Tag: Jenn (Page 3 of 5)

One of many gifts Adnan made and sent to us. This is a painting he made in prison on a shower curtain. Adnan would make crafts and gifts, handmade cards, for special occasions. Like the Eid holiday, or when I passed my bar exam, or when I had a baby.

I normally listen to each new episode of Serial the minute the kids and hubby walk out the door after the morning insanity of getting everyone dressed, fed, and out of the house with lunches and schoolbags. I usually have another hour before I have to leave for work, and on Thursdays, this is becomes the Serial I have with my chai.

Yesterday I was going to have a very busy Thursday and I got a number of messages in the morning saying this episode was sad, like really really sad. I was afraid I’d spend all day at work, and at an event after work, getting sporadically weepy so I decided that I’d wait until the end of the day to listen to it.

That decision lasted about 20 minutes. Continue reading

*This post originally appeared in Patheos.com on November 14, 2014

The “West Memphis Three”. I once tweeted at Damien hoping to get his interest in Adnan’s case. He never responded. Sniff.

Raise your hand if you were surprised by what Jay had to say in this week’s episode.

No one better have their hand raised.

If you thought for an instant that “Mr. Your-Plea-Deal-Is-Good-Unless-You-Change-Your-Story” was going to do another “ok I come clean” when two random women show up at his door, I’ve got a bridge and a mid-east peace plan to sell you.

You may have been surprised, however, with how Jay was described. Or you may have been confused. His is a catalog of contradictory personality traits, from goofy to mean, from animal lover to rat-eating-frog enthusiast (sorry, you kind of can’t be both – Google that ish and you’ll see what I mean). Unlike Adnan, who has overwhelmingly been described in similar terms by most people who know him, Jay poses a challenge to us. Other than being identified as the odd guy out, there was little similarity between what people had to say about him. What to make of his conflicted, yet beautiful, unconventionality? Continue reading

*This post originally appeared at Patheos.com on Nov 7, 2014

Courtesy of Twitter buddy @FunSizeBytes, pretty much how I’ve been feeling all morning

Just to get it out of the way:

Yes. I knew. So did, of course, Adnan and his family, and my family and close friends. We’ve known the Innocence Project looked at the case before the podcast started.

Oh how I’ve wanted to spill it over the past six episodes. Especially in the face of comments and threads that increasingly condemned Adnan and those supporting him, I really really wanted to say “Hey. The Innocence Project took it. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS?”

I’ll start by telling you what it means to us. Many years ago Adnan applied to the Innocence Project of Maryland. They rejected his application due to “lack of DNA evidence in the case.” Three years ago when I moved back to Maryland, I reached out to them again. I emailed, called. Begged for a meeting. Ten minutes, just give me ten minutes I asked. They refused. It was crushing.

So when Sarah told me that Deirdre offered to look at the case, my heart nearly exploded.  The kind of explosion that oozes joy and molten chocolate. It’s no small thing for an institution as respected and prestigious as the Innocence Project to commit their time and resources to a case. They get thousands of applications annually. When they take a case, it not only says something about that case, they’re also putting their name on and tying their reputation to that case. Continue reading