The “Serial” podcast subject is now free more than two decades after his murder conviction. He will likely face a retrial.
A Baltimore judge vacated the more than two-decade-old murder conviction of Adnan Syed Monday roughly eight years after his case was featured in the debut season of the popular podcast “Serial,” which cast doubt on his culpability in the strangulation death of high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
The ruling by Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn found the state of Maryland violated the law by refusing to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense in the 1999 murder case, whose chronicling 14 years later divided members of the public and the legal community alike.
But it also represents a vindication for supporters of Syed—who has vehemently asserted his innocence in the case—almost six years after his conviction was initially overturned.
In 2000, Syed was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years after an accessory to the case claimed he had killed Lee and shown him her body in his car.
Syed has long maintained his innocence in the case, and once turned down the prospect of early release on the condition he plead guilty.
In 2016, his initial conviction was vacated after it was found his defense attorney in the original case, Cristina Gutierrez, failed to contact an alibi witness on Syed’s behalf and provided ineffective counsel.
