On Nov. 25 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Adnan Syed murder case with no explanation of the decision.
When a popular podcast titled “Serial” debuted in 2014, its first season talked about the tragic murder of Hae Min Lee that occurred in 1999. Syed, her boyfriend at the time, was accused of the crime and within a year was sentenced to life in prison.
The entire first season of “Serial” was centered around Syed’s case. Many new details were unraveled over the course of the season as the narrator of the podcast took it upon herself to investigate as far as she could.
Being featured on a well-known podcast made this case a hot topic. It also secured a lot of reputability with many people who may not have known about it prior to listening to the podcast. The podcast led listeners to believe Syed’s conviction might be wrongful, according to The Washington Post.
Society needs podcasts that talk about legal cases like this because none of us know every single detail about every case out there. It’s shocking to me to see how much was done for Adnan Syed’s case after he was featured on the “Serial” podcast.
Much of the popularity surrounding Syed’s case came from a combination of consistent coverage made by this podcast and extremely responsive feedback from the audience.
If other cases are discussed and investigated as deeply this one, we may be able to find hidden details that were overlooked which could potentially help the cases for or against people who were wrongly let go or convicted.
The cultural impact of true crime podcasts like this one have opened a whole new world to listeners and drawn in the interest of a larger audience.
One effect that true crime podcasts have on society is that people start to develop differing perspectives and begin to empathize with people who may have been wrongly accused of crimes.
Having podcasts that talk about these things not only helps shine a spotlight on the case and the people involved, but it also helps push people to uncover new things that may have been skipped over the first time around.
People have a right to freely question legal cases and true crime podcasts provide an outlet to do it.
