Maryland’s top court on Friday voted to reinstate the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case was at the center of the hit podcast “Serial.”
Syed was sentenced to life behind bars in 2000 for the murder of his former girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, but has maintained his innocence in the decades since. After 23 years behind bars, he was freed in September 2022 by City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn, who concluded trial prosecutors failed to turn over evidence indicating someone else could potentially have been behind Lee’s slaying.
But Lee’s brother, Young Lee, appealed the ruling, arguing that his family’s rights were violated because they weren’t given the opportunity to attend the hearing that led to Syed’s release. In March, a panel of judges sided with the victim’s loved ones and reinstated Syed’s conviction, calling for a do-over of the hearing in question.
Both Syed and the Lee family then asked the Maryland Supreme Court to take up the case.
In a 4-3 opinion, the state Supreme Court on Friday upheld the decision, saying the lower court judge had “worked an injustice” by failing to provide Young Lee ample notice of the legal proceedings. The ruling essentially restarts the process to clear Syed’s name in Lee’s killing.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Syed before moving to drop the case, said in a statement: “The decision is currently under review by our office and we have no further comment at this time.”
Lee and Syed dated while they were students at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County. They broke up just weeks before her body was found in Baltimore’s Leakin Park in January 1999. According to her autopsy, she died of manual strangulation. She was just 18 years old.
The case was thrust into the spotlight years later after “Serial” examined the investigation that led to Syed’s 2000 conviction. The podcast cast doubts about some of the evidence, including cellphone tower data. A reinvestigation into the matter later revealed evidence indicating the involvement of two alternate suspects who may have been involved individually or together.