Adnan Syed, standing with his mother Shamim Rahman, talks to reporters outside the Maryland Supreme Court in Annapolis, Maryland, on October 5, 2023.
Susan Walsh/AP
hide caption
convert caption
Susan Walsh/AP
Less than two years after Adnan Syed was released from prison, the Maryland Supreme Court has ordered a new trial in the same court that freed him.
On Friday, the Maryland Supreme Court upheld the appeals court’s decision until 2023. to restore Syed’s sentenceThat ruling was based on the argument that the murder victim’s family did not receive adequate notice of the hearing that led to Syed’s release.
The case will now go to a new lower court judge who will decide the fate of Syed’s sentence. The Maryland Supreme Court said Syed can be freed in the meantime.
The 43-year-old man has been serving 23 years in prison for the murder of his former high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. His case has attracted national attention after becoming the main focus of series The podcast’s first season. The episodes raised doubts about some of the evidence in the case and led to calls for a retrial. Syed initially faced life in prison until a judge in Baltimore has been left blank His sentence is in 2022.
Syed continues to work for Georgetown University’s Initiative on Prisons and Justice. But his case remains unsolved. Here’s what you need to know.
Summary of Syed’s criminal case
In 1999, the body of Hae Min Lee, a Baltimore high school student, was discovered in a city park, weeks after she went missing. An autopsy determined that she had been strangled to death.
Syed, who had previously dated Lee, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2000. He was 18 at the time.
Syed has long maintained his innocence, but his case received renewed attention in 2014 after being chronicled in the first season of female series Newsletter. Throughout the 12 episodes, series looked into the details of Syed’s case and exposed flaws in the legal system. One poignant question from the podcast was about the reliability of evidence from cell phone towers.
Syed’s lawyers raised similar concerns and in 2016, Syed has been granted a new trialThe state appealed the ruling, and his case was heard in several different courts. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear his case.
Things changed in 2022 after a year of investigation that led to new information about two possible alternative suspects. In September of that year, Syed was released from prison and prosecutors later decided to remove all cases against him
Why Syed’s murder conviction was restored
In 2023, Lee’s family urged the Maryland Court of Appeals to reopen the hearing that freed Syed. The family argued that Lee’s brother, who lives in California, had received about three days’ notice. about the hearing and therefore could not attend in person — violating the rights of Maryland victims, Press Links reported at the time.
“We are not part of the campaign to send Adnan Syed back to prison,” attorney David Sanford, who represents the Lee family, said in 2023. “This is a matter of respect for the victims and their representatives.”
The appeals court ruled in favor of the Lee family and restored Syed’s murder conviction. The court also ordered a new hearing in the case. That ruling was upheld by the Maryland Supreme Court on Friday.
“In an effort to remedy what they perceived as an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the lower court did injustice to Mr. Lee,” the Maryland Supreme Court wrote in an opinion Friday.
What’s next?
The Baltimore attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the high court’s ruling and had no further details on next steps.
In a statement, Lee family attorney Sanford applauded the court for reaffirming the rights of crime victims and giving the family the opportunity to be properly heard in court.
“If there is compelling evidence to support the overturning of Adnan Syed’s conviction, we will be the first to agree,” Sanford said.
Syed’s lawyer, Erica Suter, said she disagreed with the court’s ruling, adding that it would be emotionally damaging to both Lee and Syed’s family.
“While this latest verdict is a hurdle on the road to clearing Adnan’s name, we are confident that justice will be served and will work tirelessly to clear his name once and for all,” Suter said in a statement.
