I was initially
deterred by this episode as it appeared to return to Koenig’s meandering style
in which she “speculates” on many a thing but reaches a factual conclusion on
almost nothing. While I have certainly been vocal about my disenchantement with
Koenig and the podcast the last couple of episodes invovleing the Innocence
Project and a discussion on Jay actually appeared to be concrete and moving the
series forward so I was a little bit disappointed and the inconclusiveness of
this episode. There were several smaller components of the episode however that
definitely piqued my interest, most prominently actually, was the conclusion of
the episode in which Adnan is discussing his life in prison.
I was struck by
how genial he sounded about his life and the fact that even in prison he
appeared to be sticking to the “nice kid” persona which so many people in the
community believed. Koenig points to his certificates of gentlemanly behavior
and lack of infractions as a way to further cast doubt on his ability to murder
Hae. However, I thought that these facts, coupled with his claim of becoming a
“better Muslim” and the discussion about his parents perceptions, could be
interpreted in a variety of ways. Firstly, one could see it, as Koenig
positions it, as further proof that Adnan is not the kind of guy who would be a
murderer. Essentially, he is innocent. He is an all around good kid who happens
to be a victim of the American justice system. The other way it could be looked
at is that he did murder Hae and thus, he has been so accepting of his prison
sentence and become a better Muslim out of regret and the realization of his
wrongful actions. There were definitely points in this episode where I leaned
towards the second explanation – especially when he was discussing the fact
that he was in jail because of his own “stupid actions”. To me, this is the
closest he ever comes to admitting guilt and it almost seems like a Freudian
slip of the tongue because when Koenig presses him on this comment he is unable
to explain it in a coherent manner – something we have not seen before from
Adnan.
Another aspect
of this episode that I found intriguing and I am looking forward to hopefully
hearing more ahout is the attorney and lawyer situation. In this episode Koenig
seems to almost casually throw out the tidbit that Adnan fires his attorney for
a new one. I was surprised that this was only being mentioned now near the
conclusion of the podcast. Additionally, based off of the small clip in this
episode in which the new attorney begs the judge to see this as “a crime of
passion” aka saying Adnan was guilty coupled with Adnan’s own descriptions of
the man, I am left with a severe impression of incompetence or at least
confusion as to what the direction of the case was... Also, I was wondering, if
anyone has legal knowledge what the difference between the attorney and lawyer
is and what are their different responsibilities in the case? Or is this man Gutierrez’s replacement?
Also last tangential comment: Can we all just appreciate that this episode's title and synopsis, more than any other, really appeared to have nothing to do with the actual content discussed...
To answer one of your first questions, here's what I found about the attorney versus lawyer issue: "A lawyer is someone who is learned and trained in law. Yet, they may not actually practice law. They often give legal advice... An attorney-at-law is defined as a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients... Although the terms often operate as synonyms, an attorney is a lawyer but a lawyer is not necessarily an attorney" (courtesy of http://www.lawyeredu.org/attorney-vs-lawyer.html).
ReplyDeleteSo basically they're interchangeably used but one can work in a courtroom and the other does not. Hope that helps clarify your question!
I also found it interesting how Adnan almost seems to admit his guilt in this episode. I've mainly been on his side throughout the podcast and so to see a chink in his armor, so to speak, was eye-opening. I think your idea of Adnan acting politely due to accepting his fate is an interesting one. If he really did commit the crime, it’s possible that he is only able to forgive himself by being good-mannered while incarcerated. In that way, he makes his prison sentence a form of penance for the actions he has done, maybe connected to the fact that he is more religious now. Just a thought.