In an affidavit provided to The Blaze yesterday, Asia McClain, Serial subject Adnan Syed’s supposed alibi witness, said she never recanted her 1999 testimony against Syed. She also claims she never told Kevin Urick, the case’s prosecutor, that she had been either persuaded or forced to provide Syed an alibi, despite what he has previously said. McClain’s new claims could open things up for Syed’s appeal, considering the impact her failure to testify had on his original case. McClain says she’s absolutely willing to testify for Syed now, should he receive an appeal.
In the affidavit, McClain says she “did not write the March 1999 letters or the affidavit because of pressure from Syed’s family. I did not write them to please Syed’s family or to get them off my back. What actually happened is that I wrote the affidavit because I wanted to provide the truth about what I remembered. My only goal has always been to provide the truth about what I remembered.” When asked for response, Urick said McClain’s new assertions are “absolutely false.”
It’s worth noting that while McClain’s failure to testify could have seriously hindered Syed’s defense, there is at least some doubt as to whether she’s remembering things correctly at all. In a November post on Serial’s website producer Julie Snyder noted that, while McClain remembered an ice storm hitting Baltimore on January 13, 1999—the day Hae Min Lee went missing—in actuality, “there was no significant ice, rain, or snow on Jan. 13.” The storm didn’t start until the early morning of January 14, thus calling McClain’s claim that she got snowed in at her boyfriend’s house on the night of the 13th into question. But that’s probably something for a jury to decide.