Adnan Syed

Adnan Syed, now 41, has spent more than 20 years behind bars after being convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. | ITV National News.

The open-ended conclusion to the podcast spawned a huge debate about the case and the wider US justice system. Mr Syed had always maintained his innocence. She ordered Mr Syed to be placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring.

On the podcast, a team of journalists led by Sarah Koenig, the host of “Serial,” documented major problems with the case against Syed: The prosecution's ...

After, [use our bot](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/upshot/wordle-bot.html) to get better. [The Daily](https://www.nytimes.com/thedaily)” is about Adnan Syed. Huw Green thinks the term “mental health” [has become overly broad](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/opinion/us-mental-health-awareness.html). [expected to lower](https://theathletic.com/3607520/2022/09/19/nba-draft-age-rule-change-nbpa/) its entry age to 18 in the next collective bargaining agreement, clearing the way for high schoolers to re-enter the draft process. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). [has grown stronger](https://www.nytimes.com/article/tropical-storm-fiona-hurricane.html), after deluging Puerto Rico with rain. [a special episode of “Serial,” released this morning](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/podcasts/serial-adnan-syed.html), about the huge turn in the case. It will be years before any show approaches the record set by “Phantom.” The next-longest-running productions (as of Sept. [Wrongful conviction](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/briefing/wrongful-convictions-parole.html) seems to be a major problem in the U.S. [whose reporting helped free Curtis Flowers](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/briefing/winter-storm-adam-kinzinger-pelosi-congress.html), a Mississippi man who’d been jailed for more than 20 years, for murders he evidently did not commit. [but exacerbated others](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/opinion/us-mental-health-insight.html), Rachel Aviv writes. Barring some smoking-gun evidence, which we didn’t find (and it seems like no one else has either), there was no way for us to say definitively what happened.

Prosecutors have 30 days to decide if they will seek a new trial or drop the charges against Syed, who was ordered to serve home detention until then.

Mosby’s office also disclosed that Lee’s car had been found directly behind the house of one of the suspects’ family members. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, moved to vacate Syed’s conviction as she faces federal charges that she perjured herself to obtain money from a retirement fund and made false statements on loan applications to buy two vacation homes in Florida. Both had “motive and/or propensity to commit this crime,” they wrote. The apparent failure to turn over the files might have violated a landmark Supreme Court ruling from 1963, Brady v. Prosecutors said in the motion that they were not asserting that Syed was innocent. Lee and her family by not assuring the correct assailant was brought to justice.” Syed, dressed in a shirt and tie, looked on during the dispute. Syed, who was 17 at the time, had steadfastly maintained his innocence, and questions about whether he had received a fair trial drew widespread attention when “Serial” debuted in 2014. Lee’s family expressed concern that prosecutors had not given them adequate notice about the move to vacate the conviction. The investigation also identified “significant reliability issues regarding the most critical pieces of evidence” used to convict Syed, including cellphone tower data. Prosecutors said that an investigation had pointed to two possible “alternative suspects,” although those individuals have not been named publicly or charged. Moments later, Syed walked onto the courthouse steps, smiling as a crowd of supporters shouted and cheered.

Adnan Syed was sentenced to life in prison for the death of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999.

Chris Dawson was charged with the murder of his wife Lynette in 2018 after the podcast, The Teacher's Pet, garnered global attention and prompted a renewed investigation. [Australian man who became the subject of a popular crime podcast was found guilty of his wife's murder](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-62719515) - 40 years after she went missing. His death remains unsolved but Police Scotland's major investigations team said earlier this year they believe a planning dispute was the likely motive. It was the 2014 podcast Serial that focused worldwide attention on the case and cast doubt on Syed's guilt. Neither suspect has been named, but officials said both had documented records of violence towards women, including convictions that occurred after Syed's trial. It's killing me," said Young Lee. [Alistair Wilson, a father-of-two who was shot on his doorstep in the seaside town of Nairn](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_doorstep_murder_alistair_wilson) in the Scottish Highlands in 2004, was the focus of the BBC's podcast The Doorstep Murder, which came out in 2018. They relied in part on mobile phone location data that has since been proven unreliable. "Everyday when I think it's over... The series brought international attention to the murder of Hae Min Lee and was one of the first hit podcasts of the past decade's boom in audio content. Steve Kelly, a victim's rights lawyer for the family, said the Lees had been "shut out of the legal process" and were "deeply disappointed" with the way they had been treated. The case has also spawned other works, including an HBO docuseries in 2019.

