Trevor Noah has a proposal to fix jury duty and make it more engaging for its participants: Use podcasts.
On Monday, a judge ordered the release of Adnan Syed from prison. Syed, whose 1999 murder case was covered in the popular investigative journalism podcast “Serial,” had served more than 20 years of a life sentence for a murder he said he didn’t commit.
Prosecutors said they found new evidence that could tie two other people to the killing of Syed’s former high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. The evidence was allegedly withheld from Syed’s legal team during his trial.
“The Daily Show” host said he found it weird that America “confuses fixing a mistake with a happy ending,” and asked what Syed’s release says about the justice system.
“What I think it says is either America needs to reform its justice system or podcasts need to become part of the justice system,” Noah quipped. “Think about it, everyone hates jury duty but everyone loves podcasts. So maybe, we get rid of juries and just have everyone in America listen to the podcast and then they all vote, it just becomes a nationwide jury, they’re paying attention, they actually care.”
Americans, he explained, are interested in legal proceedings when entertainment is part of the equation.
“Nobody wants to sit in a courtroom, but people have watched 700 seasons of ‘Law & Order.’ Sometimes during jury duty like, ‘This is boring, I’m going to watch more ‘Law,’” Noah joked.
Watch more of Noah’s take on Syed’s release below: