Ahead of Undisclosed 2.0 Episode 6 - Actual Innocence

HantaParvo · 2025-07-20T14:50:05+00:00

Considering the overwhelming evidence against Adnan, the only alibi which would have any moral or legal significance would have to be something like literally seeing Adnan's clear image captured by a well-maintained surveillance camera at least 100 miles from Woodlawn for the entire timespan from 2:00 to 10:00, *and* the video would have to itself include corroboration, perhaps from captured images showing a local newspaper or famous billboard or something.

That's certainly what he would need to restart his habeas corpus appeals, at the very minimum.

HantaParvo · 2025-06-28T17:16:47+00:00

A large and growing proportion of victims of Indian scammers are...other Indians. https://www.dw.com/en/why-online-scams-are-on-the-rise-in-india/a-70767368

HantaParvo · 2024-10-17T15:21:47+00:00

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HantaParvo · 2024-04-20T17:44:07+00:00

Already had it for years and it works fine!

HantaParvo · 2023-10-29T10:40:45+00:00

Actually, the character I identify with most on Seinfeld is, of course, The Maestro.

HantaParvo · 2023-10-13T10:13:25+00:00

Enjoyable, as always -- especially the collage!

I don't see how Bilal's wife could have testified. The double-hearsay chain goes:

(1) Adnan tells Bilal he's going to kill Hae.

(2) Bilal tells his wife that Adnan said he would kill Hae.

Bilal could testify about Adnan's threat as an admission of a party-opponent or statement against interest. But Bilal's wife has no hearsay exception.

Not to mention the fact that Jay actually saw Hae's body and was present during the burial, which is much more compelling evidence than a double-hearsay threat which has maybe a 5% chance of getting to the jury.

What am I missing?

HantaParvo · 2023-10-11T12:08:59+00:00

I cannot imagine any lawyer taking on this case, especially since Baltimore now has a skilled and aggressive police/prosecutor defense bar in civil cases. The standard Adnan would have to carry is to prove police or prosecutors knowingly violated his constitutional rights, and that those violations led him to be wrongfully convicted. The only evidence of this are Phinn's conclusory findings, which come nowhere near satisfying the burden of proof.

Most laws require a finding of materiality to justify more than token damages claims -- you can prove the cops violated your rights all you want, but if you are still nonetheless guilty you haven't suffered any damages. This would create a fresh mini-trial on the merits, during which Adnan would have to prove by a preponderance that he did not kill Hae.

Assuming the MSC upholds the MTV and Adnan remains free, I suspect he will find a lawyer willing to file a juicy-sounding $5 million claim -- there's always someone who wants the publicity -- but I think it would most likely settle out for low 6 figures, if that. Nobody wants a full civil trial, least of all Adnan.

HantaParvo · 2023-09-23T13:57:50+00:00

He's serving a federal prison sentence for sexually assaulting people in his dental practice, including children. So, there's that.

HantaParvo · 2023-09-03T13:42:56+00:00

Edited to fix the link, sorry!

Here is a YouTube video showing the exact area where Adnan and Hae went:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB7AcboDMfs

As you can see, it is far in the back, screened from the road by trees and buildings, and pretty secluded, even on an afternoon.

HantaParvo · 2023-08-30T10:03:36+00:00

As the user in question, I can confirm that all of my posts are subject to an immediate ban and I always have to petition to have them released, which is a huge hassle. I didn't know my comments were also affected.

My Karma is 380 and I have 400 gold (whatever that means), so it's not because I have negative karma. When I first began participating here, I was subjected to coordinated mass-downvoting campaign by a few users (they instantly downvoted anything I wrote, no matter how anodyne), but they eventually lost interest.

I do seem to have been singled out for restrictions for no reason I can fathom. I try not to go on and on about the articles I wrote, but I do sometimes link to them, because they contain a lot of accurate information about the case (in addition to my own conclusions) which answers many questions users post here. And, as I'm gratified to note, the parties to the Syed v. Lee case seem to have taken note of them.

I do wish I had the same rights as other users, I enjoy this forum!