Adnan Syed was convicted for his girlfriend's murder in 1999. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment for killing Hae Min Lee. A judge in Baltimore ...

The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). Adnan Syed was convicted for his girlfriend's murder in 1999. Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, and a number of top Saudi officials were arrested in connection with the case. [Rabia Chaudry](/topic/rabia-chaudry), Syed's lawyer, says that Syed is innocent and Rabia and her family believe him. Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote for The Washington Post, was lured to Istanbul's Saudi consulate in October 2018, then killed and cut into pieces. [Adnan Syed](/topic/adnan-syed)was given life imprisonment for killing his girlfriend in 1999.

Adnan Syed, the subject of the 'Serial' podcast, has had his original murder conviction overturned. A new episode traces his journey.

Someone will try to talk to the two suspects Becky [Feldman] identified in the motion. Prosecutors said, "The state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction." [latest episode](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LVMQZAQ4Oa44klNWH4l34?si=40ecac4a06b14994&nd=1), running at around 16 minutes, features recordings from inside and outside the courtroom, including endless cheers from Syed's supporters. [Prosecutors](https://www.stattorney.org/media-center/press-releases/2633-judge-vacates-adnan-syed-s-conviction) (State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Sentencing Review Unit chief Becky Feldman) had [filed a motion for the judge to overturn it](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/us/adnan-syed-serial-murder-hae-min-lee.html) last Wednesday. Syed’s wrongful conviction but also the pain the State’s unlawful conduct caused to Hae Min Lee’s family." [on the ground in Baltimore on Monday](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/us/adnan-syed-murder-conviction-overturned.html), where Judge Melissa M. Is a mess. The 12-episode arc of "Baltimore City Police have told the prosecutor’s office they’re going to put someone back on the case. "Adnan's case was a mess. They now reportedly have 30 days to decide to proceed with a new trial or not. [Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)]

After decades of proclaiming his innocence and a podcast series dedicated to his case, a Mr. Syed won a reversal of his murder conviction.

[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/3IM0lmZxpFAY7CwMuv9H4g?si=SfuMSC55R1qprFsRZU3_zw) We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. [Here’s how.](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/podcasts/the-daily/how-do-i-listen-to-the-daily.html) [in the interests of justice and fairness](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/us/adnan-syed-murder-conviction-overturned.html).” Syed won a reversal of his murder conviction. [Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736?mt=2)

Judge vacates Syed's conviction for 1999 murder as prosecutors reinvestigate case that was focus of 'Serial' podcast.

Prosecutors also decided a key witness and the detective who investigated the murder were unreliable. Prosecutors said that they had found new information about two alternative suspects, whom they have not named. Prosecutors have 30 days to seek a new trial or dismiss the case.

Adnan Syed, the subject of the first season of Sarah Koenig's hit podcast Serial, has had his conviction vacated by Baltimore City Circuit Court, leading to ...

Koenig has returned to Syed’s story several times in the last eight years each time a significant change or update has arrived in the case, though this is obviously the biggest development since the original podcast. Phinn vacated Syed’s conviction on Monday “in the interests of justice and fairness.” Syed, who is now 41, walked out of the courthouse afterward a free man while the decision to retry him remains pending. Syed, who has always maintained his innocence, had sought an overturn of his conviction and a new trial.

Hae Min Lee's family, however, are 'deeply disappointed' at how quickly developments have progressed.

But I am grateful to the thousands that responded to the fire to help rebuild.” “That is entitled to the defendant, as well.” “Where to begin! “One week ago, for the first time, the family was informed that, through a year-long investigation that is apparently still ongoing, the state had uncovered new facts and would be filing a motion to vacate Mr Syed’s conviction. I find it hard to be. Syed was met by a jubilant crowd outside the court, but an attorney for Lee’s family, Steve Kelly, criticized the process that led to Syed being freed on Monday. At his second trial, in February 2000, he was convicted of murder and It’s pretty much – you name it, this case has it. Her body was found buried in Baltimore’s Leakin Park in February 1999. It’s a nightmare. It’s been 20-plus years. “It’s real life that will never end.

