Podcast phenomenon Serial may have ended, but its story clearly hasn’t. Since the This American Life-affiliated series aired its last episode in December, two key players in the story—who notably wouldn’t give Serial much or any time—have given extensive interviews to The Intercept. First there was a three-part talk with Jay Wilds, the prosecution’s key witness against Adnan Syed in the murder of Hae Min Lee (and the key suspect for those who believe Syed is innocent). Now, prosecutor Kevin Urick has spoken with the website as well, which just published the first of a two-parter with him. In what should come as no surprise to Serial followers, Urick expresses zero doubt that the right man is behind bars, and he brushes off—rather convincingly—the inconsistencies in Wilds’ story as “collateral” (and therefore not germane) facts. He also has plenty of unflattering things to say about Serial host Sarah Koenig: He claims to have been very easy to locate despite the show’s claim otherwise, but also that he wouldn’t have spoken to her anyway after hearing what he felt was her biased reporting. He goes on to characterize Serial’s presentation of certain evidence as “sleight of hand,” meant to confuse listeners into ignoring the big ideas.
Between the Wilds interview and this one, The Intercept is providing a pretty strong counterpoint to Serial, which—though it claimed not to take a firm stance one way or the other—is widely seen as an advocate for Syed’s innocence. The conversation with a very self-assured prosecutor (is there any other kind?) makes a strong case, and makes it a little more clear how such a murky-seeming case could have been put to bed by a jury in just a few hours. To Urick (and to those 12, apparently), Hae Min Lee’s murder was not unusual: It was an open-and-shut case of domestic-abuse murder, a boyfriend killing his girlfriend. We’ll have another episode of The Serial Serial—our podcast about the podcast—up soon, in which we discuss Wilds’ interview.