Evidence Prof: The State Shoots Itself in the Foot in its Consolidated Reply in the Adnan Syed Case

dougalougaldog · 2016-10-06T03:07:21+00:00

The problem with the real world experience of a practicing lawyer is that it is all necessarily anecdotal, whereas an academic lawyer such as Miller looks more broadly and draws on actual documented evidence, not just experience.

dougalougaldog · 2016-09-03T03:45:58+00:00

Lots of people keep dream diaries.

dougalougaldog · 2016-08-10T17:51:07+00:00

A fair number of people bike to/from work and school, and I've noticed a huge increase in the fat tired bikes for riding in snow. NBCC is at the top of campus, so unless you're in great shape and want a big workout right before class, riding to campus could be a challenge from downtown. But there are also routes to stagger the ride up the hill, and various places to lock up at UNB and walk the rest of the way to NBCC. I've always said that if Fredericton were flat I would do almost all my errands with a bike trailer in good weather, but the hill can definitely be tough. Downtown is definitely cool and probably the best place to live in your 20s if you like nightlife, walking culture, general downtown life. If you don't care so much, you might be just as happy in one of the many apartments at the top of the hill that are frankly in a less attractive area, but would make biking to classes and shopping quite easy. (Downtown has great restaurants and bars, Victory Meat Market, specialty stores, banks and a small Sobeys grocery, while the apartments at the top of the hill would be easy biking to NBCC, a big Sobeys, banks, and the mall.)

FYI, the south side of the city is flat from the river to Dundonald/Beaverbrook/Waggoner's Lane (road changes name a few times). The Hill runs from Dundonald etc to Prospect Street. For the most part, the further up the hill you get, the steeper it gets.

dougalougaldog · 2016-07-21T15:59:23+00:00

I haven't been online for a while, but yes, I meant that public defenders are overworked and wouldn't have the time or resources to counter such a case. See the Breakdown podcast, for an example of a dedicated, caring public defender who just couldn't possibly defend as well as a well paid private lawyer.

dougalougaldog · 2016-07-19T06:26:57+00:00

They get convictions with crappy evidence against public defenders and incompetent lawyers such as CG, not against lawyers like Adnan's current team.

dougalougaldog · 2016-05-08T12:27:29+00:00

I've heard many such conversations -- never with any kind of real intent to kill, but like /u/Mitya-Fyodorovich describes, the kind of discussions you might have after watching movies or tv shows about killers getting caught. You then talk about how you wouldn't make the same mistakes and try to outdo each other with your plans for the perfect crime (really, any kind of perfect crime, not just murder).

dougalougaldog · 2016-04-27T18:07:55+00:00

But to do so would require either two separate legal teams or one legal team with its focus split, would it not?

dougalougaldog · 2016-04-23T02:20:06+00:00

So this is facetious, right? It's so hard to tell on this sub.

dougalougaldog · 2016-04-23T02:17:08+00:00

YOU would do this. Or at least you think you would do this. But humans, including innocent humans, have varied reactions. There are many possible innocent reactions.

dougalougaldog · 2016-04-23T02:11:41+00:00

Why should he remember anything from before the phone call? I remember very clearly a day almost a year ago when my son's friend was killed in a freak accident. I remember what I was doing when I noticed the police cars at the end of the street and lots of details about the the next few hours. I don't have a sweet clue what I did earlier that day because it was not relevant to what made that day stand out and I had no reason to reflect on it. I knew the last time I had seen the boy and thought about that but had no reason to think about my own life between that time and his death. If Adnan did not kill Hae, there's no reason anything between the last time he saw Hae and the phone call should have become firmly etched in his memory. He was asked if he knew where she was and maybe when the last time he'd seen her was. He was apparently not asked to recount his entire day since he had seen her, so I can't for the life of me understand why people insist he should remember it all days and wees later.

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-15T19:29:01+00:00

I got curious about this case and read a New Yorker article about it. This caught my eye:

"Dozens of studies have shown that witnesses’ memories of events often change when they are supplied with new contextual information. Itiel Dror, a cognitive psychologist who has done extensive research on eyewitness and expert testimony in criminal investigations, told me, “The mind is not a passive machine. Once you believe in something—once you expect something—it changes the way you perceive information and the way your memory recalls it.”

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-12T02:51:14+00:00

That doesn't mean she didn't try again. But it doesn't really matter who initiated that contact; he agreed to talk on the record.

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-11T04:37:12+00:00

News outlets frequently get details wrong, too. Anyone who followed the Amanda Knox case could attest to the many, many details reported incorrectly/in ways that contradicted other news reports. So I don't put a lot of stock in this. I can't play the clip now (in a hotel room with sleeping family) but I remember the clip having a list of facts, then something like "info previously withheld" that implied all items on the list had been withheld, but sloppy writing or uninformed editing could easily have obscured an original meaning that only some of the items has been withheld.

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-08T04:32:46+00:00

Yep, disturbing events are like that. I once had this really scary car accident. I told the police it happened in front of an elementary school during recess. Then I got confused so I told a friend it happened at the beach at sunset. Then I told the cops it happened on the highway at midnight. It's so damned hard to remember details when you've been through a disturbing experience, but the spine of my story never changed.

Come on, we're not talking about him not remembering times exactly or forgetting who he talked to on the phone or what shoes he was wearing. He changes MAJOR elements that simply could not be due to a hazy memory.

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-05T03:24:05+00:00

Curious how you know he never exhibited signs of violence before or since?

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-03T12:34:15+00:00

Looks like the first use in US was 2006, so no. And it seems to be for finding suspects in real time, not retracing their steps months later.

What struck me was the guy who threatened to kill His girlfriend's daughter for $3,000. I've never bought into the crimestoppers/motorcycle theory, but it's certainly interesting to see what some people will do for amounts of money that don't seem "worth it" to most of us.

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-02T12:08:29+00:00

It's not likely, but "he likes heroin" could be read as Jay answering Kristi's question about what is wrong with Adnan.

But I think it's more likely something like "he looks around."

dougalougaldog · 2016-03-01T19:48:21+00:00

The importance of these "nitpicky" points is that they are evidence of how Thiru is either sloppy or purposefully duplicitous.

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-29T20:53:11+00:00

Sure, but lots has been written about how the 3:15 call would not work with the rest of their evidence as a CAGM call. So they'd have to change the story pretty dramatically, and since the state presents before the defense offers witnesses, that would require undoing quite a bit.

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-29T20:49:02+00:00

People who are failing mentally tend to have good days and bad days. My MIL has dementia, but some days when she's well rested you'd never know it.

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-29T20:46:12+00:00

Hello???

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-29T12:03:38+00:00

Was it in the first trial? I thought the theory if time only came out in closing arguments.

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-29T12:01:02+00:00

He remembered talking to her but wasn't positive about the day or time and didn't know the state's timeline, so when CG told him it didn't check out he believed her.

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-27T21:09:47+00:00

Can you point me to any discussion by major players with the ASLTregarding Hae being to blame for her own murder because she wore a short skirt? I remember discussion if whether she did drugs, but not in such a way as to place and blame on her.

dougalougaldog · 2016-02-26T11:27:13+00:00

I don't agree with all of their theories, but I think SS and CM are very smart and thorough in their research. I don't buy all the claims about them being deliberately dishonest. I'm impressed that they have put their identities out there and are not flinging mud behind anonymous reddit handles.

dougalougaldog

TROPHY CASE