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."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

After 23 years in prison, murder charges dropped vs. Adnan Syed

THE INNOCENCE PROJECT

Murder charges against Adnan Syed, in tie, were dropped.

After 23 years in a prison, Adnan Syed is a free man after Maryland prosecutors dropped murder charges against him.

Once again, the question that haunted thousands of podcast listeners is raised: Who killed Hae Min Lee?

Syed was convicted of killing his former high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999. His trial and the subsequent podcast, "Serial," gathered hundreds of thousands of followers questioning the prosecution's evidence that put Syed behind bars.

The Maryland attorney general dropped the charges because of the results of DNA testing “that excluded Mr. Syed from the DNA recovered from the evidence,” said a statement from the state's Office of the Public Defender.

In a motion filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court last month, prosecutors said that a nearly yearlong investigation, conducted with Syed's lawyer Erica J. Suter, had found two possible “alternative suspects,” who have not been named publicly or charged.

Prosecutors also said new information revealed that one of the suspects was convicted of attacking a woman in her vehicle, and that one of the suspects was convicted of engaging in serial rape and sexual assault.

The investigation also questioned the reliability of evidence used to convict Pakistani American Syed.

Based on that motion, last month a judge released 41-year old Syed from prison and placed him in home detention with electronic monitoring.

During his trial and even after his conviction, Syed had maintained his innocence. Supporteres, friends and family continued to raise questions about the investigation and evidence attracting the attention of podcaster producers of "This American Live," hosted by Sarah Koenig. 

In 2014, a podcast, "Serial," produced. by This American Life, gained mullions of listeners nationwide as it questioned whether Syed had received a fair trail. "Serial" was downloaded more than 100 million times in its first year, bringing nationwid attention to the case. The podcast won a Peabody Award for its “compelling, drilling account of how guilt, truth and reality are decided.”

Murder victim Hae Min Lee, left, and Adnan Syed dated each other in high school

In 2015, a judge denied an appeal based on new evidence presented by the defense. Defense attorneys in 2019 then attempted to bring the case to the US Supreme Court which turned down the case.

In March of this year, prosecutors agreed to new DNA testing, saying that it was merited because of advances in genetic profiling. 

On Sept. 14, prosecutors asked a judge to overturn Syed’s conviction, which Judge Melissa M. Phinn of Baltimore City Circuit Court agreed to drop the charges against Syed “in the interests of justice and fairness.”

Monday (Oct. 11), the Maryland Office of the Public Defender said the charges were dropped because the new DNA evidence excluded Syed. 

An appeal before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, in which the victim's family sought to pause proceedings, remains pending. 

“Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,” Syed’s lawyer, Erica J. Suter, said in a statement. “The DNA results confirmed what we have already known and what underlies all of the current proceedings: that Adnan is innocent and lost 23 years of his life serving time for a crime he did not commit.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

US Supreme Court denies new trial for Adnan Syed, subject of the 'Serial' podcast

Adnan Syed

The long trial and tribulations for Adnan Syed appears to have run its course as the US Supreme Court Monday (Nov. 25) rejected his bid for a new trial spurred by information uncovered by the hit podcast "Serial."

The justices left in place without commenting the ruling by Maryland's highest court that denied a new trial for Syed, who was convicted of murdering classmate and ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. 

Syed was found guilty in 2000 for killing 17-year old Lee and burying her body in a Baltimore park.  He was sentenced to a life term.

Syed’s lawyers had argued that his trial lawyer’s failure to investigate an alibi witness violated his right to competent legal representation.

"Two courts have said he deserves a new trial, and then Maryland's highest court reversed that. We think it's appalling," Brown told NPR. "We think this is a grave injustice. The way this has played out is sickening."

“We are deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court but by no means is this the end of Adnan Syed,” defense attorney C. Justin Brown told The Associated Press. “There are other legal options and we are exploring each and every one of them.”

Syed's case attracted an international following when it was featured in NPR's 12-part podcast in 2014. His case seemed to have a breakthrough in 2016 when a Maryland court ordered a new trial, citing an alibi witness that was never explored by Syed's defense attorney. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals agreed with the lower court.

However, in 2018, the Maryland Court of Appeals denied Syed a new trial.
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'Serial' podcast subject, Adnan Syed, will get a new trial

Adnan Syed  has spent most of his life behind bars.

AFTER SPENDING almost 20 years in jail, Adnan Syed is getting a new trial.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled today (March 29) that the man who was the subject of a popular podcast, will have his murder conviction overturned because of poor counsel.]

Syed was found guilty in 2000 of the murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, a Korean/American immigrant. Her strangled body was found off a trial in a city park. 

Seventeen-year old Syed, a son of immigrants from Pakistan, was given a life sentence in 2000.

HAE MIN LEE

The case was the subject of NPR's most popular podcast in 2014, the first season of hit Serial. The podcast narrator questioned some of the details of the Lee's homicide and the adequacy of Syed's attorney, the late Cristina Gutierrez.

Chief among the errors was that the defense lawyer for failing to pursue a classmate who witnessed Syed at the library at the time of the slaying. The testimony of Asia McClain, who knew both Lee and Syed at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, was never interviewed by Gutierrez nor was her information brought up during the trial.

Chief Judge Patrick L. Woodward ruled, "There is a reasonable probability that McClain's alibi testimony would have raised a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror about Syed's involvement [in] Hae's murder, and thus 'the result of the proceedings would have been different.'"

In a separate ruling but in the same proceedings, Woodward wrote:  "Syed's murder conviction must be vacated, and because Syed's convictions for kidnapping, robbery, and false imprisonment are predicated on his commission of Hae's murder, these convictions must be vacated as well. The instant case will be remanded for a new trial on all charges against Syed."

The family of Hae Min Lee criticized McClain who they say did not sit through every day of both trials like they did.

“It remains hard to see so many run to defend someone who committed a horrible crime, who destroyed our family, who refuses to accept responsibility, when so few are willing to speak up for Hae,” a family statement said.

Serial, which meticulously re-examined the murder in Baltimore and original 2000 trial, helped bring renewed attention to Syed’s case. The podcast helped propel the NPR show to become the most popular podcast ever, gaining a global audience.

“Serial was enormously helpful,” a lawyer for Syed, Justin Brown, said at a press conference after today's verdict was read. “[Syed] asked me to convey his deep gratitude and thanks from the bottom of his heart to all those who have supported him and believed in him.”

The State of Maryland has opposed the overturning of Syed’s conviction and in 2017 it appealed a lower court’s decision to grant a new trial. Today’s ruling could mean that Syed will have another shot at freedom, or it might mean that prosecutors take the case to Maryland’s Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.

(UPDATED: March 30, 9:30 a.m. to include statement from the Lee family.)

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