Court Grants Adnan Syed, Profiled in ‘Serial’ Podcast, New Opportunity in Case

U.S. Baltimore Maryland Podcast

A Maryland appeals court will allow Adnan Syed, the subject of last year’s highly popular Serial podcast, to request his case be reopened 15 years after his conviction in the strangling death of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, when both were Baltimore high school students.

Syed was arrested six weeks after Lee’s murder on January 13, 1999, in Baltimore County. Now 33 years old, he is serving a life sentence for a first-degree murder conviction in Lee’s death. Syed was given permission to file a request to reopen the post-conviction proceedings in his case, according to a court document published Monday. 

Serial set a record last fall when it became the fastest podcast to reach 5 million downloads and streams in the history of Apple’s iTunes store, The Guardian reported in November. The 12-episode series, produced by This American Life, saw Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig revisit the investigation into Lee’s death through a series of interviews with Syed and dozens of others involved in the case. Throughout the podcast, host Koenig and her production team combed through new and old evidence to try to establish what happened in the brief window of time in which Lee, then 18, was believed to have been killed.

The podcast questioned the physical evidence and witness testimony suggesting that Syed had committed the crime. The case against Syed relied heavily on the testimony of one of his acquaintances, Jay Wilds, who said that he helped bury Lee after Syed killed her.

Syed, who has argued his innocence for years, petitioned the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland last year to overturn the Baltimore City Circuit Court’s denial of “post-conviction relief.” In a rare move, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals granted his motion to appeal the case in February. Syed also attempted to appeal the decision several years ago, but his request was denied by the Baltimore Circuit Court.

“Having now reviewed the briefs filed in this appeal, and having considered Syed’s supplement to his application for leave to appeal and his request for a remand, as well as other pleadings filed in this court, we believe that a stay of this appeal and a limited remand to the circuit court is in the interest of justice,” Chief Judge Peter Krauser wrote Monday in the court document.

One of Syed’s arguments is that his previous counselor, Christina Gutierrez, neglected to present the testimony of Asia McClain, a possible alibi witness who claimed to have seen him at the time he allegedly murdered Lee. Gutierrez died in 2004.

The appeals court on Monday ruled that the case will go to a trial court, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, to consider a new affidavit by McClain. Such an action “will afford the parties the opportunity to supplement the record with relevant documents and even testimony pertinent to the issues raised by this appeal,” according to the court document.