![]() Popular sentiment in favor of Syed’s innocence has helped fuel a long campaign of advocacy on his behalf. It’s safe to say that many people familiar with Syed’s case - and Serial had a peak audience of over 2 million people per episode, with millions more having listened to it in the years since - believe that, regardless of his guilt or innocence, his trial was unfair and shrouded in plenty of reasonable doubt. ![]() In Syed’s case, the prosecution sat on not one, but two different potential alternate suspects - one of whom, according to the new motion to vacate, allegedly threatened to kill Lee shortly before her death. And since the prosecution is the side getting most of its information directly from the police investigation, it has a crucial responsibility to make everything that investigation uncovered available to the defendant. ![]() The reason Brady violations are treated so seriously is that if the defense doesn’t know evidence exists, it can’t use that evidence in its favor, or even request it from the prosecution. In criminal justice lingo, any failure to turn over this kind of information is an extremely serious form of misconduct known as a Brady violation. The prosecution is required, by law, to turn over any and all evidence it has in a trial that could be substantially favorable to the defense. They simply withheld that information from the defense. However, the new motion to vacate, presented to the court on September 14 by prosecuting attorney Becky Feldman, revealed that to the contrary, police had two strong alternate suspects. Syed’s defense was further hampered by what was generally believed to have been an inadequate defense counsel who failed to investigate at least one potential alibi witness on his behalf, and who was later disbarred.Īdvocates for Syed’s innocence have frequently complained that police did not do enough to identify other potential suspects in the case. Following the murder of Lee, his high school ex-girlfriend, Syed was put through a trial - thoroughly excavated by journalist Sarah Koenig in Serial, as well as by advocates like Rabia Chaudry - that relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, shaky testimony from Syed’s drug dealer, and now-infamous cellphone tower records whose accuracy has been hotly debated. In light of this new evidence, brought forth not by the defense but by the prosecution in an extremely rare moment of self-reflection, Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn overturned the verdict and gave the state 30 days in which to drop the existing charges against Syed or schedule a retrial.Īt the time of Lee’s murder, Syed, then 17, was considered a beloved and upstanding member of his Baltimore Muslim community. The investigation revealed serious errors in Syed’s original court case, including multiple Brady violations, meaning that the prosecution refused to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense prior to Syed’s trial. The decision comes as part of a new investigation spearheaded by the state as part of ongoing citywide and statewide efforts to create significant criminal justice reform - a reform arguably galvanized by a cultural wave of interest in true crime that began because of Serial itself. Syed has maintained his innocence while serving 23 years of a life sentence for the 1999 murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee - the case that turned the 2014 podcast Serial into a podcasting phenomenon. In a shocking new twist to one of the most notable true crime cases of the modern era, a Baltimore judge has vacated the conviction and ordered the immediate release of Adnan Syed, 41, from prison. This original story, published on September 20, is below. Editor’s note, October 11, 10:50 am : Baltimore prosecutors have dropped all charges against Adnan Syed.
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