BALTIMORE –
A Baltimore judge on Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction in the 1999 killing of high school student Hae Min Lee, a case that was chronicled on the hit podcast “Serial,” a true-crime series that captivated listeners and revolutionized the genre.
At the behest of prosecutors who uncovered new evidence, District Court Judge Melissa Finn ordered Syed’s conviction overturned as she approved the release of the now 41-year-old, who has spent more than two decades behind bars. There were gasps and cheers in the packed courtroom as the judge announced his decision.
Finn ruled that the state breached its legal duty to share evidence that could have helped Syed’s defense. She ordered Syed placed under house arrest with GPS location monitoring. The judge also said the state must decide whether to request a new trial date or dismiss the case within 30 days.
“Okay Mr. Syed, you are free to join your family,” Finn said when the hearing ended.
Minutes later, Syed emerged from the courthouse and smiled as he was led to a waiting SUV through a sea of cameras and a cheering crowd of supporters.
Syed did not speak during the hearing, nor did he address reporters outside afterward. But after the hearing, his lawyer Erica Suter described his reaction to the decision, saying: “He said he couldn’t believe it was real.”
Sarah Patel, a friend of Syed’s, said: “We are very happy and relieved that he is finally free. We were just on pins and needles all this time.
Syed has always maintained his innocence. His case captured the attention of millions in 2014, when the debut season of “Serial” focused on Lee’s murder and cast doubt on some of the evidence used by prosecutors, inspiring heated debates at dinner tables and water coolers about innocence or Syed’s fault.
Prosecutors filed a complaint last week that a lengthy investigation with the defense turned up new evidence that could undermine the 2000 conviction of Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend.
“I understand how difficult this is, but we have to make sure we’re holding the right person accountable,” Assistant State’s Attorney Becky Feldman told the judge as she described various details of the case that undermined the decade-long sentence, including other suspected wrongdoing by cell phone, unreliable witness testimony and a potentially biased detective.
After the hearing, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said investigators were awaiting the results of a “DNA analysis” before deciding whether to request a new trial date or dismiss the case against Syed and “certify his innocence.”
Syed was serving a life sentence after being convicted of strangling 18-year-old Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park.
The investigation “revealed undisclosed and newly developed information regarding two alternative suspects, as well as unreliable data from cell phone towers,” Mosby’s office said in a media release last week. The other suspects were known during the initial investigation but were not properly excluded nor disclosed to the defense, said prosecutors, who declined to release information about the suspects because of the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors said the failure to disclose the alternative suspects to defense attorneys constituted what is known as a Brady violation.
But Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, whose office represented the state during Syed’s appeals, issued a statement Monday night saying that “among other serious problems with the severance proposal, the allegations of Brady violations , are false’.
“Neither State’s Attorney Mosby nor anyone in her office bothered to consult with either the Assistant State’s Attorney who prosecuted the case or anyone in my office regarding these alleged wrongdoings,” Frosh said. “The file in this case was made available to the defense several times.”
Prosecutors said they did not claim Syed was innocent but lacked confidence “in the integrity of the sentence” and recommended his release. The state’s attorney’s office said that if the request is granted, it would effectively put Syed in a new legal status, overturning his convictions while the case remains active.
Syed was led into the packed courtroom in handcuffs on Monday. Dressed in a white shirt and tie, he sat next to his lawyer. His mother and other family members were in the room, as was Mosby.
In 2016, a lower court ordered a retrial against Syed on the grounds that his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, failed to contact an alibi witness and provided ineffective counsel.
But after a series of appeals, Maryland’s highest court in 2019 denied a new trial in a 4-3 decision. The appeals court agreed with a lower court that Syed’s legal counsel had failed to investigate an alibi witness, but disagreed that the failure prejudiced the case. The court said Syed was waiving his claim of ineffective counsel.
The US Supreme Court declined to review Syed’s case in 2019.
The true crime series is the brainchild of longtime radio producer and former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who spent more than a year digging into Syed’s case and reporting her findings in near-real time in hour-long segments. The 12-episode podcast won a Peabody Award and was transformative in promoting podcasting to a wide audience.
During the hearing, Hae Min Lee’s brother, Young Lee, spoke in court, saying he felt betrayed by prosecutors as he believed the case was settled.
“This is not a podcast for me. This is real life,” he said.
Speaking in court after the verdict, Mosby expressed sympathy for Lee’s brother and said he understood why he felt betrayed.
“But I also understand the importance as an administrator of the criminal justice system to ensure equity, justice and fairness. This is also the right of the defendant,” she added.
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Associated Press writers Mike Kunzelman and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Md., contributed to this report.
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