As post conviction hearings are expected to continue for Adnan Syed, the subject of the popular "Serial" podcast, the family of the girl he was convicted of killing issued a statement.
The statement from the family of Hae Min Lee reads in full:
The events of this past week have reopened wounds few can imagine. It remains hard to see so many run to defend someone who committed a horrible crime, who destroyed our family, who refuses to accept responsibility, when so few are willing to speak up for Hae. She stood up for what was right, regardless of popular opinion.
Unlike those who learn about this case on the internet, we sat and watched every day of both trials — so many witnesses, so much evidence. We wish Ms. Asia McClain had watched too, because then she would not do what she is doing. Whatever her personal motives, we forgive her, but we hope she will not use Hae’s name in public, which hurts us when we hear it from her. She did not know Hae, and because of Adnan she never will.
For those of us who saw the trials and heard the evidence, it is more clear than ever that Adnan is guilty and that his lawyer did the best job she could have for him. We are grateful to the media for respecting our privacy, but we ask that everyone remember who the criminal is and who the victim is. Weeks like this, it is easy to forget that seventeen years ago the beautiful, blossoming song of Hae Min Lee was silenced forever by Adnan Syed. In her diary, Hae once wrote: “Do love and remember me forever.” We do, and we always will.
Thank you to members of our extended family who support us through their presence at the proceedings. Please continue to keep Hae in your thoughts and prayers.
Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah also issued a statement ahead of continued post conviction hearings:
“The testimony and records that are already in evidence reveal that Syed received a tenacious and dogged defense in 1999 and 2000 by a team of some of Maryland’s best lawyers. To think there was an oops or an oversight back then, let alone a failure of constitutional dimension, is just not consistent with what we are now seeing in the defense’s file.”
