The more you dig in, you do start seeing things that don’t add up with good detective work. And then you wonder why. The students I spoke to told me that the police detectives told them that [Syed’s] DNA and his fingerprints were in the car, and that’s not true. Little things like that are really manipulative, so the questions become more like, “What was the agenda?”

I did find the dramatizations of the audio-taped police interrogations with Jay to be pushing an idea of what happened that can’t be verified. Do you see yourself more as an advocate than a journalist?

I mean, I view myself as a storyteller, and this is a really interesting story that has a lot of different viewpoints. When you listen to those tapes, Jay’s voice and the way he has discussions is definitely different when he has to recite details and facts versus his personal accounting of things. His evolving story creates a lot of problems. I mean, how can you not remember the spot where you saw a dead body in the trunk? It doesn’t make sense.

So, yeah, it’s tough. But I apply the ethics of journalism in my fact-checking. And I am telling a story for a wide audience, and you have to find ways to dramatize certain things in order to make people understand them better.

Your documentary “West of Memphis” revisited another murder case that had been the subject of a well-known series. Do you feel a sense of duty to show people: “Hey, this isn’t just about the buzz; these are real people’s lives, and the story is still continuing for them”?

I think that this film can, by illustrating the story visually, give a greater understanding of it. But also, we take up our investigation where “Serial” left off, and a lot has happened in the case since 2016. When you mention his name to somebody, people just assume he’s already out of prison because he was granted a new trial two years ago. And the truth is that he may never get out of prison.