Baltimore Judge Orders Release of ‘Serial’ Podcast-Featured Murder Convict Over State Trial Violations

A man convicted in the murder of his high school student ex-girlfriend in 1999, which was chronicled in the revolutionary hit true-crime podcast "Serial," has been ordered released by a Baltimore judge.

After prosecutors uncovered new evidence, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn ordered the 2000 murder conviction of Adnan Syed for the strangling death of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min-Lee be vacated, allowing his release from prison after 22 years, the Assoiated Press reported.

In light of the new evidence, Phinn ruled that the state of Maryland violated its legal obligation to share evidence that would have strengthened Syed's defense. Phinn also ordered that Syed be placed in home detention on round-the-clock GPS location monitoring.

The judge also said that prosecutors should decide within 30 days if they would seek a new trial or dismiss the case.

Syed was serving a life sentence for the murder of the 18-year-old Lee, whose remains were found in a Baltimore park.

'Brady Violation' Noted in Conviction of Syed

Last week, prosecutors filed a motion noting that a lengthy investigation in collaboration with the defense showed new evidence that could challenge the 2000 conviction of Syed.

This investigation uncovered new details "regarding two alternative suspects, as well as unreliable cell phone tower data," State Attorney Marilyn Mosby's office noted in a news release last week. The other suspects were known persons of interest at the time of the original investigation but weren't ruled out nor disclosed to the defense, said prosecutors, who turned down the release of information on the suspects due to the ongoing investigation.

Maryland prosecutors said the failure to divulge alternative suspects to defense attorneys was called a Brady violation.

After the hearing, Mosby said investigators are still awaiting results of "DNA analysis" before they determine if they would seek a new trial date or dismiss the case against Syed and "certify his innocence."

Prosecutors Not Asserting Syed's innocence, Lacked Confidence in the Integrity of Conviction

Prosecutors said they were not yet asserting Syed's innocence but lacked confidence "in the integrity of the conviction" and recommended his release.

In 2016, a lower court ordered a retrial for Syed on the grounds that his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, didn't call an alibi witness to the stand and was an ineffective counsel, Engadget reported.

But after a series of appeals, Maryland's highest court, in a 4-3 vote, denied a new trial in 2019. The Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that Syed's legal counsel was deficient in failing to investigate an alibi witness, but it did not agree that this deficiency weakened Syed's case. Syed himself waived his ineffective counsel claim, the court said.

The U.S. Supreme Court also turned down a review of Syed's case in 2019.

The true-crime series "Serial" was created by radio producer and Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who investigated Syed's case and reported findings almost in real-time in hour-long segments during the podcast, which bagged a Peabody Award and generated mass attention to the then emerging genre.