Court reinstates Syed's murder conviction; question remains, 'Who killed Hae Min Lee?'

SCREEN CAPTURE /BBC

Adnan Syed was released from prison last September.

The decades-long courtroom saga continues for Adnan Syed. A Maryland appeals court reversed the ruling of a lower court that dropped the Pakistani American's murder conviction after he had served 20-plus years in prison.

Despite the reinstatement of the murder conviction, Syed, will not immediately be taken back into custody.

Syed was convicted of the 1999 murder of his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee but new evidence and flaws in the police investigation was enough for a Baltimore Court to drop the murder conviction and release Syed in September 2022.

However, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled 2-1 that the lower court failed to give sufficient notice to the victim’s family when it scheduled the September hearing that granted Syed's freedom. The appeal court's ruling does not dispute the September decision by the lower court.

Syed's cased attracted worldwide attention because of the podcast, "Serial" that posed the question, "Who Killed Hae Min Lee."

Lee and Syed were a popular couple in high school: she was a cheerleader; he played football.

The victim, Hae Min Lee, and Adnan Syed dated in high school.

When her body was found in a nearby park, the police investigation zeroed in on Syed and failed to investigate two other suspects, according to new evidence presented by Syed's lawyers.

Lee's family, who had moved to California by this time, complained that they were given only one-day's notice before the September ruling.

"We remand for a new, legally compliant, and transparent hearing on the motion to vacate, where Mr. Lee is given notice of the hearing that is sufficient to allow him to attend in person," the court said.

"The appeal was not about Adnan's innocence but about notice," said Erica J Suter, Syed's attorney, the director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore. Suter plans to appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court the decision to reinstate Syed's conviction.

The Tuesday action gives the Baltimore District Attorney 60 days to decide whether he will appeal the September ruling.

During this week's hearing, Young Lee, the victim's brother gave an emotional statement: "This is not a podcast for me. This is real life - a never-ending nightmare for 20-plus years."

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