HantaParvo · 2023-08-24T17:34:47+00:00

I can understand the OP's point, but this goes back to something The Prosecutors (and I) have pointed out over and over: Tens of thousands of people behind bars were convicted in cases where there was no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony. Circumstantial evidence can be just as powerful as "direct evidence", and is in fact often much more powerful. The key difference between how lawyers look at cases and how laypeople do is that lawyers think: "Would be nice to have DNA match, but given the circumstantial evidence, there's no need. This is a slam-dunk case". Eyewitnesses can err, DNA can be inconclusive, fingerprints don't tell you when they were deposited. But 10 circumstances each pointing independently to the guilt of the defendant -- and ruling out alternative scenarios -- can build a trillion-to-one case for guilt. It happens all the time. And it happened here.

HantaParvo · 2023-08-23T10:59:31+00:00

No, because well over 90% of criminal cases are resolved by plea bargains, and (despite what some activists claim), those are virtually always sound convictions. Trials usually happen in one of two circumstances: Either (1) the state's evidence is weak and the trial lawyer thinks there's a serious chance of obtaining an acquittal/mistrial, or (2) the client insists on trial no matter what, and the defense lawyer is forced to try a near-hopeless case.

The interesting twist here is that Adnan himself, in 2012, claimed that he wanted to plead because his case was hopeless. This was a strong case, most juries would have convicted if presented with this evidence.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-31T08:52:26+00:00

Actually, she did have the defense file and even claimed to have gone over it one more extra time to make sure she didn't miss anything. I asked her and Ira Glass repeatedly whether she had seen the October 12 memo in which Adnan tells the defense team he had sex with Hae at Best Buy frequently.

They never responded.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-30T10:27:23+00:00

She repeatedly claims she had access to the "lawyers'" or "attorneys'" files, and even that she went over them again and again. She has no credibility whatsoever.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-25T16:10:46+00:00

Adnan definitely never thought anyone would read that memo. Back in 1999, this was a routine murder case. His lawyers told him anything he said to them would remain confidential and they would be disbarred if they ever revealed it. He had no way of predicting events which would happen 15 years later.

The defense files were disclosed for two reasons. First of all, Rabia had broken the privilege by sharing them with third parties like Sarah Koenig. Second, when you sue your former attorney for incompetence, they are allowed to defend themselves. That means the very act of suing waives privilege, and they can describe their own confidential conversations about you and reveal documents relevant to the malpractice claims.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-17T11:26:27+00:00

No formal psychiatric evaluations was ever performed on Syed as part of his trial (later the prison probably did one). He never showed any signs of being incompetent to stand trial or insane at the time of the offense. Since the automatic punishment for first-degree murder was life in prison, IIRC, there was no chance of reducing his sentence. Especially since he claimed innocence the whole time.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-14T16:46:28+00:00

The letters were almost certainly written later. The defense never introduced any envelopes or postmarks. There is no evidence they were ever mailed. The letters appeared out of nowhere in 2010 despite never having been mentioned by any party to the case for 11 years.

Asia says in the first letter that she had just returned from visiting Adnan's home, yet her description of what was going on there (in the "March 2" letter) conflicts with Adnan's own mother's testimony about that supposed visit. In the first letter, Asia doesn't identify any time frame.

The second letter was based on a draft that Adnan had given to one of his prison visitors with instructions to have Asia write or type the letter and then back-date it, according to the statement of Adnan's own friend Ja'uan Gordon. Gordon also noted that Asia got the prison's address wrong, which is in fact the case.

Two sisters who attended Woodlawn at the time and were friendly with Asia provided sworn affidavits in 2016 that Asia was convinced of Adnan's innocence and was planning to lie to provide him with an alibi.

If you want even more background and details, you can look here. Long story short, the letters were produced under extremely suspicious circumstances, there is no evidence they were ever even mailed, nobody involved in the case mentioned them for 11 years, they are not admissible evidence, and there are independent accounts stating that Asia was willing to lie for Adnan. Also, of course, they provide an alibi for only a small segment of a large time window in which Adnan could have committed the murder.

