By BRIAN WITTE and LEA SKENE, Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Adnan Syed's murder conviction will stand after Maryland's highest court on Friday ordered a rehearing of the hearing that led to his release. The court ruled that the earlier proceedings violated the rights of the victim's family, the latest development in a legal saga that drew widespread attention from the hit podcast “Serial.”
The 4-3 ruling upheld an appeals court decision reinstating Syed's conviction last year. It came about 11 months after the court heard arguments in a case that has been riddled with legal twists and divided court rulings since Syed's 2000 conviction for the murder of his ex-high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.
The judges said Syed, who was released from prison in 2022, could remain free while the case is sent to a new lower court judge who will again decide whether to overturn his conviction.
The court considered the extent to which victims can participate in hearings that could overturn a conviction. The majority of justices concluded that prosecutors and a lower court had “wronged” Lee's brother in an effort they believed was unfair to Syed. The court ruled that young Lee was not treated with “dignity, respect and sensitivity” as required by Maryland law because he was not given timely notice of the hearing that would release Syed.
The court said these deficiencies would be corrected in advance of the new hearing.
Exact next steps remain unclear, in part because Baltimore is set to elect a new top prosecutor in 2022, which could change how that office handles the case. District Attorney Ivan Bates said his office is reviewing the ruling and declined further comment.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Michele Hotten argued that the matter was moot because the underlying charges no longer existed.
“This case exists as a procedural zombie,” Hotten wrote. “It was resurrected even though it had expired. The doctrine of mootness was created to prevent such legal necromancy.”
This far-reaching case has recently brought into conflict efforts for criminal justice reform with the legal rights of crime victims and their families, whose voices often conflict with a growing movement to acknowledge and correct systemic problems such as past racism, police misconduct and prosecutorial missteps.
Attorney David Sanford, who represents the victim's family, said the ruling “recognizes the argument of Hae Min Lee's family: victims of crime have the right to be heard in court.”
- More: Podcast host: Evidence that the released man shown in ‘Serial’ has existed for decades
Erica Suter, Syed's lawyer, said in a statement that the court had made a decision “with which we could not disagree more strongly.”
“Wrongful convictions are devastating to those wrongfully accused, their families and the victim's family,” Suter said. “Retrial of Adnan's wrongful conviction brings neither justice nor closure to Hae Min Lee's family and is a tremendous emotional burden to Adnan's family, who have already lost a son and brother for more than two decades.”
Adnan Syed in 2023. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun via AP, file)AP
Syed, 43, maintains his innocence and has often expressed concern for Lee's surviving relatives. The young girl was found strangled and buried in an unmarked grave in 1999. Syed was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
He was released from prison in September 2022 when a Baltimore judge overturned his conviction. Baltimore prosecutors had asked for deficiencies in the evidence.
However, in March 2023, the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's appellate court, ordered a rehearing that released Syed and reinstated his conviction. The court said the victim's family was not notified in time to attend the hearing in person.
Suter, Syed's lawyer, argued that the state had fulfilled its obligation by allowing Young Lee to attend the hearing via video conference.
Syed appealed the reinstatement of his sentence, and the Lee family also appealed to the Maryland Supreme Court, arguing that crime victims should be given a greater role in the process.
Syed remained at large while final appeals made their way through the state courts.
Syed's case was chronicled on the podcast “Serial,” which first aired in 2014 and attracted millions of listeners who became amateur detectives as the series dissected the case. The show, hosted by veteran radio producer Sarah Koenig, changed the true crime genre by shattering podcast streaming and downloading records, uncovering little-known evidence and raising new questions about the case.
