Six months after being freed last October, Adnan Syed, whose murder conviction was made famous by the podcast “Serial,” an appeals court in Maryland has reinstated his conviction, and a new hearing will be held.
Adnan Syed faces new hearing
The family of Hae Min Lee, who was murdered in 1999, appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals, saying officials failed to provide sufficient notice for Lee’s family to attend the hearing to release Syed last year.
The Maryland appeals court ruled in the Lee family’s favor and reinstated Adnan Syed’s murder conviction this week, setting the stage for a new hearing to be held about the evidence to vacate Syed’s conviction, NBC News reported.
In the interim, Syed’s prior murder charges have been reinstated.
Legal experts say the decision by the appeals court and the new hearing is a procedural issue and there is no reason to believe that Syed will be sent back to prison.
At the same time, the prosecutor has indicated that there is evidence that points to other suspects and that the investigation into Lee’s 1999 murder continues.
Why was Adnan Syed convicted? What is “Serial?”
In 1999, the body of 18-year-old Woodlawn High Korean-American high school student Hae Min Lee was found at Leakin Park in West Baltimore, Maryland, Biography reports. She was last seen alive on January 13.
Lee went on her first date with a coworker Don Clinedinst on January 1, 1999, according to the Undisclosed podcast. She disappeared on January 13. Her body was found on February 9, 1999.
Lee’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was identified as the suspect after anonymous calls told police to look into him in February 1999.
Despite maintaining his innocence and breaking up with Lee in 1998, Syed was jailed as a teenager, BuzzFeed News reported. He was found guilty of Lee’s murder and convicted on February 25, 2000.
On June 6, 2000, Syed was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.
On March 19, 2003, Syed’s first appeal was denied by the Court of Special Appeals.
Syed’s case became the subject of the podcast Serial in 2014 and garnered national attention.
Between 2015 and March 2019, there were a series of appeals and denials. The Supreme Court was asked to look at the case on August 19, 2019. However, the Supreme Court rejected the bid for a new trial on November 25, 2019.
On September 19, 2022, a major turn of events as Baltimore City Circuit Court judge Melissa M. Phinn vacated Syed’s conviction, effectively setting him free after he served more than 20 years in prison. In light of new evidence, prosecutors said they lost faith in Syed’s conviction.
On October 11, 2022, prosecutors dropped all charges against Syed, eliminating the possibility of a retrial.
On March 28, 2023, Syed’s conviction was reinstated, for the reasons outlined above, although he remains free outside of prison in the interim.
