Adnan's Story - by Rabia Chaudry

 

I was vaguely aware of the Serial podcast when it first aired in 2014 but I didn't listen to it until about a year later after an old friend told me that the story was about people who had attended the same high school (Woodlawn High in Baltimore County) that we had. Although the events described in the first season of Serial took place many years after we graduated it still made listening to the podcast especially riveting for me. 

Woodlawn High has always had a tough reputation among the Baltimore County high schools. One of my most vivid memories is of walking into the girl's restroom in the immediate aftermath of a botched self-abortion. During my time there in the late 70s and early 80s, collectively we experienced a cross burning on campus, and the (off-campus) shooting death of a fellow student by another student. Unlike the students who attended Woodlawn in 1999, there were no counselors brought in to help us process either of these events. We were simply told not to discuss them (especially not with the press, who was all over). I saw the murdered boy's girlfriend in school the next day. It didn't even surprise me. My parents would have also told me to get my butt to school if my boyfriend had been killed.

Rabia Chaudry is a friend of Adnan Syed's family and in this book provides more information about Syed's trial for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Li. Although convicted, Syed has always maintained his innocence and last year was released after over 20 years in prison when additional evidence of his innocence was provided.

The Woodlawn branch of the Baltimore County Public Library was featured in the first episode of the podcast. Located adjacent to the campus of the high school it is an easy place to get to after school. Li's murder took place on the afternoon of January 13. Syed could not remember exactly where he was that day, but a fellow student (Asia McClain) remembered seeing him at the public library after school which would have provided the alibi that Syed needed. Unfortunately his lawyer never followed up on this information. Chaudry (herself a lawyer) explains more about how this crucial evidence was ignored, and tells of her own conversations with McClain.

Adnan's Story mentions the prison library in two different contexts: for legal research and also as a workplace.

Once, while he was assisting the prison librarian, she asked him to go drop off some books in her car. She handed him her keys and he walked out to the lot where the car stood. He was outside the prison, free and clear, in the employee parking lot. If he had wanted, he could have gotten in her car and driven away.

I selected this book as part of the University of Maryland Baltimore County's  (UMBC) Retriever's Read Bingo which includes a space to read a book by a UMBC author. While Syed and I are both Woodlawn High Alums; Chaudry and I are both UMBC alums.

Rabia Chaudry is co-host of the Undisclosed podcast.