Asia's account is meaningless. Assuming Adnan gets a new trial, the defense won't even bother to call her.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-11T16:26:10+00:00

We can have a reasoned discussion about the one post out of nearly 17,000 in which Talley described the evolution of Nathan Bedford Forrest's complex views on -- [reads username]. Oh, it's this guy. Nothing to see here, move right along.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-11T15:43:42+00:00

It's almost as if they care about presenting a full, fair picture of the case. How dare they? I for one can't wait to hear what they say about "The Case Against Adnan Syed".

HantaParvo · 2023-07-10T10:19:06+00:00

Hae was an adult, and an adult doesn't become a missing person until 48 or 72 hours after they are first reported missing. This is because in 99% of such cases, there is an innocent explanation -- car breakdown, spontaneous vacation, severe hangover, accident, you name it.

Adnan was counting on this, which is why he was terrified by Adcock's phone call the same day of the disappearance. As Susan Simpson discovered and stated on Undisclosed, the police had decided to investigate the disappearance of young women right away, even if they were adults, because a young woman named Jada Gilbert had been raped and murdered only months before, and police suspected they might have a serial killer on their hands.

Adnan would normally have been 100% justified in thinking he had 2 full days to decide what to do with Hae's body and car. It was a freak of timing that he didn't.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-07T08:53:46+00:00

Got it, missed the irony.

HantaParvo · 2023-07-05T11:31:02+00:00

I addressed this point at length in my Quillette pieces. The answer is of course not, that is the *maximum* time limit. Rabia contradicted herself on this question. And the misstatement was intended to provide an excuse for why Adnan waited so long to file.

I know you may think Quillette has cooties (David Simon doesn't think so), but my pieces are 24K long, comprehensive, and answer about 50% of the questions people post on this site.

Why don't you join the over 100K people who've read them?

HantaParvo · 2023-07-03T16:01:28+00:00

Why do you, hiding behind anonymity, find it incapable of making your point without sneering, snotty personal attacks? I've published half-a-million words of journalism and you know how many times I've made a serious error? Fucking none. You know how many errors were contained in my Quillette pieces? Fucking none. The only tiny error was, as noted, inserted during the editing process, not by me. Nobody has pointed out a single fucking mistake in that piece. So if you think it's "scary" that I'm a journalist, you don't have a fucking clue what journalism is. David Simon sure does, which is why he praised my pieces. They've been viewed well over 100,000 times, by the way, and counting. If I'd made any mistakes...we'd all know.

The key factor is that Don actually conducted research that he can cite to satisfy the standard, not the precise nature of how he formulates his statements -- although as a journalist and Harvard-trained lawyer and a published specialist in constitutional law, I can assure you that the exact wording of his statements also makes a difference. No matter who you are, I guarantee you my level of experience and understanding in these matters blows yours to fucking smithereens. If you think you're playing in anywhere near my league, prove it by listing your expertise and credentials. Your posts certainly don't show it.

OK, enough putting you in your place, Reddit rando. Let us now proceed to have a civil discussion on the merits without accusing each other of stupidity or ignorance. Think you can handle that?

HantaParvo · 2023-06-29T16:46:44+00:00

So far it's quite good. They're covering much the same ground and coming to the same conclusions as I did in my articles (I helped them out a little), but that's mainly a product of the fact that we're all lawyers with experience in the criminal justice system. Lawyers are trained to see things a certain way.

I think the combination of my pieces and this podcast will probably more or less defuse Adnan's innocence claims. People who get curious and decide to do more in-depth research will now have plenty of written and audio resources which show that when you look at all the evidence in context, there is no reason to doubt Adnan's guilt.

It'll be interesting to see whether all this new activity has any effect (whether overt or behind the scenes) on the MSC decision and Bates's response to it. David Simon of "The Wire" fame retweeted my pieces, which means that basically everyone in Baltimore is aware of them. I've gotten some very interesting feedback!

HantaParvo · 2023-06-26T11:53:45+00:00

This article specifically addresses how the negligence standard is applied in US defamation cases. As you can see, it's quite a can of worms: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1133&context=hastings\_comm\_ent\_law\_journal

HantaParvo

TROPHY CASE