The Maryland Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s decision to reinstate the murder conviction of Adnan Syed in the latest twist in the long-running legal saga.
Syed’s case captured national attention a decade ago when it was the focus of the popular true crime podcast ‘Serial.’
He was convicted in 2000 of strangling his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee and burying her body in a shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park, and he was sentenced to a life sentence plus 40 years before he was freed in 2022.
The Supreme Court ruling will not see Syed instantly sent back to prison, and his case will now be heard again by a lower court after the move reversed previous rulings that cleared Syed’s name two years ago.
The Maryland Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s decision to reinstate the murder conviction of Adnan Syed
Syed was convicted in 2000 of strangling his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee and burying her body in a shallow grave
The Supreme Court decision essentially returns the case to where it was before a judge overturned Syed’s conviction and freed him from behind bars, sending his complex legal saga to another re-trial.
Syed was just 17 years old when he was tried and convicted of Lee’s murder, and he was tried as an adult. He has vigorously maintained his innocence ever since.
While serving his 40-year sentence, the Maryland attorney general moved to vacate his conviction, which was ultimately overturned in 2022.
But in 2023, the Appellate Court of Maryland reinstated the conviction, ruling that Lee’s brother Young had his rights violated in court by a lack of appropriate notice to be able to attend the hearings that freed Syed.
As this was appealed, it moved through the courts until the Supreme Court this week upheld the latter Appellate Court ruling.
In its 4-3 ruling this week, the Supreme Court said that ‘in an effort to remedy what they perceived to be an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the Circuit Court worked an injustice against Mr. Lee.’
‘Mr. Lee’s rights as the crime victim’s representative were violated,’ the court said, noting that Mr. Lee was given ‘less than one business day’s notice’ before the hearing.
Though he was 17 at the time of the murder, Syed was tried as an adult. He has perpetually maintained his innocence
Lee’s body was found in a shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park
While voting to reinstate his murder conviction, judges notably did not order any changes to Syed’s release conditions, and he will remain free as his conviction is re-heard in lower courts.
While Syed received a wave of support when his case was chronicled on Serial, Lee’s family’s attorney David Sanford praised the move to reinstate his murder conviction after it was announced.
‘If there is compelling evidence to support vacating the conviction of Adnan Syed, we will be the first to agree,’ he said in a statement.
‘To date, the public has not seen evidence which would warrant overturning a murder conviction that has withstood appeals for over two decades.’
Last year, on the one-year anniversary of his release, Syed called a press conference from his Maryland living room where he called for an investigation into his case, ‘to essentially understand how our rights as a family have been violated.’
He highlighted ‘two new pieces of information’ in his case, and alleged that there had been prosecutorial misconduct – specifically by Kevin Urick and Kathleen Murphy.
Syed celebrates with supporters after he was released from prison in September 2022
Syed, seen when he was 16 years old, was released following a new Maryland law allowed prosecutors to modify sentences for offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes and had served at least 20 years in prison
Syed said that he has always pushed for justice for his ‘friend’ Lee, and her family.
‘We have the upmost respect and concern for Lee’s younger brother,’ Syed told the room.
He said that there is evidence that Urick committed a Brady violation and that the AG ought to probe him for it.
Syed’s sensational release from jail in September 2022 was due to work by Becky Feldman, the chief of the State’s Attorney’s Office’s Sentencing Review Unit.
Feldman started investigating Syed’s case in June 2022 after a new Maryland law allowed prosecutors to modify sentences for offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes and had served at least 20 years in prison.
Syed fit the criteria because he was 17 in 1999 and imprisoned since 2000.
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