The Defense Didn’t Start Contacting Adnan’s Track Teammates Until After October 16, 1999

I’ve gotten a few e-mails about the comments section of my post from last Thursday. In one of the comments, I noted that

For context, Adnan’s track teammates weren’t contacted until after July 13th.

More specifically, it looks like they weren’t contacted until after October 16, 1999.

There are several versions of this memorandum in the defense files:

All of the versions of this memorandum make clear that the defense first got the list of members of the indoor track team on October 16, 1999. As this version makes clear, the defense then contacted or tried to contact the members of the team, presumably to see whether they recalled whether Adnan was at track practice on January 13, 1999. Given that 6+ months had already passed, it’s unsurprising that none of these teammates seemingly had a specific recollection of January 13th.

What does seem surprising to me is that the defense waited until at least October 16th to contact these witnesses. As I noted in another comment, the defense began looking into alibi witnesses in July 1999, presumably in response to a request for an alibi notice submitted by the prosecution on July 1st.

So, why did it take another 3.5 months for the defense to start contacting track teammates?

-CM