A man whose case was the focal point of the hit podcast “Serial” has walked free after 23 years behind bars.
On Monday, Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn overturned the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, who was arrested in 1999 for murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The 18-year-old was found strangled to death and buried in February 1999 in Leakin Park, Baltimore.
Syed first went to trial in December 1999, which ended in a mistrial. He was tried again in February 2000 and was found guilty of murder. Syed was sentenced to life in prison but has always maintained his innocence. At the time of Syed’s arrest, he was a senior at Woodlawn High School who’d just been accepted into college with plans of majoring in pre-med.
Doubts swirled around his sentencing for years. In 2014, there was renewed interest in the case when reporter and radio producer Sarah Koenig launched the 12-part true crime series highlighting Min Lee’s death and the shaky prosecution. Koenig spent over a year researching the case and unveiling evidence that the investigation missed. Her investigation unearthed two potential alternative suspects that were known before the trial. One even threatened to kill Min Lee before her death, yet that person was never fully investigated nor ruled out. Yet, prosecutors hid this information from the defense. No DNA evidence linked Syed to the killing.
Koenig also cast light on the unreliability of cell tower records that were largely used in the trial to convict Syed. Prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of his co-defendant, Jay Wilds, despite inconsistencies.
Syed is now on house arrest with GPS monitoring. Judge Phinn has given the state 30 days to decide if they’ll seek a new trial or dismiss the case.
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