BALTIMORE — For the past two decades, Young Lee thought justice had been served when his sister’s killer was taken off the streets. He believed Baltimore prosecutors when they repeatedly expressed confidence in the case against Adnan Syed.
That changed last week when the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office filed a motion to vacate Syed’s 2000 murder conviction in the death of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend and high school classmate whose body was found buried in a makeshift grave in West Baltimore’s Leakin Park. Prosecutors said they reviewed the case in recent months and found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial.
Syed, 41, was released from prison Monday pending further investigation and DNA testing. Unshackled, he descended the courthouse steps after the hearing, surrounded by a crowd of cheering supporters — many of them devoted fans of the hit podcast “Serial” that focused on the case — and went home to his parents after 23 years behind bars.