“Serial” explored Syed's conviction for the murder of his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Judge Melissa Phinn of the Baltimore City Circuit Court vacated ...

“They say it just kind of crumbled once they took a hard look.” 1 on Apple’s podcast chart on Tuesday, the same day a new episode released in which Koenig explains how Syed’s release came about. In 2014, “Serial,” which was hosted by journalist Sarah Koenig, helped set off both an interest in podcasts and Syed’s particular case.

Syed long said he was innocent in the murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee. A new episode of the podcast is due out Tuesday.

It also led to a 2019 four-part documentary series on HBO titled [The Case Against Adnan Syed](https://www.hbo.com/the-case-against-adnan-syed). Prosecutors now have 30 days to decide whether to move forward with a new trial or drop the charges. Prosecutors failed to properly turn over evidence that could have allowed for "substantial and significant probability that the result would have been different," Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn said, according to a report from

From bad evidence to alternate suspects to a problematic detective, here are the main takeaways from the brand new episode of 'Serial' following Adnan ...

But as Koenig predicts, “the chances of the state ever trying to prosecute Adnan again are remote at best.” In the motion to vacate, Feldman pointed to one glaring example: the location where Wilds claims Syed showed him Lee’s body changed three times over the course of the investigation. Listeners of “Serial” will remember “star witness” Jay Wilds, Syed’s friend from high school who told the state Syed killed Lee and showed him her body, then coerced Wilds into helping bury her in a city park. Feldman said the state found the information in these notes to be credible. Prosecutors were given 30 days to decide whether to move for a new trial or drop the case against Syed, who is now 41. As his story continues, so does the true crime podcast “ [Serial](https://variety.com/t/serial/),” which popularized the case and made Syed a household name in its record-setting first season, which investigated the murder.

Adnan Syed, the man at the center of the true-crime podcast Serial, has been released. Here's why and whether he'll stay a free man.

“The most damning thing is that a couple of people had told the prosecutor’s office at the time that one of the suspects had a motive to kill Hae, and even had threatened to do so,” she said. “So even on a day when the government publicly recognizes its own mistakes, it’s hard to feel cheered about a triumph of fairness. “This was true in 1999 when he was a 17-year-old child. Serial season one investigates the murder of Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed, the man at the time who was accused of her murder, Adnan Syed. “There was a lot of talk about fairness. In it, Koenig reflects on what the decision to release Adnan means to the larger failures of the justice system. “And that information was never told to the defense. Hae’s brother said he was “not against the investigation”, that he believes in the justice system, but had been blindsided by prosecutors. “While the investigation remains ongoing when considering the totality of the circumstances, the State lacks confidence in the integrity of the conviction,” Koenig told the [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/briefing/adnan-syed-freed-serial-sarah-koenig.html) that these two people were known to detectives at the time of the crime but that information was never handed over to Syed’s defense. “I’m not here to exonerate Adnan,” she said. “To be clear, the State is not asserting, at this time, that Mr. “I’m here to report this story.

Syed, who's maintained his innocence, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in connection to the killing of his ex-girlfriend.

His first trial ended in a mistrial before prosecutors won a conviction in a second trial, and the then-19-year-old Syed was sentenced to life in prison. “But we are declaring that in the interest of fairness and justice he is entitled to a new trial.” It also pointed to potentially significant evidence recovered from the crime scene, which was never DNA tested. “Evidence was hidden from him, evidence that pointed to other people as the killers,” That means continuing to utilize all available resources to bring a suspect or suspects to justice and hold them accountable.” An innocent man spends decades wrongly incarcerated, while any information or evidence that could help identify the actual perpetrator becomes increasingly difficult to pursue.” Weeks later, her body was discovered buried in the woods in Leakin Park. Syed then 18, was eventually accused following an anonymous tip to the police. Evidence was recovered after the trial that would Syed, 41, who has always maintained his innocence, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment in connection to the killing of Hae Min Lee. For now, Syed, who was released without bail, will be placed in home detention and wear a GPS monitor. Phinn also cited two alternative suspects who may have been improperly cleared of Lee’s murder.

