Episode 11: Rumors
Sarah explores how human nature can be influenced by the things people say about others.
Negative rumors go around the community about Adnan, even among the people who support
him.
Members of the Muslim community have different things to say about Adnan. That he was kind,
smart, charming, but sometimes duplicitous. Others say he would be capable of committing a
crime. Two people even saw him steal donation money from the mosque.
One witness said Adnan must have pocketed thousands of dollars a week, but Sarah checks
with the Islamic Society and they said petty theft happens occasionally, but if Adnan took
money, it wasn’t much. Anything more than $100 would have been noticed.
Adnan admits to taking small amounts of donation money with some friends in 8th grade, but he
stopped after his mom caught him. He gets defensive and frustrated as Sarah continues to
question him about this.
Sarah then moves on to psychopathology analysis. She speaks with expert Charles Ewing who
essentially says: most psychopaths aren’t killers, and most killers aren’t psychopaths. In his
opinion, Adnan is probably not a psychopath, but that doesn’t mean he’s innocent. It doesn’t
necessarily mean anything one way or another that he has maintained his innocence after so
many years. Nothing about his character proves his guilt or his innocence.
Adnan asks Sarah to focus on facts and timelines rather than on his character. He says he
doesn’t care how it ends (whether the podcast depicts him as guilty or innocent), he just wants it
to be over.