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Rabia Chaudry

Tag: Justin Brown (Page 1 of 2)

House of Cards

Not so inconsequential any more eh Thiru?

Not so inconsequential any more eh Thiru?  See you in court.

There have been too many times in the last 17 years that I thought, we thought, Adnan thought that everything would work out. That the system would get it right, that a judge would get it right. And every time, up until the past year, we were wrong.

That’s why every step of this case now is full of hopeful trepidation for us. A balance of hope and fear, which, ironically, is the Islamic attitude towards God. The hopeful expectation of Grace and Mercy, tempered by a healthy, respectful fear of not receiving that Grace and Mercy, for whatever reason. But, God says over and over in the Islamic tradition, Mercy is His default. He inclines towards Mercy.

And finally now, after all these years, the court is inclining that way too. There was no reason to think that Justin’s response brief from a few weeks ago would not prevail, but again – the fear remained. The last time I felt such unbridled relief, joy that near made my chest explode, was back in February, when I sat in a hotel room in Georgia in the early morning hours and saw that MD Court of Special Appeals would entertain his appeal after the post-conviction was denied. Only happens in 1.2% of cases. But it happened.

Today, as I waited on a delayed flight in a bright, busy airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, I got the news that his motion to reopen the post-conviction appeal was granted, in the “interests of justice”.  By the same judge that denied it, and the same judge that prosecutor Kevin Urick, having taken an oath as an officer of the law, lied to. I would hate, just hate testifying in front of a Judge I lied to.

 

So it is ordered!

So it is ordered!

I blubbered, as is customary for me, called Yusuf to tell his and his parents, called Saad, messaged my husband and friends, sent an email to Susan, Colin, Bob and Dennis. And then the deluge of tweets, texts, messages began. So much relief and happiness, from all corners of the world.

Adnan called his family, as he usually does in the evenings, and Yusuf told him the good news. He was elated, especially because the order allows not just Asia, but the cell records fax cover sheet (you GO SUSAN) Brady violation into consideration, which the court did of it’s own discretion, in other words they totally did not have to.  Note that the plea issue raised by Adnan is still active and alive, but not before this court. This court was asked to take a look at Asia, not the plea, and indicates below that the other issues (ie the plea deal) are still active and pending with the higher court:

 

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 11.15.43 PM

Judge Welch is allowing in both Asia’s alibi testimony and the cell phone evidence – or lack thereof – that Justin recently raised.  Asia will testify to her recollection of the afternoon of January 13, 1999 AND how she was talked out of testifying at the post conviction hearing by Urick.  The order actually specifically allows for evidence of this misconduct.  The cell phone expert will testify about the impact of that fax cover sheet, and how he was fooled into his role as an “expert”, his testimony manipulated based on evidence withheld, also by our good friend Urick.

Dirty deeds will eventually catch up to you.

A hearing will soon be scheduled. Abe Waranowitz will be called to testify. Asia will be called to testify.  Adnan will be there.  Will the State call Urick be called by the State to counter their testimony? Maybe.  I’d hate to have him as my witness.

 

Kevin Urick, looking into the distance for a place to run and hide at

Kevin Urick, looking into the distance for a place to run and hide at

But I doubt it. Because this house of cards, which has been crumbling for the past year, is not yet done falling to bits.  Keep watching, folks.  A few final blows remain yet to Urick (everything he did to thwart a fair trial for Adnan is not yet public) and also to someone else.

The cards of the esteemed Deputy Attorney General of Maryland Thiru , who is leading the charge on behalf of the State, will also very soon fall fast and hard.  And the world will bear witness to how low prosecutors are willing to go to get their convictions.  And I will repeatedly remind everyone that he is the Deputy Attorney General.

I will be the first in line to file ethics complaints against them.

The arc of of the moral universe is long, but bends towards justice.  Justice for both Adnan and Hae.

Traveling brings blessings.

Hallelujah and Alhamdulillah.

The Emperor wears no clothes.

It’s On Now

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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:

  1. The hearing. I expect this to be full blown hearing with Asia testifying, maybe Urick is pulled back in, maybe we get cell experts if the court allows the supplement. If Justin gets what he needs, a Brady motion may also be coming.  I was at the courthouse last week with Susan and Seema Iyer from MSNBC and we were going through their files to find some missing things we didn’t have (speaking of which HI CALEB H., GOOD JOB WITH THE ARCHIVES!) and were told to hurry up because the Judge wanted the case files and exhibits ASAP. Which means to me that we will probably get the hearing sooner rather than later, I’m hoping by end of October. The State, which failed to respond to Justin’s motion to reopen with the court, asked to have until September 8 to respond (after the court asked them um you got something you want to say?) and after that its all about waiting for the Judge to rule on the motion and schedule a date (could be in either order). So, there is no timeline for the folks who are asking.  We all have to just wait and see.
  2. Speaking of Susan, Seema, and MSNBC we will be doing another special with Seema on September 1st based on some of the things we found in the files. Things we’ve never seen before. Like the crime scene photos (though some are still missing and I expect the State’s Attorney office has them), the original exhibits of the cell tower maps, Hae’s diary, video of the broken windshield wiper/turn signal, and the original letter with the “I’m going to kill” written on it.  We have copies of it all now. And we have a lot to say about what we found.
  3. Bob at Serial Dynasty Podcast. Gah. Neighbor Boy. And other stuff. You do NOT want to miss what he’s been working on.
  4. Bob is not the only one who is talking to some key folks that we haven’t heard from before.  Susan and Colin are also chatting with someone very important to our next episode, someone we again haven’t heard from before.
  5. While Undisclosed is focused on Adnan’s wrongful conviction, wrongful for so many reasons including the fact that he’s innocent, we are also investigating the murder itself.  It is paramount to me, as important as getting Adnan home, that we find and nail the person who killed Hae.  We are working on this, there are leads that may pan out, or may not. That’s how investigations go. But don’t think for a second we aren’t thinking about her. I think about her all the time.  And I’m nearly positive I know who did it.*

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. 

 

Drop It Like It’s Hot

All day people have been tweeting at me to find out when the second episode of our podcast Undisclosed will post and there were a lot of moans and groans when I told them 6pm EST. That’s what happens when everyone involved has full time jobs that having nothing to do with the podcast, sorry not sorry folks.

I’m in Istanbul, Turkey right now for a closed conference on violent extremism convened by the Hollings Center, and had to make sure (and inconvenience the others) that we did all our taping before I left the US. Having now established a state of the art sound studio in my home, its the only place I can tape. Check it out. Continue reading

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