Chattanooga Times Free Press

HBO producing documentar­y series on ‘Serial’ podcast

- BY MARY CAROLE MCCAULEY THE BALTIMORE SUN (TNS)

Adnan Syed is about to be tried — again — in the court of public opinion.

HBO announced Wednesday it is co-producing a fourhour documentar­y series, “The Case Against Adnan Syed,” which will revisit the 1999 murder of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee. The series will be directed by Amy Berg and coproduced in the United Kingdom by Sky Atlantic.

Syed was Min’s high school boyfriend. His original conviction and his subsequent efforts to get a new trial have galvanized people throughout the world since they were featured in 2014 in the “Serial” podcast, which was produced by Sarah Koenig, former reporter for The Baltimore Sun.

According to an HBO news release, the series has been in production since 2015 and will feature new discoverie­s, as well as “groundbrea­king revelation­s that challenge the state’s case.”

The release said the series will explore issues of cultural conflict and features “exclusive access” to Syed, the defense team and to both Syed’s and Lee’s former teachers.

Lee’s body was found buried in a shallow grave in Leakin Park on Feb. 10, 1999, about a month after she was last seen driving away from school.

“The series traces how the rush to justice and Syed’s conviction in 2000 raised more questions than answers about what happened to Hae Min Lee, underscori­ng the instabilit­y of memory and conflictin­g eyewitness­es,” the HBO release said.

The release did not say when the series will be broadcast.

The most recent legal developmen­t in Syed’s battle for a new day in court occurred Monday, when prosecutor­s asked Maryland’s highest court to reverse a ruling that would have granted Syed a new trial. He remains in prison while awaiting a ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

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