I apologize if the points I bring up have already been discussed before. I'm hoping someone can clear this up for me.
I just finished listening to the Serial podcasts yesterday and I'm on episode 4 of undisclosed. So I'm past the point where they talk in length about Jay and how he was questioned. They make a strong case that all of Jay's stories were fed to him by police, which is how he knew many details, but he couldn't keep his stories straight, and they changed all the time. They go so far as to suggest the police may have led him to the car, not the other way around, and that Jay may not be involved at all.
So I'm more confused about Jay than ever, because if he was involved, it doesn't make sense, and if he wasn't, it still makes no sense.
If he had no involvement whatsoever, I cannot fathom a reason why he would implicate himself and his friend in a murder. Also, he had no way of knowing whether Adnan would have an alibi or not, since Adnan would have been at school during the time of her disappearance if neither of them were involved. I also don't see how or why police would take it so far with him as their star witness and accomplice, if he had absolutely nothing to do with it.
So I kept thinking about other cases where there have been false confessions. But why would police spend so much time getting a false confession from someone they believe to just be an accomplice after the fact, instead of interrogating Adnan himself? Also, there is no evidence of Jay being exhaustively interrogated before finally breaking down and confessing. He was more or less cooperative the entire time. It just doesn't compute, no matter how you look at it.
On the other hand, let's assume he was involved, meaning he either murdered Hae or he was an accomplice after the fact, helping dispose of her body and get rid of her car. I can't get past the burial. His explanation of the burial directly contradicts what actually happened.
He said they had two shovels, it was like a 30 minute process of digging and burying a body. However, she was found in a natural depression that likely required no digging, and she wasn't even fully covered. Therefore there was likely no actual "burial", wouldn't require two people with shovels, and it definitely wouldn't have been a 30 minute process.
He had already admitted to helping with the digging, so what would the reason to lie be? If he was involved, he had to know about the details of the burial, and that his explanation didn't fit. It just doesn't make sense. And if he was not involved enough to know about the details of the burial, again I can't fathom a reason he would implicate himself so willingly.
TL;DR: WTF
Podcasts|Season One, Episode 8: The Deal with Jay
//www.nytimes.com/article/serial-podcast-season-1-episode-8.html
The state’s case against Adnan Syed hinged on Jay’s credibility; he was their star witness and also their chief liability. So how did the jury make sense of Jay?
Hosted and produced by Sarah Koenig; produced by Julie Snyder and Dana Chivvis; editorial advisory by Ira Glass.
Published Feb. 26, 2021Updated March 1, 2021
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The state’s case against Adnan Syed hinged on Jay’s credibility; he was their star witness and also, because of his changing statements to the police, their chief liability. Naturally, Adnan’s lawyer tried hard to make Jay look untrustworthy at trial. So how did the jurors make sense of Jay? For that matter, how did the cops make sense of Jay? How are we supposed to make sense of Jay?
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About ‘Serial' Season One:
A high-school senior named Hae Min Lee disappeared one day after school in 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. A month later, her body was found in a city park. She’d been strangled. Her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was charged with murder, and within a year, he was sentenced to life in prison. The case against him was largely based on the story of one witness, Adnan’s friend Jay, who testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae’s body. But Adnan has always maintained he had nothing to do with Hae’s death. Some people believe he’s telling the truth. Many others don’t.
Sarah Koenig sorted through thousands of documents, listened to trial testimony and police interrogations, and talked to everyone she could find who remembered what happened between Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee. She discovered that the trial covered up a far more complicated story than the jury — or the public — ever got to hear. The high-school scene, the shifting statements to the police, the prejudices, the sketchy alibis, the scant forensic evidence — all of it leads back to the most basic questions: How can you know a person’s character? How can you tell what they’re capable of? In Season One of “Serial,” she looks for answers.
When it launched in 2014, “Serial” became a global sensation that has been credited with launching the modern era of audio journalism. The New York Times Company acquired Serial Productions in 2020.
This episode of “Serial” was produced by Sarah Koenig, Julie Snyder and Dana Chivvis, with editorial advisory by Ira Glass and editing help from Joel Lovell. Fact-checking by Karen Fragala Smith. Original scoring by Nick Thorburn, who wrote the theme song, and Mark Henry Phillips, who mixed the show.