Thursday, April 30, 2015

At the trial of Adnan Syed for murdering Hae Min Lee, the prosecution introduced into evidence a note that Hae had written for her new boyfriend that referenced (1) Hae filming an interview; and (2) Hae attending a wrestling match at Randallstown High. At trial, the prosecution claimed that this note was written on January 13, 1999, the day that Hae disappeared. In the second episode of the Undisclosed Podcast, we argued that this note was actually written on January 5, 1999 because (1) Woodlawn had a reported wrestling match at Randallstown High School on January 5, 1999; (2) Woodlawn had no reported wrestling match on January 13, 1999; and (3) Randallstown had a reported wrestling match against another school (Carver) on January 13, 1999.

Yesterday, an astute reader pointed something else out to me: Randallstown had a home basketball game on January 13, 1999.

It's right there in the Baltimore Sun in the Schedule for January 13, 1999:

So, Randallstown was scheduled to host Perry H. for a basketball game at 6:30 P.M. Meanwhile, Carver was scheduled to host Pikesville for a basketball game at the same time: 6:30 P.M.

As the Scores section from the January 14th edition of the Baltimore Sun makes clear, both games were in fact played:

That leaves us with two questions that someone should be able to answer: (1) Did the Randallstown/Carver wrestling match take place at Randallstown or Carver; and (2) Could Randallstown and/or Carver host a basketball game and wrestling match at the same time (e.g., did either gave two gyms or one very large gym)?

If Randallstown could host a basketball game and a wrestling match at the same time, this new information adds nothing to the table. But if Randallstown could not host both a basketball game and a wrestling match at the same time, some issues arise. We know that, at the second trial, Inez Butler testified that Woodlawn had a 5:00 bus leaving for a 6:30 wrestling match on January 13th. If Randallstown couldn't host a basketball game and a wrestling match at the same time, there is no way that this match could have been at Randallstown, which was hosting a basketball game at the same time.

At the first trial, Inez testified that the bus for the wrestling match left at 3:45. That would mean the wrestling match started at...4:30 or so? If that's the case and Randallstown could only host one sport at a time, would the wrestling match be done in time to convert the gym and start warmups for a 6:30 basketball game? I don't know. Of course, if the Randallstown/Carver wrestling match was at Randallstown, there would be no time for both that match and a Woodlawn match before the basketball game (unless Randallstown could have two wrestling matches going at the same time).

I'm about to be very busy for the next several days, so I will throw the gauntlet down to readers to figure out whether this basketball game information adds something or nothing to the table regarding the events of January 13, 1999.

-CM

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2015/04/at-the-trial-of-adnan-syed-for-murdering-hae-min-lee-the-prosecution-introduced-into-evidence-a-note-that-hae-had-written-fo.html