The Case Against Adnan Syed

Eighteen years after he was convicted and almost a year after he won a new trial at the PCR hearing, Adnan Syed faces yet another hurdle - the endless morass of the appeals process. The state has appealed the decision to grant Adnan a new trial, and the episode begins at this appeal hearing, where we dig deeper into state's prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah and his motivations for taking Adnan's case.

This episode illustrates how a case built on quick and shoddy police work was taken up by an unethical prosecutor, Kevin Urick, and willed into a conviction. It weaves together the storylines of Adnan's present day post-conviction appeal hearing with his original trial, hinging on several key examples of unethical behaviour that helped convict Adnan and are being questioned at his PCR.

The first episode begins in the present day, where we meet Adnan's family and Rabia Chaudry, his fiercest advocate, who first brought Adnan's story to Sarah Koenig and inspired the cultural phenomenon that was the Serial podcast. We learn that since Serial, Adnan has filed a new appeal that could bring him back to court. From there, we go back in time to Baltimore County in 1999, when Hae Min Lee was murdered and Adnan Syed was convicted of the crime. We build to the climax of Adnan's arrest through multiple storylines - Hae's disappearance, Adnan and Hae's high school romance, and Rabia's present day fight to prove his innocence.