For supporters, elation and disbelief
Syed’s release called ‘the most amazing feeling of justice’
For supporters of Adnan Syed, cautious optimism turned to overwhelming relief Monday afternoon when a Baltimore judge vacated his 2000 murder conviction and ordered his release — the culmination of a yearslong campaign that began with the hit podcast “Serial” and gained a massive following as the case came to symbolize justice denied.
The decision to vacate came after prosecutors in Baltimore city reviewed the case and found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial.
Syed, 41, spent 23 years behind bars in the death of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, who was found murdered and buried in a makeshift grave in West Baltimore’s Leakin Park when the two were in high school.
When Syed descended the stairs of the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse shortly after Monday’s hearing, dozens of supporters broke into cheers. The crowd included some of his closest family and friends, attorneys, advocates and self-proclaimed armchair detectives who never met Syed personally but knew the minute details of his legal proceedings — and showed up at the courthouse hoping to witness what they
in a clandestine grave in Leakin Park. Authorities at the time said they suspected that Syed, her ex-boyfriend, struggled with her in a car before killing her. The state’s theory then was that the popular honors student at Woodlawn High School couldn’t handle it when Lee broke up with him. He was 17 at the time of his arrest, and has been behind bars since.
Syed, now 41, has always maintained his innocence. Suter declared her client innocent in court, and decried prosecutors for withholding evidence that could have proved as much for decades.
“If that evidence had been disclosed, perhaps Adnan would not have missed his high school graduation, or his pre-med plans, or 23 years of birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, community events and everyday moments of joy,” Suter said after court.
In court, Syed was stoic when Phinn ruled; his family members gasped, embraced and wept. The audience gallery erupted when the judge adjourned court.
Earlier, the hearing assumed a tense tone after an attorney representing Lee’s relatives asked for a postponement, saying his clients, who live on the West Coast, hadn’t been given enough notice to attend the hearing. Phinn denied the motion, but paused proceedings for 30 minutes so Lee’s brother could find a private place to patch into the hearing by video.
Allowed to speak before the attorneys, Young Lee said he felt blindsided and betrayed by the prosecution’s decision to seek to vacate Syed’s conviction. He choked up as he spoke to the judge.
“This is not a podcast for me. This is real life,” Young Lee told Phinn.
Lee said he respects the criminal justice system but described his and his relatives’ enduring grief. He said he’s not against continued investigation, but Syed’s conviction should stand.
Every day when I think it’s over ... it always comes back” he said. “It’s killing me.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Becky Feldman said in court that prosecutors’ decision on how to proceed with Syed’s case hinges on an ongoing investigation focused on the alternative suspects.
Baltimore police have reopened their probe into Lee’s homicide, and Feldman promised her office would allocate all the resources it could.
“We need to make sure we hold the correct person accountable,” said Feldman, chief of the office’s Sentencing Review Unit.
Syed’s first trial in 1999 ended with a mistrial. In 2000, a jury found him guilty of
murder. The judge handed down life plus 30 years in prison at sentencing.
Despite fighting to uphold the conviction in years past, prosecutors now say Syed may not be Lee’s killer. Prosecutors have known since 1999 of two alternative suspects who may have killed Lee, according to their motion to overturn his conviction.
One of the suspects had threatened her, saying “he would make her disappear. He would kill her,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors said the state did not disclose the alternative suspects to Syed’s defense before trial, meaning his attorneys couldn’t use that information to argue his innocence to a jury.
Prosecutors described one of the suspects as a serial rapist, saying the suspect was convicted in a series of sexual assaults after Syed’s trial. Police discovered Lee’s car near the residence of one of the alternative suspects, the state’s motion said.
Syed was convicted, in part, because of cellphone location data that has since been found to be unreliable, according to prosecutors. They also highlighted the inconsistent statements of his co-defendant, Jay Wilds, who testified against him.
“Mr. Syed’s conviction was built on a flawed investigation,” Suter said in court. “This was true in 1999 when he was a 17-year-old child. It remains true today.”
Despite the developments, prosecutors said they are not prepared to declare Syed innocent.
Syed’s conviction became a matter of international intrigue after “Serial,” a podcast released in 2014 that pioneered the true crime genre, raised new questions about Lee’s death. Since then, his legal journey has been the subject of books, other podcasts and television documentaries that spawned new legal filings in his case.
The courts turned down all of his appeals, the last in 2019, when the Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
Things were quiet until this spring. Behind the scenes, Suter, a public defender and director of the Innocence Project clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, had been working with Mosby’s office with hopes of reducing Syed’s prison term in light of a new state law enabling those convicted of crimes before they turn 18 to ask the court to modify their punishment.
While examining the case, prosecutors agreed to request new DNA testing for items collected as evidence of Lee’s killing.
Phinn ordered the tests in March, but the results have so far been inconclusive, court documents show.
Tests for a few of the items are pending, and Mosby said after court the office was waiting on those results deciding whether to drop Syed’s charges.