BALTIMORE — Lawyers for the state of Maryland, Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee’s brother argued Thursday morning before the Appellate Court of Maryland about whether that body should reinstate Syed’s 22-year-old murder conviction and order a redo of the September hearing that set him free.
Syed’s case, made famous by the podcast “Serial,” garnered international attention over the decades and appeared to come to an end Sept. 19 when Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn approved prosecutors’ request to have his conviction overturned after they claimed to have unearthed new evidence about an “alternative suspect” in Lee’s death that was never made available to Syed’s defense attorneys.
Police arrested Syed, then 17, in 1999 and charged him with murder in Lee’s death, presenting the theory that he strangled his high school ex because he was upset over their breakup. A jury found him guilty in 2000, and a judge sentenced him to life plus 30 years in prison.
Young Lee, through his attorneys, claimed he was not given enough of a heads-up about the Sept. 19 hearing and is asking the appellate court to order a redo where he can appear in person and his attorney can argue the evidence in the case. A California resident, Young Lee had to appear in court via Zoom.
Both Young Lee and Syed were present in court Thursday, but neither spoke.
In order for there to be a redo, the appeals court would have to reinstate the charges against Syed, making him guilty once more, even if temporarily.
The judges’ lines of questioning on Thursday focused on whether the appeal was moot because the underlying criminal case no longer exists. Judge Stuart R. Berger repeatedly asked Young Lee’s lawyers variations of “Why isn’t this case moot?” while also requesting supporting case law for their argument.
Young Lee’s appeal is essentially unprecedented, and as a result, little to no case law exists, attorney David Sanford, who represents Young Lee, said.
Because there is no underlying criminal case, Syed’s lawyer, Erica Suter, has argued in her own court filings that Young Lee’s appeal is moot, and that even if it weren’t, he does not have standing as a party under the law.
While Maryland law provides that crime victims should be treated with “dignity, respect and sensitivity during all phases of the criminal justice process,” what Lee requested goes far beyond the scope of crime victims’ rights, Suter said in her filing, and would effectively usurp prosecutors’ discretion — a pillar of the criminal legal system.
“Victims do not prosecute charges, they do not decide which witnesses to call, and they do not cross-examine those witnesses,” Suter wrote. “Giving Appellant what he wants will not just result in the re-imprisonment of Mr. Syed for a crime he did not commit, it will wreak havoc on our criminal justice system.”
Maryland law requires that prosecutors give reasonable notice about those types of hearings, and that the victim be afforded the opportunity to speak if they want. Both the Office of the Maryland Attorney General, which generally supports Lee’s appeal, and Suter wrote in their own filings that state law does not provide crime victims with the right to participate in a case by presenting evidence or arguing the law.
City prosecutors dropped the charges against Syed in October, and Sanford told the three-judge panel that the state was only in that position because of the earlier flawed hearing. Young Lee had filed his appeal before prosecutors dropped the charges, requesting the court to order a pause in all proceedings until the appeal worked itself out, but former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby dismissed the case before a ruling was issued, something Sanford’s co-counsel, Steve Kelly, called an “end run” to circumvent the appellate process.
Maryland law, under the statute that allowed for Syed’s release, requires prosecutors to make a decision about whether to dismiss a defendant’s charges within 30 days of a conviction being overturned. When Mosby dismissed the charges on Oct. 11, she had eight more days to make a decision.
Judges Berger and Kathryn Graeff asked Assistant Attorney General Daniel Jawor whether the prosecutors were right to do that with a pending appeal. Jawor told the judges that Mosby’s office acted in accordance with the law when deciding to dismiss the charges.
The appellate court typically takes weeks if not months to issue a ruling.
Phinn ordered Syed unshackled and released from custody Sept. 19, freeing him after 23 years. He has since found a job with a prison reform program run out of Georgetown University.
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