A Maryland appeals court on Tuesday reinstated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, who was discovered responsible of the 1999 killing of his former girlfriend in a case that drew consideration after the podcast Serial raised doubts about his guilt.
After an investigation recognized issues with the case, a circuit court choose final 12 months vacated Syed’s conviction within the murder of Hae Min Lee and ordered his launch. He had served greater than 20 years in jail.
The choose left it to prosecutors to resolve whether or not to retry him and so they determined to drop the case.
On Tuesday, a Maryland appellate court panel, in a 2-1 choice, ordered a brand new listening to into the matter, saying the decrease court had violated the appropriate of the sufferer’s household to attend a important listening to within the case.
The court dominated that giving her brother, Young Lee, just one enterprise day earlier than the listening to was “inadequate time to fairly enable Mr. Lee, who lived in California, to attend the listening to in individual,” and required him to attend the listening to remotely.
The household’s attorneys have argued that the Lees spent many years believing justice had been served, solely to be handled as an afterthought when prosecutors determined their case was truly flawed from the start. The appellate court largely agreed.
“This Court has the ability and obligation to treatment these violations, as lengthy we are able to achieve this with out violating Mr. Syed’s proper to be free from double jeopardy,” the panel stated in its ruling.
“Accordingly, we vacate the circuit court’s order vacating Mr. Syed’s convictions, which leads to the reinstatement of the unique convictions and sentence,” it stated.
Syed not ordered again to jail
The panel didn’t particularly order Syed again to jail, however allowed for a two-month delay within the “mandate” of its choice to permit the events “time to evaluate the right way to proceed.”
Syed has maintained he was harmless and didn’t kill Hae Min Lee, who was 18 when she was strangled and buried in a Baltimore park. The podcast Serial produced by Chicago public radio station WBEZ, drew worldwide consideration to the case in 2014.
WATCH | Adnan Syed, Serial podcast subject, free after choose overturns conviction:
Adnan Syed, Serial podcast subject, free after choose overturns conviction
Adnan Syed, convicted in 2000 for murdering his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was launched on Monday in Baltimore. His case obtained widespread consideration in 2014 when the debut season of the Serial podcast targeted on Lee’s murder and raised doubts about a few of the proof prosecutors had used.
An lawyer for Syed stated he stays free and the most recent choice was not about Syed’s innocence however extra about proceedings. The lawyer stated Syed’s staff will search a evaluation within the Supreme Court of Maryland.
“The Appellate Court of Maryland has reinstated Adnan’s convictions, not as a result of the Motion to Vacate was inaccurate, however as a result of Ms. Lee’s brother didn’t seem in individual on the vacatur listening to,” Erica Suter, Syed’s counsel, advised Reuters.
“There is not any foundation for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the standing of a convicted felon.”
Prosecutors filed a movement final September to vacate the conviction after conducting a year-long investigation alongside a public defender representing Syed.
Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn subsequently ordered Syed to be launched from jail, the place he was serving a life sentence.