Syed is free after his 2000 first-degree murder conviction in the death of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee was vacated.

“For more than 20 years, no one has wanted to know the truth about who killed Hae Min Lee more than her family. The state’s attorney said there are two alternate suspects in Lee’s murder and that they may have worked together. The result was “Serial,” a podcast released in 12 episodes in the fall of 2014. Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn in Baltimore agreed, and found during the original trial, the state failed its obligation to share information that could have helped the defense. The Lee family said they were disappointed with Monday’s hearing. Will its new season be heard above the noise?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-will-the-third-season-of-serial-fare-in-a-true-crime-saturated-industry/2018/09/17/53de64f2-b766-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_16) In 2013, lawyer Rabia Chaudry contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer with the radio program “This American Life.” Chaudry, a longtime friend of Syed, was convinced he had been wrongly convicted. It reached millions of listeners, won a Peabody Award and Syed, now 41, spent more than two decades in prison after a jury convicted him of killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, when the two were teenagers. [helped fuel the popularity of podcasts, especially those focused on true crime](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-will-the-third-season-of-serial-fare-in-a-true-crime-saturated-industry/2018/09/17/53de64f2-b766-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_15). His story reached millions through “Serial,” a hit podcast released in 2014. A judge sentenced him to life in prison plus 30 years.

When the verdict came down, Serial tweeted immediately that its host Sarah Koenig, a former Baltimore Sun reporter who became a quasi-celebrity for dissecting ...

[Pure Chaos](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/09/is-tiktok-turning-fashion-week-into-pure-chaos?itm_content=footer-recirc&itm_campaign=more-great-stories-091422)? [not the only investigative one](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/world/australia/chris-dawson-verdict-teachers-pet.html?searchResultPosition=2) that has brought [new, meaningful attention](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/910061573/after-6-trials-prosecutors-drop-charges-against-curtis-flowers) to old cases. “The chances of the state ever trying to prosecute Adnan again are remote at best,” said Koenig, who [told](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/briefing/adnan-syed-freed-serial-sarah-koenig.html) the Times’ David Leonhardt that she was “shocked” last week by the prosecutors’ motion and “did not see this coming at all.” [motion](https://docs-cdn-prod.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/publish_document/c0e45280-f784-4e81-befe-b53b948800dd/published/c0e45280-f784-4e81-befe-b53b948800dd.pdf) to vacate that Koenig in Tuesday’s episode said “burst like a firework out of the prosecutors' office,” the Baltimore City state’s attorney [said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/14/adnan-syed-vacate-conviction-serial/) “the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction” though stopped short of exonerating Syed. [have been](https://www.nytimes.com/article/adnan-syed-serial-timeline-serial.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article) a number of developments in Syed’s case in the years since Serial, which discovered, among other things, the existence of an alibi witness whom Syed’s original defense had failed to contact and that physical evidence gathered at the time was never tested for Syed’s DNA; an HBO show would later [reveal](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/arts/television/case-against-adnan-syed-dna-hbo-finale.html) that Syed’s DNA was not found on Lee’s body or belongings. [tweeted](https://twitter.com/serial/status/1571957561397739520?s=20&t=deyFONmFumokckvtEM9GSw) immediately that its host Sarah Koenig, a former Baltimore Sun reporter who became a quasi-celebrity for dissecting Syed's case over a dozen episodes in 2014, was in the courtroom. “From the outside at least, it’s hard to satisfyingly pinpoint the impact that Serial and, later, HBO’s show had on the events that led to Syed walking out of prison yesterday,” CJR’s Jon Allsop [wrote](https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/adnan_syed_conviction_overturned_serial.php?utm_source=CJR+Daily+News&utm_campaign=57188aad51-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_11_06_33_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9c93f57676-57188aad51-175009357&mc_cid=57188aad51&mc_eid=9ce84e5e14) Tuesday, as “they raised and then kept huge public attention on his case in a way that can’t easily be separated from the progress of the case itself, and yet the vacating of his sentence took years, and ultimately flowed from a new law and an official procedure.” “But most of what the state put in that motion to vacate, all the actual evidence, was either known or knowable to cops and prosecutors back in 1999. “The original Serial series might be the most impactful (by a number of measures) piece of journalism of the last decade,” journalist Wesley Lowery [tweeted](https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery/status/1570164872142274561?s=20&t=bZVR0OkKNNN8KdT751sz1w) Monday, following Syed's release. "Yesterday, there was a lot of talk about fairness,” she said in the final moments of Tuesday morning's episode. But Koenig's message in the supplement of her inaugural true-crime podcast series took a more somber tone. Its subject, Adnan Syed, who for the past 23 years was serving a life sentence for the murder of his former high-school girlfriend Hae Min Lee, was released from prison Monday.

