Diksha Sundriyal
Fox’s ‘Accused’ is a crime anthology series that follows the story of a person accused of a crime. The story unfolds in the present time while the protagonist is being tried for their crime and in the past, revealing the chain of events that led to the crime. In its thirteenth episode, we follow the story of Samir Khalil. A refugee from Syria, Samir is under pressure to crack the exam that would allow him to pursue a medical degree. While preparing for it, he works as a driver.
Created by Howard Gordon, the show delves into the psychology of its characters, showing the audience what leads to the crimes they commit. In Samir’s case, we get a complex mix of the pressure to do better and the desire to have a different life. If you are wondering whether the show is based on a true case, then here’s what you should know. SPOILERS AHEAD
Samir’s Story is Fictional
No, ‘Samir’s Story’ is not based on a true story. However, like every episode of ‘Accused,’ it focuses on a real issue that regularly affects people. In Samir’s case, his stalking leads things to spiral so out of control that a life is lost. He becomes so obsessed with Alice Baylor that he ends up killing her boyfriend, Josh. In the episode, Josh’s death is contested to be an accident rather than a premeditated murder. While Samir did stalk and obsess over Alice, he didn’t kill Josh in cold blood. This doesn’t make his actions any less worse, and highlights the fact that unhealthy obsession can lead to bad things.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 3.4 million people of age 16 or older were victims of stalking in 2019. Out of this, women were stalked more than twice as often as men. Statistics also suggest that in the majority of homicide cases with female victims, stalking was reported to have been experienced. Sometimes, the victims are the people close to the person being stalked.
In March 2023, Zachariah Anderson was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse, and stalking. The murder victim was Rosalio Gutierrez, Anderson’s ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend, who went missing in 2020. Sadie Beacham broke up with Anderson in February 2020, following which she started dating Gutierrez, who went missing in May 2020 and hasn’t been found yet. The prosecutors used DNA evidence and phone records, among other things, to prove that Anderson had been stalking Gutierrez and had been inside the victim’s apartment before he went missing.
In another similar case, in 2022, a man was sentenced to 22 to 54 years in prison for stalking his ex-girlfriend and murdering her new boyfriend. Matthew Lambert, who pleaded guilty to five felony counts, put a GPS tracker in his ex’s car and sent her threatening messages before killing the man she’d started dating. Studies suggest that, in most cases, a stalker is a spouse or an intimate partner. However, there are cases when the stalker is someone with whom the victim has barely been in contact.
In 2022, a woman revealed, in a thread of tweets, how she’d been stalked by a Lyft driver. When he asked for her number, she gave him the wrong number. Reportedly, he sent many messages and calls before discovering that the number was not hers. One day, the driver showed up at her workplace and demanded she gives him the correct number this time. In another case, a 52-year-old driving instructor stalked his 17-year-old student. Reportedly, he brought her gifts, asked her out for drinks, and even made a TikTok account for her. In April 2022, he pleaded guilty to one count of stalking.
Considering all this, it is clear that the writers of ‘Accused’ drew inspiration from cases like these. While it is not possible to pinpoint a specific case on which they based ‘Samir’s Story,’ they infused the story with realism. The episode also gives us an insight into Samir’s personal life and the upheaval he was growing through. However, it also shows us that no matter what was happening to him, it doesn’t justify his behavior, and he has to be held responsible for the consequences of his actions.
Read More: Where Is Fox’s Accused Filmed?
