Rabia Chaudry
A photocopy of a picture found in Hae’s belongings of her and Adnan together in Patapsco Park.
A few days ago Susan blogged, after many moons and much anticipation (I love her posts), and what a write-up it was. Susan tackled the very difficult and sobering issue of the lividity, the way Hae’s body was found at the crime scene, and mysterious marks that appear on her body in the autopsy photographs. Continue reading
Doesn’t look like it
A lot has been going on, which is how I will weasel my way out of not blogging any sooner. It’s already COB on the day the State’s response brief to our Motion to Reopen was due and I’ve been strumming my fingers, trying to calm my heart palpitations, all day. So far, nothing filed. Did they just miss the deadline, after asking for an extension?
But, according to a little bird, today was also the deadline for an MPIA request a friendly force filed with the Baltimore County PD. Are these things connected? Anything is possible.
Regardless, you’ve had more than enough time. Hand it over already, Maryland.
ATONEMENT
These are high holy days for both Muslims and Jews. A fascinating (but understandable if you know the theology) connection between the days we are celebrating is this: both Yom Kippur and Yom Arafat are days of fasting, atonement and forgiveness by God.
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Observant Jews undergo a full day and night fast, and many intense hours in prayer and asking for repentance. The tradition is that God writes the fates of the upcoming year into the “Book of Life” and on Yom Kippur that book, those fates, are sealed. So up until this time, people have a chance to atone for the wrongs they’ve done others and hope their fates get a positive boost in the Book.
Yom Arafat is remarkably similar. It completes the Hajj pilgrimage, which is wrapping up right now in Mecca, and is a day when the millions of pilgrims stand on the plain and mount of Arafat for hours in prayer, asking for forgiveness for their sins. It is also the tradition to fast on this day for those who are not making the pilgrimage, those of us at home who seek God’s forgiveness and pardon from afar.
A quick aside for those wondering what the heck the Hajj is all about. You may be surprised to know it is will sound incredibly familiar to those who remember their Sunday school lessons. As the story goes in the Abrahamic traditions, the patriarch and prophet Abraham (AS)* was unable to have children with his wife Sarah (AS). Sarah allowed him to take another wife Hagar (AS). Here is where the Judeo-Christian and Islamic stories diverge: in the Islamic tradition, once Hagar had a son Ishmael, Abraham was ordered by God to take her and the child far away and leave them in the remote desert, an order Hagar accepted. In the Judeo-Christian tradition Sarah got jealous and threw them out. Muslims don’t believe that. We got no haterade for Sarah.
Two million people, all at once
So Abraham took Hagar and Ishmael out to “Becca”, now known as Mecca, and left them there. Alone. He didn’t want to, but he obeyed God’s commands. The baby started crying, thirsty and hungry. Hagar, frantic but not willing to lay down and just die, began running to seek a source of water. She ran seven times between the two small hills, Safa and Marwa, before returning to the baby, exhausted. God, having heard her maternal pleas and grief, sent the angel Gabriel to the baby. The baby kicked his heel on the earth, in which spot the angel moved the dirt to reveal a spring, called Zamzam, which flows to this day.
Abraham kept returning to visit his wife and son, and when Ishmael got a little older they built a place to worship God, apparently on the same spot Adam first built a house of worship, which is that little iconic square building (the ka’aaba) draped in black fabric that the world sees as a symbol for Mecca. Its basically empty inside. The tradition about it says that the Throne of God is above this spot, seven heavens above it, but above it nonetheless. And as people go round and round the ka’aaba here on earth, seven heavens above legions of angels also go around and around God’s throne in worship and awe.
Astronaut Scott is not exactly at seventh heaven level, but still pretty cool
Now, when pilgrims go for Hajj there are a number of rituals they perform, including running between the hills of Safa and Marwa to commemorate Hagar’s search for sustenance, standing in prayer and atonement on the day of Arafat, and at the end paying for the sacrifice of a goat, cow, lamb to commemorate the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son at God’s command. Of course, if you recall, God switched out the son at the last second for an ram, but the point is Abraham was willing to do it for God. So every Muslim family that can afford to will have an animal slaughtered, keep 1/3 of the meat, give 1/3 to friends and family, and distribute 1/3 to the impoverished. The day after Arafat is a celebration, Eid, which for us is tomorrow. Basically we dress up, eat a lot, exchange gifts, and in my family, hit up a movie at night. I’m all about the new Johnny Depp movie tomorrow night.
