Meet The Woman Trying To Exonerate Adnan Syed

Adnan Syed, the subject of the Serial podcast, was convicted of murder in 2000. Many listeners believe this conviction was in error, and Rabia Chaudry is one of them. Ever since the decision was announced, Chaudry, a friend of Syed and his family, has been on a mission to prove his innocence. “I was like, ‘What the hell just happened here?’” she told Entertainment Weekly of the conviction. “That’s when I got involved on a deeper level.” She tried to help appeal Syed's case but had no luck, so she turned to the media instead, which is how Serial came about. Her book, Adnan’s Story, comes out on Tuesday, August 9. In it, she describes some of the hidden parts of the saga that not even Serial covered. Chaudry believes even the podcast's host Sarah Koenig, who led many to question Syed's guilt, was too sympathetic toward the prosecution and ended up leaving out important details. For example, she believes the police manipulated Syed’s acquaintance Jay Wilds to testify. “Serial was hard. I wished I could enjoy it like the world enjoyed it, but it made me physically sick," she said. “She was very deferential. She was like, ‘They were essentially good guys doing their jobs.’ These are not good guys." Serial taught us there was a lot more to Syed's story than we knew, and it looks like Adnan’s Story will show us that this remains the case.