclosed, if you enjoyed Serial. It’s by people on Adnan’s side, but the evidence is pretty clear. The cell-phone records are complete garbage, the time-line just doesn’t make sense at all, the medical examiner fucked up, it’s all bad.

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      LoloAGoGoOriginaleJill
      2/08/16 1:32pm

      That sums up exactly how I feel about the situation. I’m also pretty confident Jay lied about a good portion, if not all, of his story. I guarantee you though, unless the real killer identifies themselves, we will never really know what happened to Hae.

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    yerawizardamyAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 12:03pm

    As someone who recently lost a very good friend to a brutal murder by manual strangulation - I listened to Serial and couldn’t help but think about Hae’s poor family. We know for a fact who committed the murder of my friend, but the unimaginable pain and anguish it has caused her family and friends is something you can’t understand until it happens (god forbid) to you. Just having the local news report on it was painful enough, I don’t even want to think what it might be like to have every news outlet, person, and website talking and speculating about it. Especially when they believe Adnan to be guilty. Years after they felt that they had justice and some sort of closure. Imagine the fear and sickness they must be feeling at the thought of him getting a new trial and possibly getting his sentence over turned.

    I understand that every one is guaranteed the right to a fair trial, and I think Adnan should have had one too, but I can really put myself in the Lee’s shoes and I think I would go insane with the pain and anger this would cause me.

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      Brene Brawnyerawizardamy
      2/08/16 12:10pm

      I hope you have all the safety and support to honor your grief.

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      Akat101yerawizardamy
      2/08/16 12:11pm

      That's awful, I'm so sorry to hear that.

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    utica-whitehallAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 12:00pm

    I can’t imagine what that family is going through. As a fan of Serial, I understand that the show was designed to have entertainment value, and that must be hard to handle as the family of the murdered victim. I think this current court proceeding is warranted, but I feel horrible for Hai Min Lee's family.

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      Pink is the new catutica-whitehall
      2/08/16 12:06pm

      This is one of my major problems with true crime entertainment. The victim’s story is rarely treated the same way as the suspects. They become a plot point as opposed to a person.

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      Turk TurkletonPink is the new cat
      2/08/16 12:16pm

      The additional problem that Serial faced though, is that the Lee family didn’t want to take part in Serial. So aside from maybe some childhood friends, there’s not a whole lot of reporting on Hae Min Lee that could have been woven into the story.

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    Kathleen at HomeAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 12:13pm

    I was just talking about this the other day. What I find so tragic about Serial and Making a Murderer is that they lionize men who may or may not be guilty, while totally ignoring, if not erasing, their dead (female) victims, and refusing to acknowledge how these trials gaining wide public support may totally destroy families dealing with insurmountable loss. Hae Min Lee’s and Theresa Hallbach’s families and stories are so much more important to me than those of the men that murdered them.

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      jifaner13Kathleen at Home
      2/08/16 12:42pm

      I’m sorry, but what? Neither Syed or Avery was lionized by anyone. There was very little about Teresa Halbach, true, but no one would participate. That is their right, but that means what the filmmakers have to work with is minimal. Serial was very respectful to Hae Min, and spoke with her friends and teachers and portrayed her very positively. Koenig struggled with doubts about Syed through the whole thing. Finding him likeable (which he is) and doubting his guilt is a far cry from “lionizing” him and erasing the victim.

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      Okscramblejifaner13
      2/08/16 1:46pm

      It’s been a while since I listened to Serial, but I do remember that one of the most compelling parts was Syed giving voice to just that ambivalence. He poses a question to the effect that Koenig may have many good reasons not to trust him, so why take him at face value. At least for me a huge part of my interest in Serial had to do with the kind of epistemic ambivalence Koenig maintained. A large part of it was just sorting through what

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    BoreasaurusRexAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 11:58am

    I’ll just leave this here:

    http://www.annrbrocklehurst.com/2015/04/serial...

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      mazzieDBoreasaurusRex
      2/08/16 12:20pm

      I don’t really see how ignoring the murder of a young woman is somehow more feminist. I guess I don’t understand her argument.

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      EffyewBoreasaurusRex
      2/08/16 12:28pm

      This is the problem with Criminal Justice Cases in general. Go down a list of wrongfully convicted individuals who have been released from jail... There are always people who think they are guilty, still even to this day. Our justice system isn’t infallible. And to be fair neither side ultimately knows what the truth is. But I know if I was in jail for something I didn’t do I would hope not only for my sake but also for the victim that someone cared enough to ask questions. Justice isn’t infallible. And the truth sometimes is something far more complicated than prosecutors put forth during trials. The alternative is just not questioning justice... and I think that is the most ridiculous thing we can do given the rate of exonerations keeps going up and not down.

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    DaisyLadyAnna Merlan
    2/08/16 12:05pm

    If I were her parents/family/friends, I too would be quite determined to believe that the guilty party was locked away. It is unfortunate (understatement) that the evidence they believe in was so egregiously mishandled and manipulated.

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      GinAndTonic Got Stuck in the BarneyAnna Merlan
      2/08/16 12:43pm

      This is why I haven’t listened to Serial or watched Making a Murderer.

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        jifaner13Anna Merlan
        2/08/16 12:27pm

        My heart breaks for her family, and I’m sure they believe what they were told by police and the prosecution. Of course they blame him. That doesn’t make him guilty, though. It’s a shame innocent people can’t be exonerated without causing more pain to the victim’s family, but it would be even worse to leave them in jail.

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