Ok, back to the other stuff.
We all have things to atone for, none of us are saints. And if you think you have nothing to feel badly for, you may be an arrogant turd. Or Donald Trump. Yes, you may be Donald Trump.
If you’re wondering what David is talking about above, it’s been a busy week in hating Muslims here in the US.
In case you missed it, presidential candidates are getting a jump start on their Islamophobia platforms this election cycle. In the past week Trump already humored a supporter at a rally who asked when the US could get rid of all the Muslims already (dammit we’ve been here 500 years or so, enough is enough), and Ben Carson declared Islam not compatible with the US Constitution, hence a Muslim president just wouldn’t work for him. He got a bit of a fundraising boost with that one.
Then there was the arrest of this poor 14 year old kid in Texas for bringing a clock to school, a clock he kept telling his teachers was a clock. But Muslims with clocks can mean anything, right Bill Maher?
Ahmed is having a bad day
The upside of all of it is that none of this crap went quietly into the night. There was major disgust, pushback, and ridicule of the bigoted players. Ahmed got invited to the White House and to pretty much any engineering school he wants to go to. Which means we can still win this thing, and I don’t yet have to move with my kids to Indonesia or something.
So that is what David is atoning for in his tweet. My atonement is for telling people to eff off more than I would have liked to on Twitter, and also for letting the last year go by too fast and not having the time I wish I did for my girls.
This may be a good time for a bunch of others to atone. Jay, Urick, Ritz, Mac, Mandy, and the other players who put an innocent 17 year old kid away for life.
Jay, atone for every day that Adnan has lost because of your false testimony. Thou shall not bear false witness, remember that? As long as Adnan is in prison, it will be your false testimony keeping him there.
Urick, you racist rat bastard, atone for railroading a young black man through threat of the death penalty into giving false testimony. Atone for using Adnan’s religion to demonize him. Atone for messing with witnesses to undermine Adnan’s defense, atone for preventing Asia from testifying, atone for blocking the truth in a court of justice. If you have a soul that is.
Also the Pope is in town, another good reason to cleanse yourself of your sins. God, I love this Pope.
TRUTH AND JUSTICE
Can I get a witness to the awesomeness, diligence, and fortitude that is Bob Ruff on his Serial Dynasty podcast? He’s a master interviewer, getting all sorts of people to talk. Most recently he’s done a few remarkable things:
Bob has some other really important interviews and information coming up, and thanks to a cease and desist letter from Serial once he topped the iTunes charts (though he was already considering it), he’s re-branding his show. It will now be the Truth and Justice podcast, and he’ll continue (after Adnan’s case) to look at other wrongful convictions, maybe even the ones we at Undisclosed look at. Not sure.
Either way, let’s help him get set up. If you can spare a $20, please do donate to his new podcast: https://www.gofundme.com/truthandjustice
ON A PERSONAL TIP
I have two daughters. My younger one started second grade this year, my eldest started college. She moved to live with her father, my ex, because his home is closer to her school. This all happened too fast, and I’ve been just a little out of sorts about it. By that I mean deeply depressed that my baby is gone, regardless of the fact that I still see her every week.
Note to parents: they grow up so fast you won’t know what hit you. Its ok to cry. I did quite a bit in the last month. I still had lots of things I was planning on doing with her and bam, before I knew it her childhood was gone. At this point, sitting her in my lap reading through the entire Nancy Drew series will probably not work.
Do it all while you can, moms and dads out there. Time is the thing we can never get back.
On a positive note, lest you forget, I have a career that has nothing to do with Adnan’s case. This year I wrapped up a two year project with the New America Foundation. Next year I am excited and honored to be joining the US Institute for Peace as a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow to research and document the role of interfaith actors in resilience to sectarian violence in two hotbeds: Pakistan and Myanmar.