Baltimore prosecutors have a month to decide whether to retry Adnan Syed, though legal analysts — and the victim's family — said Tuesday they have no.

"Anyone who is charged in this case (in the future) is going to be able to throw a whole lot of questions up about what arguments were made before, about Mr. "It would be very hard for me to imagine they would pursue this case (again)." So on the question of raising reasonable doubt, it would be a huge challenge even if this case weren't 23 years old." "The clients are in no position right now," Kelly said. "They won't retry this case because where are they going to come up with all the evidence in the case when they've already acknowledged there are inconsistencies?" "My prediction is you'll never hear an official word from the state again because they're already on the record as, 'We think they were problems (in the case) but we're not saying he's innocent.' " "The mistakes that were made 23 years ago, which led them to pursue Mr. "The idea of retrying this case would be an incredible long shot." He's just that shocked." Syed and the evidence that they thought was suggestive of Mr. Prosecutors are considering their next move after successfully lobbying a Baltimore judge to have the 42-year-old man's murder conviction vacated. "I would never bet the house on anything but it would be an incredibly hard case to retry," said University of Baltimore

With some 300 million downloads, the first season broke podcast records and spawned a cottage industry of true crime podcasts. It won just about every major ...

[struck](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/splitthemoon/2014/10/lets-give-them-something-to-talk-about/) by how her views were becoming part of the narrative. [marveled](https://www.nyclu.org/en/publications/column-serial-podcast-and-disparate-impact-civil-rights-and-real-world-new-york-law) in 2015, Serial "unleashed a spirited and wide-ranging civil rights debate on the Internet," he wrote. It's quite another to get into the business of exposing a wrongful conviction," he says. The idea to delve into Syed's case originated with Rabia Chaudry, a lawyer and one of Syed's friends and supporters. [Our interactions online were being discussed](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/27/rabia_chaudry_blogs_about_adnan_syed_and_recaps_the_serial_podcast_on_split.html), we were being judged and assessed, we were adding both entertainment and substantive value to the discourse. [A place to discuss Serial: The Podcast](https://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/) on Reddit reached more than 72 million members. In the case of Serial, they worked in tandem. The Serial phenomenon was not just about trying to solve the crime itself. It was also about the vast community devouring each episode and then picking it apart online. Koenig was named one of Time's [Most Influential People](https://time.com/collection-post/3823276/sarah-koenig-2015-time-100/) of 2015. Barry Scheck, co-director of The Innocence Project, learned about Serial from his kids. [This American Life](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/our-other-shows#:~:text=Released%20in%2012%20episodes%2C%20Serial,more%20than%20300%20million%20downloads.).

Adnan Syed, a recent student in Georgetown's new degree program for incarcerated students and the subject of the 2014 podcast, “Serial,” was released from ...

Georgetown’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts program is funded by a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. [Racial Justice Institute](https://rji.georgetown.edu/) pushes the frontiers of knowledge about race, equity and action. “I think that this Georgetown program is going to take me further in life, take me to places I didn’t even think were possible for me. The program expands Georgetown’s It will take most students about five years to complete the degree. “My main goal is just to continue to evolve, to continue to see what life has to offer me,” said student Rasheed Edwards.

How a true crime podcast made a local news story from Baltimore, Maryland, go international.

