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.
