Syed and his legal team may file for an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court, and we must respect their rights to do so until those rights are either heard or that request is denied we are in a holding pattern. "We must allow the appeals process to play itself out," Bentley said. The office of Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates is in the process of conducting a review of the decision, SAO spokesman James Bentley said. To now send this case back to court prolongs the pain for the Lee family, and leaves a cloud hanging over a man who deserves to be free, Adnan Syed." "We notified the victim's family in line with Maryland law and best practices, and they attended virtually and spoke. "This decision sets a dangerous precedent over a prosecutor's ability to reverse an injustice," Mosby said. Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore City's former top prosecutor, weighed in on the reinstatement of Syed's conviction Tuesday. Ensuring justice for Hae Min Lee does not require injustice for Adnan." We intend to seek review in Maryland's highest court, the Supreme Court of Maryland, and will continue to fight until Adnan's convictions are fully vacated. We remain optimistic that justice will be done. For the time being, Adnan remains a free man. There is no basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the status of a convicted felon. Lee's attendance over Zoom was sufficient. We agree with the dissenting judge that the appeal is moot and that Mr. Lee's brother did not appear in person at the vacatur hearing. The Appellate Court of Maryland has reinstated Adnan's convictions, not because the Motion to Vacate was erroneous, but because Ms. The appeal was not about Adnan's innocence but about notice and mootness. "It took over two decades for prosecutors to finally acknowledge what Adnan Syed and his loved ones have been saying since day one: he did not murder Hae Min Lee. Prosecutors filed a motion last September to vacate the conviction after conducting a yearlong investigation alongside a public defender representing Syed.īaltimore Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn subsequently ordered Syed to be released from prison, where he was serving a life sentence.Rabia Chaudry, Syed's friend and advocate, said in response: "We stand by the integrity of the evidence that exonerated Adnan, and urge the Baltimore Police and States Attorney's office to find the source of the DNA on the victims shoes and find Hae Min Lee's actual killer."Įrica Suter, Syed's attorney and the Director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore Law School, said in a statement to WJZ: "There is no basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the status of a convicted felon." "The Appellate Court of Maryland has reinstated Adnan’s convictions, not because the Motion to Vacate was erroneous, but because Ms Lee’s brother did not appear in person at the vacatur hearing," Erica Suter, Syed's counsel, told Reuters. The attorney said Syed's team will seek a review in the Supreme Court of Maryland. The podcast "Serial," produced by Chicago public radio station WBEZ, drew national attention to the case in 2014.Īn attorney for Syed said he remains free and the latest decision was not about Syed's innocence but more about proceedings. Syed has maintained he was innocent and did not kill Hae Min Lee, who was 18 when she was strangled and buried in a Baltimore park. The panel did not specifically order Syed back to prison, but allowed for a two-month delay in the "mandate" of its decision to allow the parties "time to assess how to proceed." Syed's convictions, which results in the reinstatement of the original convictions and sentence," it said. "Accordingly, we vacate the circuit court's order vacating Mr. Syed’s right to be free from double jeopardy," the panel said in its ruling. "This Court has the power and obligation to remedy those violations, as long we can do so without violating Mr. On Tuesday, a Maryland appellate court panel, in a 2-1 decision, ordered a new hearing into the matter, saying the lower court had violated the right of the victim's family to attend a critical hearing in the case. The judge left it to prosecutors to decide whether to retry him and they decided to drop the case. He had served more than 20 years in prison. PHOTO: REUTERSĪ Maryland appeals court on Tuesday reinstated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, who was found guilty of the 1999 killing of his former girlfriend in a case that drew attention after the podcast "Serial" raised doubts about his guilt.Īfter an investigation identified problems with the case, a circuit court judge last year vacated Syed's conviction in the murder of Hae Min Lee and ordered his release. Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial,” departs after a judge overturned Syed's 2000 murder conviction and ordered a new trial.
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