Syed’s supporters claim that evidence that would have proven his innocence was hidden from him.
Twenty-two years after he was found guilty of killing his high school ex-girlfriend, a federal judge has vacated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed.
Syed, 41, who has always maintained his innocence, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment in connection to the killing of Hae Min Lee. His case — and the controversies surrounding it — was immortalized in the smash-hit podcast, Serial.
Fresh evidence for the defense
City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn explained her September 19 ruling with reference to material in the state investigation that wasn’t adequately shared with defense attorneys. Evidence was recovered after the trial that would reportedly have added a “substantial and significant probability that the result would have been different.” Essentially, it would’ve bolstered an argument that someone else killed Lee.
Phinn also cited two alternative suspects who may have been improperly cleared of Lee’s murder. Prosecutors claimed that one of these had said he’d make Lee “disappear” and that “(h)e would kill her.” Syed’s defense attorneys said that he and his legal team were unaware of this detail until this year.
At the end of the hearing, Judge Phinn said: “All right Mr Syed, you’re free to join your family.”
Phinn’s ruling does not mean that Syed is innocent. The judge has given the state a 30-day deadline to decide whether to seek a new trial, or dismiss Syed’s case.
Weeping, Lee’s brother Young told the court that he was “not against the investigation”, but prosecutors had caught him unawares.
“Every day when I think it’s over… or it’s ended, it always comes back. It’s killing me,” he said.
“This is not a podcast for me. This is real life – a never-ending nightmare for 20-plus years.”
A jubilant response
For now, Syed, who was released without bail, will be placed in home detention and wear a GPS monitor. As his shackles were removed in court, all his supporters apparently erupted into applause.
“We now know what Adnan and his loved ones have always known, that Adnan’s trial was profoundly and outrageously unfair,” Assistant Public Defender Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney and director of the Innocence Project Clinic, said in a statement after the judge announced her decision. “Evidence was hidden from him, evidence that pointed to other people as the killers,”
Just before Phinn announced her ruling, prosecutor Becky Feldman said that Syed’s convictions must be tossed in the name of “justice and fairness.”
“The state has lost confidence in the integrity of this conviction and believes that it is in the interest of justice and fairness that his convictions be vacated,” she said.
“It is our promise that we will do everything we can to bring justice to the Lee family. That means continuing to utilize all available resources to bring a suspect or suspects to justice and hold them accountable.”
What comes next?
In a news release, Maryland public defender Natasha Dartigue called the case “a true example of how justice delayed is justice denied. An innocent man spends decades wrongly incarcerated, while any information or evidence that could help identify the actual perpetrator becomes increasingly difficult to pursue.”
“We’re not yet declaring Adnan Syed is innocent,” Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby added after the judge’s ruling. “But we are declaring that in the interest of fairness and justice he is entitled to a new trial.”
Baltimore prosecutors have already filed a motion for a new trial.
A controversial case
Lee, a high school student from Baltimore, Maryland, disappeared in early 1999 when she was just 18 years old. Weeks later, her body was discovered buried in the woods in Leakin Park. She had been strangled. Syed then 18, was eventually accused following an anonymous tip to the police. His first trial ended in a mistrial before prosecutors won a conviction in a second trial, and the then-19-year-old Syed was sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors, who leaned on mobile phone location data that has since been found to be unreliable, alleged that Syed, rejected by Lee, strangled her and then concealed her body with the help of a friend.
The podcast Serial, which was released in 2014 and became an instant worldwide hit, highlighted among other inconsistencies the fact that an alibi witness, Asia McClain, was never contacted by Syed’s lawyer. It also pointed to potentially significant evidence recovered from the crime scene, which was never DNA tested. Serial was created by radio producer and former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who spent more than a year researching the case.