They also said they believed people had been misinformed by the podcast and regretted that "so few [were] willing to speak up for Hae". The show premiered in autumn 2014 and each episode tried to piece together a timeline of what happened the night Lee was killed. But a judge also denied his request for bail. Serial helped ignite the popularity of podcasts. He remained imprisoned for years as his legal team argued for a new trial and tried to appeal his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court. For nearly 25 years Syed has maintained his innocence.

"To call something the most popular podcast might seem a little like identifying the tallest leprechaun," David Carr wrote in 2014.

Fascinating to hear a Serial update on Adnan Syed’s release that’s so bare-bones, similar to the rundowns that other media are offering. [continued](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/30/serial-podcast-appeals-court-adnan-syed) to [wind](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/when-a-post-conviction-hearing-feels-like-a-sequel-the-weirdness-of-serial-back-on-the-stand/2016/02/08/b3782c60-2a49-48f7-9480-a34dd9e07ab6_story.html) [through](https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-syed-response-to-state-20160915-story.html) [the](https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-document-syed-appeals-20180329-story.html) [courts](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/adnan-syed-case-conviction.html). I explained to her that anti-Muslim sentiment was involved in framing the motive in this case, and that Muslims can pick up on it, whereas someone like her, who hasn’t experienced this kind of bigotry, doesn’t quite get it. The visuals of the courtroom itself leaves an impression and there’s no escaping the racial implications there. “You have an urban jury in Baltimore city, mostly African American, maybe people who identify with Jay [an African-American friend of Syed’s who is the state’s seemingly unreliable star witness] more than Adnan, who is represented by a community in headscarves and men in beards. The show also came in for criticism, especially from those who argued that Koenig overlooked major elements of the story involving racial prejudice, Islamophobia, social justice, and the failure of the criminal justice system. [“Only Murders in the Building,”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Murders_in_the_Building) which just wrapped up its second season on Hulu, follows three Upper West Side neighbors who start a true crime podcast after their neighbor is murdered. That is as many people as watch an episode of “Louie,” the buzzed-about comedy on FX. A couple of weeks before the launch, on September 19, 2014, executive producer and host Sarah Koenig [wrote on the Serial blog](https://serialpodcast.org/posts/2014/09/introducing-serial): “Serial” has been downloaded or streamed on iTunes more than five million times — at a cost of nothing — and averages over 1.5 million listeners an episode. We hope you’ll get sucked in the way we have. Serial launched as a spinoff of This American Life, and its first episode aired in that show’s radio slot.

On Monday, a judge overturned that conviction — ruling that deficiencies in how prosecutors had turned over evidence to defense attorneys could have affected ...

“Despite trying to put on a brave face publicly, I thought in all likelihood that was the end of the road.” Frosh (D) — whose office has previously defended the handling of Syed’s case in court proceedings — has disputed that, calling the allegations that prosecutors did not hand over evidence to Syed’s defense as they should have “incorrect.” The subsequent investigation uncovered new evidence that showed prosecutors had known of two other possible suspects, including one who had a motive to kill Lee, and had failed to hand over information to defense attorneys. A judge agreed, and in 2016, Brown returned to court for a hearing. In 2019 — despite “Serial,” a subsequent four-part documentary on HBO and two separate books on the case — it seemed as if Syed might, in fact, spend his remaining years behind bars. Brown said Rabia Chaudry, a close family friend of Syed’s and a legal student at the time, had previously visited McClain and asked her to sign an affidavit saying she had seen Syed at the library at the time of Lee’s slaying. He said that he was open to further investigation but that it was “really tough” for his family to know that there “could be someone out there free for killing my sister.” The series also gave new life to Syed’s legal case. “Serial,” which premiered in 2014, quickly shattered records with hundreds of millions of downloads and ushered in a new era of true-crime podcasts. When Syed’s attorney first filed for a post-conviction relief a decade after the original ruling, his attorney at the time, Justin Brown, said he struggled to reach a woman, Asia McClain, who he believed was an alibi witness who could help free his client. “She is this very hopeful, optimistic, never quit, amazing woman, and I didn’t know what to tell her,” he said. He was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison.

Adnan Syed, center, leaves the Cummings Courthouse in Baltimore on Monday. A judge has ordered the release of Syed after overturning his conviction for a 1999 ...

