The Adnan War that No One Asked For.

Grab a hose. These people are fired up over an opinion they don't like.

Ready or not, it started.

And it’s absolutely ridiculous.😑

Brett and Alice, hosts of the well-loved podcast, The Prosecutors, have ruffled some sensitive feathers recently when releasing their own analysis of the Hae Min Lee case. 

The Harvard and Yale grad lawyers use their podcast platform to analyze past (and sometimes current) cases, and share their opinion of the “whodunnit” mystery. In between light-hearted banter, Alice and Brett tell the storyline of a true crime case, and then use an analytical approach to impart their own inference. 

The recent drama came about when they chose the case of Hae Min Lee. Sadly, it’s better known publicly as the Adnan Syed case because HE has been the center of controversy for years.

The story was first introduced by the award-winning podcast, Serial. And soon followed up by wrongful conviction podcasts, Undisclosed and Serial Dynasty. 

Serial is hosted by an investigative journalist that rendered a well-intentioned, unbiased approach. Even the best journalists have **some** bias they must work to push aside, and Sarah Koenig handled this well. 

In fact, she may have handled it a bit too well. 

Rabia Chaudry, Adnan’s family friend and largely outspoken advocate of his proclaimed wrongful conviction, was the one who brought the case to Sarah Koenig. After the series was released though Rabia criticized the podcast, and was hoping Koenig would have strongly advocated for Syed.  

Hence, his innocence was not marketed the way she was hoping for. 

And this is when Rabia Chaudry entered the podcast world (in 2015) with her own voice. The podcast was called Undisclosed, and she was out to PROVE what Koenig discovered to be openly unsure about…

ADNAN’S INNOCENCE.

A man named Bob Ruff, who has no journalistic or legal background, also hopped on the Adnan is innocent train with his podcast, Serial Dynasty. 

(Note: This podcaster has come with his own concerning tactics over the years, but that’s for another post.)

And then came a film documentary.

Produced by none other than — RABIA. 

And a book by — RABIA.

Adnan’s innocence was being pushed out into the world with resounding biased voices. 

For those of us who had doubts of his innocence, these podcasts became increasingly hard to listen to. The conspiracies and blatant accusations against other people (ex. Don) were just not matching up entirely. The documentary went as far as to assert that a tapping noise in the interview tape was the sound of a corrupt cop pointing at a map and demanding the interviewee, Jay, to say what they wanted him to say.

Now… FLASH FORWARD to 2023.

Crime Weekly, a podcast that is similar in style to The Prosecutors, researched the Hae Min Lee storyline and analyzed it publicly. The hosts, Stephanie Harlowe and Derrick Levassuer (former criminal investigator, highly-medaled officer) share their final opinion on the case…

Adnan is likely guilty.

This was a fresh look at the case from a podcast who had no skin in the game to decipher whether Syed is guilty or innocent. They use critical thinking skills to analyze their own opinion.

Following suit… The Prosecutors podcast. 

Despite the hesitation to put their foot in the Adnan pond, Brett & Alice, gave in to the constant requests from fans to cover the case. And so, with Alice having some spare time while on maternity leave, they finally decided to do the work on researching it. 

The Hae Min Lee / Adnan series was 14 episodes long, slightly longer than Serial. But A LOT shorter than the innocent podcasts. And just like the hosts from Crime Weekly, Brett and Alice concluded with their research that Adnan likely committed the crime. 

And everyone lived happily ever after…

JUST KIDDING.

And everyone who pushes for Adnan’s innocence was MAD. 

Rabia threatened Brett and Alice over Twitter (X) with a defamation lawsuit for their opinion. This came across like an intimidation tactic from someone who does not like to lose control of the public narrative she has worked VERY hard to market.

Colin Miller (another host & attorney on Undisclosed) began tagging them in Twitter (X) posts as if some weird Adnan war was started. 

And even a random lady (who has zero affiliation with the case) accused them of “personally victimizing” her with their opinion of guilty. I wish I was joking.

The truth is…

Alice & Brett did not condemn any other podcaster in their own analysis, but the innocent camp came out with blades of glory online. 

AND of course, this woke up Bob Ruff, podcaster of the ol’ Serial Dynasty, to dust off his recycled innocence argument and bring it back to the podcast world because…

Because… 

Well, I suppose it’s because he was recently struggling with ad revenues and Patreon numbers, but there’s zero doubt that his pride was also injured by The Prosecutors changing minds with their series.

Clearly – an opinion of Adnan being guilty of this crime are fighting words for those that want every single person to buy into his innocence. The sense of a monopoly over public commentary and critical thinking discussions from these select few vocal advocates is unsettling at best.