Adnan Syed, who is now free after spending more than 20 years in prison fighting charges that he killed his ex-girlfriend, has appeared in an appeals court once again arguing to keep his freedom.
In the latest chapter of the case made famous by the hit podcast Serial, an appeals court in Maryland will decide whether to send Syed back to prison or throw out his murder conviction.
After the murder of his high school classmate and ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999, a jury found Syed guilty of premeditated murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment.
Syed was cleared of all charges in September 2022, after prosecutors in Baltimore said their year-long investigation revealed he had been wrongfully convicted of strangling and killing Ms Lee. New DNA evidence showed he was not involved in her death, prosecutors said.
But in March 2023, a Maryland appeals court reinstated Syed’s conviction and sentence, ordering a new hearing to determine whether he should remain free.
Why was Adnan Syed’s conviction reinstated?
The appeals court ruled that the lower court failed to give Young Lee, Ms Lee’s brother, sufficient notice of the September 2022 hearing in which a judge vacated Syed’s murder conviction and freed him from prison.
Thursday’s hearing in the Maryland Supreme Court included arguments over whether Syed’s conviction should remain on the books and whether crime victims have a right to speak and to challenge evidence during hearings to vacate convictions.
Attorneys for Syed argued that despite the lack of notice given – Young Lee was told of the hearing to vacate on the Friday before a Monday hearing – the result would have been the same.
The Lee family has continued to argue that Syed is guilty and opposed his release.
The state supreme court justices will announce their decision at a later date.
Syed remains free while the decision is pending.
Outside the court after the hearing, he told reporters: “We look forward to hearing the court’s decision, and we’re hoping that in the end we’ll have a chance to do justice, not just for Hae’s family, but for our family as well.”
Serial podcast asks: Who killed Hae Min Lee?
Hae Min Lee disappeared after school in January 1999, and her body was discovered partially buried the following month. Syed was arrested and convicted on the basis of evidence including phone records and the testimony of one of his friends, who told police he helped bury Lee’s body. He was sentenced to life in prison.
More than a decade after the conviction, Rabia Chaudry, a Baltimore-based lawyer and family friend of the Syeds, emailed journalist Sarah Koenig and asked her to re-investigate Lee’s murder.
That email helped launch the first season of the podcast Serial, a spin-off of the long-running radio show This American Life. Serial premiered in autumn 2014 and went through the evidence in minute detail.
“For the last year I’ve spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for an hour after school one day in 1999,” Ms Koenig says in the first episode.
As each episode revealed new details – and potential new suspects – internet sleuths and armchair detectives sprang into action and argued their theories on social media.
During the podcast Ms Koenig did not take a position on Syed’s guilt or innocence, but the attention around Syed’s case would ultimately help him win a new trial.
Why was the Serial podcast so popular?
Serial helped ignite the popularity of podcasts, particularly the “true crime” genre. Ms Koenig’s signature confessional style kept listeners returning – and downloading – the show every week.
The first season of Serial has been downloaded more than 300 million times and the show is widely cited as one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
Though subsequent seasons of the show were less popular, in many ways, Ms Koenig and her team helped create the formula for a “bingeable” podcast series.
But did it really help Syed?
In 2015, Syed was granted a new trial based, in part, on new evidence uncovered while making Serial.
But a judge also denied his request for bail. He remained imprisoned as his legal team argued for a new trial and tried to appeal against his conviction all the way to the US Supreme Court.
In 2019, HBO premiered a four-part documentary series produced by Ms Chaudry called The Case Against Adnan Syed.
The series argued that Syed, who is Muslim, was convicted, in part, because of racial bias.
It ultimately revealed that forensic analyses had found no trace of his DNA on Ms Lee’s body at the time of the murder – a major factor in the eventual vacating of his conviction.
The state’s attorney’s office cleared Syed of all charges on the basis of the new evidence.
“As a representative of the institution, it is my responsibility to acknowledge and apologise to the family of Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed,” Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said at the time.
What does Hae Min Lee’s family think?
The Lee family refused to participate in Serial and has always maintained they believe Syed was rightfully convicted and justice was served during the original trial.
In 2016, when Syed was granted a new trial, the family told reporters that the podcast had “reopened wounds few can imagine”, according to the Baltimore Sun. They also said they believed people had been misinformed by the podcast and regretted that “so few [were] willing to speak up for Hae”.
Ms Lee’s brother, Young Lee, told the September 2022 hearing: “This is not a podcast for me. This is real life – a never-ending nightmare for 20-plus years.”
Source : BBC
