A Baltimore choose has overturned the conviction of Adnan Syed, stories The Associated Press. The 41-year-old had been serving a life sentence for the 1999 homicide of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee. In 2014, his case attracted worldwide curiosity after it was chronicled by former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig within the first season of the hit podcast Serial.
Koenig spent greater than a yr investigating the specifics of Syed’s case, focusing particularly on the conduct of his lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez. In 2019, Maryland’s highest court docket discovered Gutierrez had did not correctly examine an alibi witness however voted towards granting Syed’s request for a retrial. However, prosecutors just lately really useful {that a} choose grant him a brand new trial, noting the state had misplaced “confidence in the integrity of the conviction.” With Monday’s resolution, the state has 30 days to resolve whether or not to maneuver ahead with a brand new trial or drop the case completely.
“This is not a podcast for me,” stated Young Lee, the brother of Hae Min Lee, throughout Monday’s listening to. He stated his household felt “betrayed” and “blindsided” by the state’s movement to vacate Syed’s conviction. “Whenever I think it’s over, and it’s ended, it always comes back,” he added.
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Following the choice, Serial introduced it will air a brand new episode on Tuesday morning. In the years since its extensively profitable first season, Serial has produced a collection of spinoffs, together with S-Town and The Trojan Horse Affair. More broadly, it’s secure to say the true crime style and podcasting extra usually have by no means been extra well-liked – even when the collection was by no means fairly in a position to replicate the success of its first season.