My work on countering violent extremism goes on. I can’t wait until Adnan is home so I can continue it fully.
Also in November of this year the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth will be honoring a number of remarkable people for their work. If you’re in the DC area, believe in sentencing reform for youth offenders, come out and join us. I am also being honored but seriously, one of these things does not belong:
I am the thing that doesn’t belong, an thus honored even moreso
EID MUBARAK
That’s how we greet each other on the Eid holiday, wishing blessings on this day. We give gifts on this occasion, so my gift to readers today are these documents below, a glimpse into the kind of person Adnan is. When you go through them, think about what he could have been. What Jay and Urick and others took from him. And say a prayer that he gets the chance to have a life again.
Yesterday was a good day for Adnan and his supporters. Not such a good day for the State of Maryland.
First they got bitten in the bum by their brilliant maneuver of referring to the cell phone records as their response to Asia’s alibi for the 2:36pm call, thereby opening the door to those records. Justin Brown, Adnan’s attorney, jumped on it. Oh you wanna talk cell records? Let’s go there baby. Let’s open that door all the way now. Thank you, dear attorney for the State, for going there. Here’s to hoping the Judge sees it our way and wants to go there too.
Next, of course, was the big reveal in Undisclosed about the CrimeStoppers reward. In case you’re a visual person, like graphics, or just need more clarity on the timeline of the entire thing, we have an awesome graphic here to lay it all out for you.
There is a lot of discussion on who the tipster could be. All existing evidence seems to point to Jay, as we laid out in the podcast. It also feels right in my bones. But my bones aren’t proof. We’ll get the proof though, as long as no one at Baltimore County PD is frantically tearing records up right now or did so long ago. Now that we have a hard and fast confirmation that this reward was paid out and a tip came in much earlier (though apparently with no actionable information because the police still had no idea what happened to Hae or where her car was), Justin is on solid footing to subpoena the information directly.
And if that information has magically disappeared from BCPD files, though how could it under the watchful eye of Prosecutor Wash who now heads the division, its still all good. Because we can summon every freaking officer who touched the case, from O’Shea to Mac to Ritz to Massey (and find him this time), and compel them to testify to who got the reward and what the tip was.
This information WILL come to light. Its just a matter of time.
I hope that $3075 was worth it Mr./Ms. tipster-with-no-useful-information-except-lying-about-Adnan.
HAS TO BE SAID
Because somethings ARE NOT COMPUTING with people: it is the job of the State of MD to find Hae’s killer, not the job of Adnan’s defense counsel or anyone else. It is also a matter of routine that defendants use the appellate process to challenge their convictions. Some folks think unless the defense team somersaults into the courtroom with flaming proof of another person as the killer (because apparently its not enough to show that Adnan pretty much COULD NOT have killed her), he’s not entitled to a new trial.
That’s not how the law works. He, as any criminal defendant, is entitled to the full appellate process and challenging every bit of shady, shitty, made up crap the State got away with the last time. In the game of life, and the court of law, its only about winning for jerks. For the rest of us, its about doing things right. And doing things right by others.
That’s why I’m working for an actual exoneration for Adnan, not just so he’s freed, but so the State is forced to reopen the investigation into her death. But again, we don’t have to. Adnan doesn’t have to. We could beat them in court, he could come home, and the case would be closed. Then you could blame the police and prosecutors on this, and demand it from them to give Hae justice.
INCOMING
No, I don’t mean the calls. I mean what’s coming up soon:
DO THIS
If possible, that is. Tweet at the Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to #LetTheEvidenceIn with regards to the cell records and CrimeStoppers information. Their twitter handles are @BrianFrosh and @MarilynMosbyEsq . Use the hashtag above and (I know not everyone is hashtag experienced) the way to do it is to keep the entire phrase together with the “#” sign!
LASTLY
Thank you. To all of our listeners. For paying attention to our chock-full-of-information, dense, and sometimes difficult podcast. Thanks for helping us get to 28 million listens.
Keep listening, things are about to get even more interesting.
*No I will not tell you who or how. Not now. But that day will come too.
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