Adnan Syed’s murder conviction still stands in ‘Serial’ case as court orders new hearing

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Adnan Syed is now free after being imprisoned for the murder of his ex-girlfriend more than two decades ago. But his attorneys will be arguing for his freedom once again on Thursday (Oct. 5, 2023), this time in front of the Maryland Supreme Court. The case became known to millions through the true-crime podcast “Serial.” Syed is appealing a reinstatement of his murder conviction, after a lower court ordered a redo of the hearing that let the 42-year-old walk free. The court had found that the victim’s family didn’t get adequate notice to attend the hearing in person. The judges said that violated their right to be “treated with dignity and respect.”

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Attorneys for Adnan Syed, who is now free after being imprisoned more than two decades ago for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, will once again be arguing to keep his freedom in a case known to millions by the true-crime podcast “Serial.”

In a case fraught with legal twists and divided court rulings, arguments are set to begin Thursday (Oct. 5, 2023) in Maryland’s Supreme Court. Syed’s attorneys are appealing the reinstatement of his murder conviction by an appellate court, in a case that has broader ramifications for victims’ rights as well as Syed’s future.

Syed, 42, was released from prison in September 2022, when a Baltimore judge overturned his conviction. City prosecutors had dropped all charges after finding flaws in the evidence.

However, in March, the Appellate Court of Maryland ordered a redo of the hearing that enabled Syed to walk out a free man. The appellate court said the victim’s family didn’t receive adequate notice to attend the hearing in person, violating their right to be “treated with dignity and respect.”

The family of Hae Min Lee also is appealing to the state’s highest court, contending that crime victims in Maryland have a right to be heard and challenge the evidence in hearings like the one last year that vacated Syed’s conviction from 2000.

He faces at least the potential of being sent back to prison, a point his lawyers raised in court filings.

“The terrifying specter of reincarceration has hung over Mr. Syed’s head every day for the past ten months,” Syed’s lawyer, Erica Suter, wrote in a brief filed with the court in August.

The case could have consequences for victims’ rights. Although the appellate court ruled that Lee’s brother didn’t get sufficient notice to attend the hearing that vacated Syed’s conviction, the court also said state law doesn’t guarantee crime victims a “right to be heard” during the hearings. That decision falls to the presiding judge. Allowing victims to present evidence or otherwise engage substantively would “result in a huge shift in practice,” the judges said.

The Maryland Supreme Court isn’t expected to issue a ruling on Thursday. A written ruling will be filed on the court’s website, although it’s unclear when.

Syed’s attorneys say the Lee family did have sufficient notice about the hearing. They also argue that the family’s appeal is moot, because prosecutors decided not to charge Syed again after his conviction was vacated. His attorneys contend that even if the rights of Lee’s brother, Young Lee, were violated, he hasn’t demonstrated whether the alleged violation would have changed the hearing’s outcome.

Lee, who ended up speaking remotely at the hearing, was notified on a Friday afternoon that it would take place the following Monday. That was “insufficient time to reasonably allow Mr. Lee, who lived in California, to attend the hearing in person,” the appellate court ruled. Attorneys for Lee’s family have criticized a lack of transparency as well in the court proceedings that led to Syed’s release.

“Hae Min Lee’s murder has been at issue in Maryland’s courts for nearly a generation,” David Sanford, an attorney for the family, wrote in a court filing last month. He argued the state Supreme Court should send the case to another judge to decide whether to vacate the conviction or not.

This isn’t the first time Maryland’s highest court has taken up Syed’s protracted legal odyssey.

In 2019, a divided court ruled 4-3 to deny Syed a new trial. While the court agreed with a lower court that Syed’s legal counsel was deficient in failing to investigate an alibi witness, it disagreed that the deficiency prejudiced the case. That ruling came after a lower court ordered a retrial in 2016 on grounds that Syed’s attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, didn’t contact an alibi witness and provided ineffective counsel.

In November 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision by Maryland’s top court.

More recently, Baltimore prosecutors went over Syed’s files under a Maryland law targeting so-called “juvenile lifers” because he was 17 when Hae Min Lee was found strangled to death and buried in a makeshift grave.

Prosecutors uncovered numerous problems, including alternative suspects and the unreliable evidence of cellphone tower data presented at trial. Instead of reconsidering his sentence, prosecutors filed a motion to vacate Syed’s conviction entirely.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland appellate court has reinstated Adnan Syed’s murder conviction and ordered a new hearing in the case, marking the latest development in the protracted legal odyssey chronicled in the podcast “Serial.” Though Syed’s conviction has been reinstated, he won’t immediately be taken back into custody. In a 2-1 decision released Tuesday (March 28, 2023), the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled a lower court failed to give sufficient notice to the victim’s family when it scheduled the September hearing that vacated Syed’s conviction and allowed him to regain his freedom after more than two decades behind bars. Maryland law provides victims with the right to prior notice of such hearings, and the court ruled that right was violated in the case of Hae Min Lee’s brother.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland appellate court on Tuesday (March 28, 2023) reinstated Adnan Syed’s murder conviction and ordered a new hearing in the case, marking the latest development in the protracted legal odyssey chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.”

