BALTIMORE — Adnan Syed, the man whose legal saga rose to international renown because of the hit podcast “Serial,” is free.
In an abrupt move, Baltimore prosecutors on Tuesday morning quietly dropped Syed’s criminal case stemming from the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee.
Syed’s conviction was overturned last month, but his murder, kidnapping and robbery charges loomed while Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office considered whether to try him again or to dismiss the case. Mosby said Tuesday afternoon her decision to drop the charges against Syed was based on never-before-tested DNA from Lee’s shoes.
The DNA test results, which Mosby’s office received Friday afternoon, were a match for the same person from both shoes. Mosby said that person is not Syed.
“Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,” Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney, said in a statement. “The DNA results confirmed what we have already known and what underlies all of the current proceedings: that Adnan is innocent and lost 23 years of his life serving time for a crime he did not commit.”
Suter, who is also the director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, participated alongside city prosecutors in a yearlong investigation. Together, the attorneys discovered two people they now consider alternative suspects in Lee’s death. Both suspects were known to the authorities all along, but at least one was not disclosed to Syed’s defense, they said.
Mosby, who leaves office in January, was followed by a documentary camera into the press-briefing room Tuesday and said Syed’s exoneration is not about her legacy but about achieving justice.
“As the administrator of the criminal justice system, it’s my duty to ensure that justice is not delayed, justice is never denied, but justice be done,” Mosby said.
Prosecutors have declined to identify the suspects publicly, and Mosby said Tuesday she would not disclose any details about what is an ongoing investigation other than to say homicide prosecutor Michael Dunty is assigned to the case.
“We will continue to utilize every available resource to prosecute whoever is responsible for the death of Hae Min Lee,” Mosby said.
The revelation of alternative suspects led Mosby’s office to move to vacate Syed’s conviction, with her prosecutors saying they’d lost faith in his guilty verdict. On Sept. 19, Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn tossed out Syed’s conviction and set a 30-day deadline for Mosby’s office to decide what to do about Syed’s case.
Mosby said last month that her decision on Syed’s case hinged on pending DNA testing being conducted on evidence of Lee’s killing. Before the last round of DNA tests in the case, the results of which were revealed for the first time Tuesday, the analysis of genetic matter collected during the investigation of Lee’s death had been largely inconclusive and proved useless.
The type of DNA test used on Lee’s shoes was not available at the time of her death, and Mosby’s office declined comment when asked if the sample tested had been compared to other known offenders in law enforcement databases. One of the alternative suspects in Lee’s death has a history of sexual abuse and is incarcerated in a federal facility after a string of assaults in the Washington, D.C., area.
It is likely his DNA is available for comparison to the sample recovered from Lee’s shoes. It’s not clear if the second suspect’s DNA is available for comparison.
Mosby, a Democrat who will leave office in January, has said she would be prepared to formally certify Syed’s innocence, making him eligible to apply for wrongful conviction compensation from the state, if the DNA testing came back inconclusive or pointed to another suspect.
If she formally declares Syed is innocent, he will be in line for significant financial benefits from the state for being wrongfully incarcerated for more than two decades. Under the Walter Lomax Act, Syed would receive nearly $2.2 million for the years he served in prison — a formula using Maryland’s median household income and the specific number of days Syed was incarcerated will determine the exact amount of money he receives.
He is also entitled to five years of health care, housing and free tuition, according to state law.
In September, Phinn scheduled a court date for Oct. 19, exactly a month after she tossed Syed’s guilty finding. The hearing in reception court Tuesday morning was not docketed in online court records.
After Syed’s conviction was overturned, Lee’s family appealed, arguing Mosby’s office neglected to provide them adequate notice to attend the hearing. The family asked the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to pause the proceedings in Circuit Court while the court considered their appeal.
Just last week, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh joined Lee’s family in asking the state’s intermediate appellate court to put a hold on Syed’s case in the trial court.
After his office represented the state for Syed’s repeated appeals, Frosh has been critical of Mosby’s recent handling of the case. Frosh cast doubt on the basis city prosecutors presented in support of overturning Syed’s conviction.
It’s unclear what Tuesday’s development means for the family’s appeal, although Mosby declared the appellate matter “moot” in her remarks.
“There’s no more appeal,” she said.
Frosh declined to comment through a spokesperson.
“By rushing to dismiss the criminal charges, the state’s attorney’s office sought to silence Hae Min Lee’s family and to prevent the family and the public from understanding why the state so abruptly changed its position of more than 20 years,” attorney Steve Kelly, who represents the Lee family, said. “All this family ever wanted was answers and a voice. Today’s actions robbed them of both.”
Mosby apologized to the Lee family for their loved one’s death, but dismissed the claim her office had neglected them, instead blaming Kelly.
“I think it’s unfortunate, that, you know, you have certain attorneys that try to exploit families,” Mosby said.
Lee, 18, was strangled to death and buried in a clandestine grave in Leakin Park. A man discovered her body about three weeks after she was last seen at the high school. At the time, police and prosecutors suspected Syed killed Lee because he was distraught over their breakup.
Syed stood trial in 1999 and 2000. The state’s case relied on witness testimony, cellphone call records and Syed’s own statements; little, if any, physical evidence connected him to the killing. A jury found him guilty of murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment after the second trial. The judge sentenced him to life plus 30 years in prison.
Arrested at 17, Syed had been behind bars for 23 years before being unshackled and walking out of the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse last month. He was placed on GPS monitoring pending prosecutors’ decision on how to proceed with his case.
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