"your job is to be on his team"

Lauren Cusick, "Serial's big confession," Medium

"When the judge ordered the jury in this case to presume Adnan innocent, this is what the judge was really saying:

You are on Team Adnan. Stay on Team Adnan until you know What Really Happened. If he doesn’t testify, don’t gasp. Don’t be blown away. Don’t try to be open-minded. Your job is not to be open-minded. He is a seventeen-year-old boy fighting the entire State of Maryland, and your job is to be on his team.

The jury in this case heard the judge’s order, they understood it, and they chose not to follow it. That’s What Really Happened, and the juror confessed to it without remorse."