Though Syed’s conviction has been reinstated, he will not immediately be taken back into custody.

In a 2-1 decision released Tuesday, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled a lower court failed to give sufficient notice to the victim’s family when it scheduled the September hearing that vacated Syed’s conviction and allowed him to regain his freedom after more than two decades behind bars.

The intermediate court’s order does not go into effect for 60 days, which delays any immediate consequences and allows the parties time to decide whether to appeal and schedule upcoming proceedings accordingly.

Syed’s attorney Erica Suter said they will ask the state supreme court to review the case.

Maryland law provides victims with the right to prior notice of conviction vacatur hearings, and that right was violated in the case of Hae Min Lee’s brother, the appellate court ruled. Syed was convicted in 2000 of killing Lee, his high school ex-girlfriend whose body was found in a makeshift grave after her disappearance in 1999.

Baltimore prosecutors moved to vacate Syed’s conviction in September after they reviewed the case and found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial. The lower court then quickly scheduled a hearing on the state’s motion to vacate.

Lee’s brother, Young Lee, was notified on a Friday afternoon that the hearing would take place the following Monday. Giving him only one business day before the hearing was “insufficient time to reasonably allow Mr. Lee, who lived in California, to attend the hearing in person,” instead requiring him to attend remotely, the appellate court ruled.

Young Lee attended the hearing via Zoom after the judge denied his request to postpone the proceedings one week to allow his in-person attendance.

The Lee family spent decades believing justice had been served, only to be treated as an afterthought when prosecutors decided their case was actually flawed from the beginning, their attorneys have argued. The appellate court largely agreed.

“Allowing a victim entitled to attend a court proceeding to attend in person, when the victim makes that request and all other persons involved in the hearing appear in person, is consistent with the constitutional requirement that victims be treated with dignity and respect,” the court ruled.

The court also said the new hearing should be more transparent, requiring that “evidence supporting the motion to vacate is presented, and the court states its reasons in support of its decision.”

David Sanford, an attorney representing Young Lee, said that piece of the ruling in particular has serious implications because it means there will be “evidence for the world to see and examine.”

“We are delighted that the court agrees with Mr. Lee,” he said. “Decisions made by courts should not be based on secret evidence.”

But Suter said “there is no basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the status of a convicted felon.”

“For the time being, Adnan remains a free man,” Suter said.

After Syed’s conviction was vacated, Baltimore prosecutors had 30 days to decide whether to retry him. They announced their decision to drop the charges eight days before the deadline was up — while an appeal from the Lee family was pending.

The appellate judges interrogated that timeline and concluded the state acted “with the purpose … of preventing Mr. Lee from obtaining a ruling on the appeal,” which Syed’s attorneys later argued was moot because there were no underlying charges.

During oral arguments last month, the three-judge panel focused much of their questioning on whether the appeal should be considered moot.

The judges also considered whether crime victims or their representatives have a “right to be heard” at conviction vacatur hearings, as the Lee family asserted in their appeal. The judges said they were not persuaded by that argument, ruling victims have no right to substantive participation in such hearings, which could include presenting evidence. They said a ruling to the contrary would “result in a huge shift in practice.”

What happens next remains somewhat unclear.

The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office is reviewing the ruling.

Their position is further complicated by a recent change in leadership. The current state’s attorney, Ivan Bates, took office in December — not long after his predecessor, Marilyn Mosby, decided to drop the charges against Syed, saying additional DNA testing had excluded him as a suspect. That was after her office conducted a yearlong review of the case and found prior prosecutors made significant missteps. Prosecutors knew about two alternative suspects but failed to disclose that information to the defense, Mosby’s office wrote.

Her decision to re-examine the case came after Syed’s appeals were repeatedly denied. Even after the “Serial” podcast raised numerous questions about the evidence that resulted in Syed’s conviction and garnered a massive following of supporters, Syed remained behind bars for several more years. In social media posts Tuesday, many of his supporters asked whether the appellate court decision would ultimately return Syed to prison.

Mosby issued a statement saying that the “decision sets a dangerous precedent over a prosecutor’s ability to reverse an injustice.”

“We notified the victim’s family in line with Maryland law and best practices, and they attended virtually and spoke,” she said. “To now send this case back to court prolongs the pain for the Lee family, and leaves a cloud hanging over a man who deserves to be free, Adnan Syed.”