[struck](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/splitthemoon/2014/10/lets-give-them-something-to-talk-about/) by how her views were becoming part of the narrative. [marveled](https://www.nyclu.org/en/publications/column-serial-podcast-and-disparate-impact-civil-rights-and-real-world-new-york-law) in 2015, Serial "unleashed a spirited and wide-ranging civil rights debate on the Internet," he wrote. It's quite another to get into the business of exposing a wrongful conviction," he says. The idea to delve into Syed's case originated with Rabia Chaudry, a lawyer and one of Syed's friends and supporters. [Our interactions online were being discussed](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/27/rabia_chaudry_blogs_about_adnan_syed_and_recaps_the_serial_podcast_on_split.html), we were being judged and assessed, we were adding both entertainment and substantive value to the discourse. [A place to discuss Serial: The Podcast](https://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/) on Reddit reached more than 72 million members. The Serial phenomenon was not just about trying to solve the crime itself. In the case of Serial, they worked in tandem. It was also about the vast community devouring each episode and then picking it apart online. Koenig was named one of Time's [Most Influential People](https://time.com/collection-post/3823276/sarah-koenig-2015-time-100/) of 2015. Barry Scheck, co-director of The Innocence Project, learned about Serial from his kids. [This American Life](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/our-other-shows#:~:text=Released%20in%2012%20episodes%2C%20Serial,more%20than%20300%20million%20downloads.).

In 2000, 18-year-old Baltimore man Adnan Syed was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. Syed was sentenced to life in prison and ...

Lee’s family have also suffered tremendously and would continue to suffer with the lack of closure that comes with Syed’s wrongful conviction. After Syed was convicted, a close friend of the Syed family contacted reputable journalist Sarah Koenig in 2013, who independently investigated the case. That number is always on the rise. As Lee and Syed had dated not long before the time of Lee’s death, Syed became a prime suspect. A former classmate of Syed’s, Jay Wilds, also provided testimony indicating that he had assisted Syed with disposing Lee’s body. She disappeared one day after school, and her body was found in a nearby park one month later. [Innocence Project](https://innocenceproject.org/about/) was founded in 1992 and has overturned the wrongful convictions of 375 people in the United States using DNA evidence. In 2000, 18-year-old Baltimore man Adnan Syed was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. Syed has been released from prison, but Phinn has ordered him to remain on house arrest. Cell tower records that placed Syed’s phone near the location of the park where Lee’s body was buried implicated him. Syed and his supporters have always maintained his innocence. [Serial](https://serialpodcast.org/season-one), one of the pioneers of the true-crime podcast genre.

The case of Adnan Syed, who served more than 20 years in prison on murder charges before his conviction was vacated on Monday, is unique because of the ...

"These are systems in which prosecutors allow defense attorneys to take a look at their files in a much more broad way," she says. "Prosecutorial misconduct and police misconduct are the most common contributing factors" to exonerations, says Simon Cole, director of the registry. "It can be difficult for any prosecutor to objectively decide what evidence is truly material and truly exculpatory." And the judge can't see it either. Syed's case highlights how the withholding of potentially exculpatory evidence by police and prosecutors can often lead to wrongful convictions. This is something that is pervasive throughout the country," she says There were at least 2,400 exonerations in the U.S. But one of the reasons he was set free — because prosecutors withheld evidence that may have exonerated him — is not uncommon. "We must rely on individual prosecutors to decide which pieces of evidence to disclose to the defense and which pieces of evidence to withhold," she says. They now have 30 days to decide whether to proceed with a new trial or drop the charges against Syed, who has long maintained his innocence. between 1989 and 2019, and in 44% of cases it was the withholding of potentially exonerating evidence that resulted in a prisoner's release, according to "Considering the totality of the evidence now available, the information about an alternative suspect would have been helpful to the defense because it would have helped substantiate an alternative suspect defense that was consistent with the defense's strategy at trial," prosecutors said in their motion.

A Baltimore judge has quashed the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, the first focus of a crime podcast which cast light upon his case.

The technology used by AT&T at the time meant this evidence was shaky at best and useless at worst. There were two other suspects at the time of Syed’s arrest, though this information was not made available to the defence. He was 18 at the time.

