Call to reopen case of ‘killer’ who inspired crime podcast

THE man convicted of killing his former high school girlfriend in a case that inspired the popular true crime podcast series, Serial, should have his case reopened, prosecutors have said.

The state’s attorney for Baltimore in Maryland said in a motion filed in circuit court that the defence had found new evidence of Adnan Syed’s innocence, including details on the possible involvement of two other suspects.

Teenager Hae Min Lee was strangled and buried in Baltimore’s Leakin Park in 1999. Syed, then 17 years old but charged as an adult, received a life sentence plus 30 years for premeditated murder.

Prosecutors now quote evidence that two other suspects may have been involved, either separately or together, and that they were not ruled out during initial police investigations. Their names were not made public, but one suspect was accused and convicted of rape and sexual assault after Syed’s trial.

The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors found a document in the state’s trial file that detailed one person’s statement that said one of the suspects had a motive to kill Lee. According to the court filing, the suspect said “he would make her [Lee] disappear. He would kill her”.

Prosecutors said this “was not available” to the defence at Syed’s trial back in 2000 and “it would have provided persuasive support substantiating the defence that another person was responsible”. Syed, now 42, could get a new trial or go free after serving more than 20 years for a killing he maintained he did not commit. His case was covered in Serial in 2014, which raised questions about his guilt. In 2018, a special appeals court ruled Syed deserved a new trial but this was reversed by Maryland’s highest court.