Defence wants retrial for subject of podcast
Lawyers for Adnan Syed try for Supreme Court
Lawyers for Adnan Syed, the subject of the Serial podcast, are trying to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The petition, filed Monday after an extended deadline, asks the justices to reverse a ruling by Maryland’s highest court. It had refused to grant a new trial to Syed, who was convicted in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend and high school classmate in western Baltimore County, and has been serving a life sentence.
In the petition, Syed’s lawyers call the case “eye-catching” and note it has inspired podcasts, a documentary and countless news stories. But the crux, they say, is poor counsel they claim was provided by Syed’s trial lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez, who is deceased, and her failure to call alibi witness Asia McClain.
“This petition … is about a straightforward legal issue: the proper standard for evaluating prejudice under this court’s decision in Strickland v. Washington,” the lawyers wrote, referring to a 1984 Supreme Court ruling on ineffective counsel.
At least 10 state and federal courts have approached the topic by comparing “the case that the State actually presented at trial with the case that the defendant would have presented if his attorney had been effective,” Syed’s lawyers wrote.
“The case that Syed would have presented at trial had his counsel been effective included testimony from McClain, who testified in post-conviction proceedings that she spoke with Syed at the library during the exact time that the State alleged Lee was killed,” they wrote.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ordered Syed’s conviction tossed out last year. But the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, decided in March that Syed should not receive a new trial and reinstated his murder conviction after prosecutors appealed the lower court’s decision.
The Maryland Attorney General’s office, which has argued against a new trial for Syed, declined to comment.