BALTIMORE — A Baltimore choose on Monday ordered the discharge of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for the 1999 homicide of Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled within the hit podcast “Serial.”
On the behest of prosecutors, Circuit Court docket Decide Melissa Phinn ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated and she or he authorised the discharge of the now-41-year-old who has spent greater than 20 years behind bars.
Phinn dominated that the state violated its authorized obligation to share exculpatory proof with Syed’s protection. She ordered him launched from custody and positioned on dwelling detention with GPS location monitoring. She additionally ordered the state to determine whether or not to hunt a brand new trial date or dismiss the case inside 30 days.
Syed, who has at all times maintained his innocence, obtained widespread consideration in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” targeted on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about among the proof prosecutors had used, inspiring numerous dinner desk debates about Syed’s innocence or guilt.
Final week, prosecutors filed a movement saying {that a} prolonged investigation performed with the protection had uncovered new proof that might undermine the 2000 conviction of Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend.
Syed was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Lee, whose physique was discovered buried in a Baltimore park.
The investigation “revealed undisclosed and newly-developed info concerning two various suspects, in addition to unreliable mobile phone tower information,” State’s Lawyer Marilyn Mosby’s workplace mentioned in a information launch final week. The suspects have been identified individuals on the time of the unique investigation, however weren’t correctly dominated out nor disclosed to the protection, mentioned prosecutors, who declined to launch details about the suspects, as a result of ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors mentioned they weren’t asserting that Syed is harmless, however they lacked confidence “within the integrity of the conviction” and really helpful he be launched on his personal recognizance or bail. The state’s legal professional’s workplace had mentioned if the movement have been granted it will successfully put Syed in a brand new trial standing, vacating his convictions, whereas the case remained energetic.
Syed was led into the crowded courtroom in handcuffs Monday. Carrying a white shirt with a tie, he sat subsequent to his legal professional. His mom and different household representatives have been within the room, as was Mosby.
In 2016, a decrease courtroom ordered a retrial for Syed on grounds that his legal professional, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, didn’t contact an alibi witness and supplied ineffective counsel.
However after a sequence of appeals, Maryland’s highest courtroom in 2019 denied a brand new trial in a 4-3 opinion. The Court docket of Appeals agreed with a decrease courtroom that Syed’s authorized counsel was poor in failing to research an alibi witness, however it disagreed that the deficiency prejudiced the case. The courtroom mentioned Syed waived his ineffective counsel declare.
The U.S. Supreme Court docket declined to overview Syed’s case in 2019.
The true-crime sequence was the brainchild of longtime radio producer and former Baltimore Solar reporter Sarah Koenig, who spent greater than a 12 months digging into Syed’s case and reporting her findings in virtually real-time in hour-long segments. The 12-episode podcast gained a Peabody Award and was transformative in popularizing podcasts for a large viewers.
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