Maryland‘s Court of Appeals has reinstated the conviction of Adnan Syed, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
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It’s been more than 20 years since Lee, a then 18-year-old high school student, went missing on January 13, 1999. Her body was found almost a month later buried in a park. On February 28 of that same year, Syed was arrested and subsequently charged with her murder.
In 2014, season one of the true crime podcast Serial reignited interest in the case, catapulting it into international headlines. As a result, Syed was granted a retrial in 2016 after serving 16 years of his life sentence. It was found that Syed’s original counsel underrepresented their client by failing to investigate a potential alibi witness.
In 2018, the ruling was upheld by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
But over the weekend, Maryland’s highest court ruled four to three that, though they agreed with the lower court that Syed’s original legal counsel was “deficient” in failing to investigate the possible alibi witness, they did not believe this prejudiced the case.
Syed’s lead attorney, C. Justin Brown, said the defence team were “devastated by the Court of Appeals’ decision but we will not not give up on Adnan Syed.”
Brown told The Baltimore Sun that he believes there are “at least three other avenues of relief” but did not offer specific details.
This latest news comes just as HBO‘s new documentary series The Case Against Adnan Syed is set to premiere in the coming hours.
Director Amy Berg promises “new information that questions the state’s case” including new audio recordings of Syed from prison, the defence team, the Syed family, private investigators, members of Baltimore City law enforcement, and Lee’s friends and teachers – all in an effort to examine how “Syed’s trial and subsequent conviction in 2000 raised as many questions as they answered.”
