Adnan Syed is not going to spend any further time in jail after being resentenced for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, a case that gained nationwide consideration when it was featured within the “Serial” podcast in 2014, a choose dominated on Thursday.
The brand new sentence imposed was the 20-plus years he has already served for his 2000 conviction, plus 5 years of probation.
Baltimore Metropolis Circuit Courtroom Decide Jennifer B. Schiffer determined that Syed “isn’t a hazard to the general public” and that the “pursuits of justice will probably be higher served by a lowered sentence.”
The choose’s ruling was made greater than a week following Syed’s Feb. 26 hearing below the Juvenile Restoration Act, a Maryland regulation that allows people who’ve served no less than 20 years in jail for crimes dedicated as minors to hunt a modified sentence.
Syed was 17 on the time of Lee’s homicide and served greater than 20 years in jail.
Syed, now 43, has been out of jail since 2022 after his authentic conviction was vacated. It was later reinstated amid a sequence of authorized challenges.
The years-long authorized battle concerned a homicide conviction, 20 years behind bars for Syed, his eventual launch and a number of other courtroom appeals.
The homicide of Hae Min Lee
Syed was convicted in 2000 for the homicide of his ex-girlfriend and highschool classmate Hae Min Lee. Each Syed and Lee attended Woodlawn Excessive Faculty in Baltimore.
Lee went lacking throughout her senior yr in January 1999, and her physique was discovered weeks later in Baltimore’s Leakin Park.
Throughout a six-week trial, prosecutors argued that Syed deliberate Lee’s homicide after she broke up with him. In response to attorneys and witnesses, Syed strangled Lee to demise, then he and a buddy disposed of her physique in a shallow grave.
Syed was convicted of homicide, kidnapping and false imprisonment and was sentenced to life in jail plus 30 years.
“Serial” podcast modifications public notion
In 2014, the true-crime podcast “Serial” explored Syed’s case in its first season. The podcast, which had thousands and thousands of listeners on the time, raised questions in regards to the proof and witnesses within the trial.
The podcast raised doubts about one of many prosecution’s key witnesses, a drug supplier named Jay Wilds, who claimed he was the one who helped Syed bury Lee’s physique.
It additionally explored the effectiveness of Syed’s legal professional, who was later disbarred. The podcast additional questioned why one other pupil, who might have supplied an alibi for Syed, was never interviewed by his lawyer or requested to testify.
“Serial” followers donated greater than $80,000 to Syed’s authorized fund.
Battle for retrial
In 2015, a Maryland appeals courtroom mentioned they might review Syed’s murder conviction.
His new legal professional argued that Syed’s former legal professional Christina Gutierrez did not interview Syed’s classmate Asia McClain who mentioned she was with him in a library across the time of Lee’s demise.
In a letter to Syed after his arrest, McClain provided to talk with investigators and talked about two different witnesses who she mentioned noticed Syed within the library.
“It’s exhausting to think about that Gutierrez might have accomplished something worse than failing to select up the telephone and name Syed’s witness,” Syed’s appeals legal professional wrote in a submitting.
By the tip of 2015, a choose agreed to reopen Syed’s case and in 2016, his conviction was vacated and he was granted a brand new trial.
The state continued to battle the choice for about two years, reinstating Syed’s conviction in 2019, and main his attorneys to file an Amicus Temporary on the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
Within the temporary, Syed’s protection crew argued that the Maryland Courtroom of Appeals’ choice to reinstate his homicide conviction “will impression prison defendants and, particularly, habeas petitioners, far past Maryland’s borders.”
The Supreme Courtroom declined to hear Syed’s case.
Movement to vacate conviction
After the Juvenile Restoration Act handed in 2021, Syed’s protection crew approached former Baltimore State’s Lawyer Marilyn Mosby and requested that his sentence be reviewed.
The Juvenile Restoration Act allowed people who have been convicted of crimes dedicated whereas they have been minors to request a modified sentence after they served no less than 20 years in jail.
Mosby ordered further DNA exams with forensic know-how that was not out there on the time of the preliminary investigation and trial.
In 2022, Mosby filed a motion to vacate Syed’s homicide conviction after exams discovered hint ranges of male DNA below Lee’s fingernails and on her shirt.
“The swabs from the correct fingernail and shirt have been then analyzed with a genotyping package that targets male Y-chromosome STR DNA,” Mosby’s workplace mentioned in a movement. “Nevertheless, no helpful typing outcomes have been obtained from this evaluation.”
The brand new investigation revealed proof towards two unnamed suspects and revealed that Lee’s automobile was parked behind the house of one of many suspects, in line with the movement.
Syed was released from prison in September 2022 after a choose vacated his homicide conviction; he spent greater than 20 years incarcerated.
Shortly after, prosecutors dropped the charges towards him when DNA exams excluded him as a suspect within the homicide.
Conviction reinstated, enchantment strikes ahead
Hae Min Lee’s household filed an enchantment to reverse the choice. After a number of makes an attempt, a courtroom dominated the appeal could move forward.
5 months after Syed was free of jail and cleared of prices, his murder conviction was reinstated.
His protection crew introduced the case to the Maryland Supreme Court and his conviction was placed on maintain as they determined whether or not to listen to his enchantment.
Because the case dragged on via 2023, exonerees expressed assist for Syed and Lee’s household and referred to as on the courtroom to listen to the case.
In 2024, the Maryland Supreme Courtroom upheld a decision to reinstate Syed’s conviction, sending the case again to a decrease courtroom.
By the tip of 2024, Syed’s attorneys requested a reduced sentence. Syed remained out of jail since being launched in 2022.
Because the courtroom thought of resentencing in 2025, Baltimore State’s Lawyer Ivan Bates withdrew a movement to vacate Syed’s conviction, leaving his homicide conviction in place.
Bates mentioned his predecessor, Mosby’s movement to vacate was based mostly on “false and deceptive statements that undermine the integrity of the judicial course of.”
“Whereas I didn’t ask for this activity, it was remanded to my workplace by the Supreme Courtroom of Maryland; thus, we’ve got an obligation as Maryland-barred attorneys, prosecutors tasked with pursuing justice, and officers of the Courtroom to deal with false and deceptive statements within the State’s authorized filings – an obligation that we take extraordinarily significantly,” Bates added.
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