YAY VENTING TIME: This pretty much convinced me that most liberals would never convict a murderer unless he was being video recorded by three independent witnesses while committing the murder and simultaneously holding up that day's newspaper and his current passport while yelling his ATM PIN.

The prosecution presented a faulty timeline and made a simple motive more baroque/bigoted than it should have been. I'm no fan of prosecutors, but that's all they can be faulted for. Koenig herself showed Adnan's lawyer did a pretty decent job at trial (bizarre personal style notwithstanding). There is maybe reasonable doubt that should have resulted in an acquittal *of the case the state tried* but that is a very, very far cry from "Adnan is probably factually innocent." It was a complete cop out for Koenig to conclude only that Adnan should have been acquitted - we are all here (I presume) to determine who killed who and who's lying, not "was a legal standard reached or not?"

I want to scream while throwing my phone in the toilet when Koenig is entertaining 2.5 minute butt dials and serial killer scenarios and otherwise treats Jay and Jen's testimony like it completely doesn't exist. All-caps time:

JAY TOLD THE COPS HOW AND WHERE THE MURDER AND BURIAL HAPPENED AND THEN LED THE COPS TO THE CAR. IT THUS CANNOT BE REASONABLY DISPUTED JAY WAS THUS INVOLVED IN THE MURDER IN SOME WAY. THE ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS ARE A) JAY IS MOSTLY TELLING THE TRUTH, B) JAY IS TELLING THE TRUTH BUT WAS FAR DEEPER INVOLVED THAN HE ADMITS, C) JAY BRILLIANTLY FRAMED ADNAN ON HIS OWN AND D) JAY FRAMED ADNAN WITH THE ACTIVE HELP OF THE POLICE.

There is no plausible fifth theory that explains Jay and Jen. At no time did any discernible motive float up for anyone besides Adnan. Adnan's entire case reduces to, "but he sounds like such a consistent and nice guy, so let's suspend any disbelief in his favor about a dozen crucial times on the same day." It reduces even further to "missing the forest for two or three scrawny trees."

I AM WORKED UP ABOUT THIS.

Counterpoint: wrapping mysteries up with a clear final conclusion/answer and a pretty bow often doesn't end well, and in this case, being ambiguous and admitting there are open questions and no pretty bows is more honest.

COUNTER COUNTER POINTS:

1) There are no open questions that actually matter. Koenig never raised a shred of evidence that supports a viable theory that explains away Jay's basic story. Just some inconsequential details about exact locations and phone call times, the kind of things no witness ever remembers perfectly. Jay tells the cops Adnan's plan was to scheme his way into her car and kill her. Three witnesses (including Adnan initially) remember he asked Lee for a ride that day. She was never seen or heard from again. Jay took the cops to the car, after describing the plan, aftermath, and burial in detail. He messes up some minor details, because everyone does. He lies a few times about comparatively minor things, since he's justifiably worried about being in extremely deep shit. That's really all one needs to know to conclude Adnan was involved in the murder and thus lying from day one. There are still legit questions about the depth of Jay's involvement in the murder's planning and execution, but he's already copped to quite a bit.

2) I don't consider that a very pretty bow. I think it's a pretty damn disturbing conclusion that we can all safely conclude that over the past few months, Koenig and the rest of us have been at various times charmed by and sympathetic to Lee's true killer.