The Daily Show host Trevor Noah took note of the latest developments in the Serial case - the overturning of the conviction of Adnan Syed - joking about the ...

“But she said, no, if we’re going to put somebody in prison, it has to be without any doubt.” We took the pink slime out of the meat.” [Serial](https://deadline.com/tag/serial/) case – the overturning of the conviction of [Adnan Syed](https://deadline.com/tag/adnan-syed/) – joking about the popularity of podcasts before turning serious about the role of true justice in the justice system.

His exoneration shows that our legal system is designed to cement wrongful convictions, not correct them.

In 2010 and again in 2014, Syed’s attorneys filed appeals seeking to overturn his conviction based on the unreliability of the cell-phone evidence and the incompetence of Syed’s trial lawyer. In his closing argument, he admitted his star witness was a “loon” but urged the judge to believe her anyway. Knowing all of this, the prosecutor nonetheless fought to the bitter end. Rather than dismiss the case, the prosecutor insisted on an evidentiary hearing, which is the equivalent of a retrial. Several of my recent clients have been the beneficiaries of similar arrangements put in place by other reform-minded prosecutors. In the end, it took a random and quirky turn of events to unshackle him. The case against Syed hinged on the testimony of his friend Jay Wilds, who told the jury that Syed showed him Lee’s body after placing it in the trunk of a car and enlisting his aid in helping dispose of it in a neighborhood park. Disturbingly, nothing that happened in Syed’s case — including the gamesmanship — is particularly unusual. [23rd Baltimore man](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/did-david-simon-glorify-baltimores-detectives.html) to have his murder conviction thrown out because of official misconduct. That is how the legal system was designed. Because of Serial, the world has long known that Syed’s conviction rested on shaky ground. He exited the Baltimore courthouse to deafening cheers from a large crowd gathered outside.

Back in 1999, a teenage high school student was jailed for killing his girlfriend, allegedly in a fit of jealousy. A hit podcast told his story in 2014, ...

The podcast won a Peabody Award in 2015, with its narration playing an important role in popularising the podcast format. ‘Serial’’s investigation of the case against Syed had all the elements of a gripping story in the true-crime genre. Koenig took interest in the case and began investigating the sequence of events. Syed was granted a new trial in 2015, partly from new evidence unearthed during the making of ‘Serial’, the BBC reported. The podcast raised concerns about some of the evidence used against Syed, and revived the murder case. His first trial, which began in December of that year, ended in a mistrial.

Over two decades after he was convicted of murdering his high school girlfriend, Adnan Syed was released from prison with the help of multiple lawyers, ...

“We are also deeply dismayed at what now appears to be the prosecutor’s office’s utter failure to turn over critical Brady evidence — even while fighting tooth and nail on appeal to get a favorable lower court decision overturned, and then fighting just as hard against Supreme Court review,” Stetson said. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service. “So that was a pleasant surprise, but upsetting that it wasn’t discovered before he spent 23 years in prison.” Though “Serial” was downloaded 300 million times, and the clinic helped find potentially exculpatory evidence, it still took eight more years to tip the scales of justice in Syed’s favor. Syed’s most recent postconviction attorney, Erica Suter, immediately delivered his case to the state’s attorney’s office for review. What they discovered was so compelling that Koenig’s potential single episode instead launched a 12-episode podcast named “Serial” — and the public was riveted. They found an alternate suspect who had been released from prison about two weeks before the murder. “People who have seen it from the defense side know the red flags,” Enright said. Peia is now a federal prosecutor in California, while Klorfein works in-house for the Coca-Cola Co. The court gave prosecutors 30 days to decide whether they will retry Syed or reopen the Lee murder case to look for new suspects. She now investigates possible reforms as a director of the school’s It doesn’t always mean the person is innocent, but it does mean you should look harder.”

Though it already got beaten to the punch by Sarah Koenig and Serial, the other major true-crime project about Adnan Syed and the murder of Hae Min Lee is ...

As all of this has been happening over the last few days, the family of Hae Min Lee has seemingly been opposed to this development—or at least opposed to how quickly it happened. Interestingly, while Serial put out an episode the morning after Syed’s release, Berg and HBO are taking a more patient approach to this. They now have 30 days (or slightly fewer, since this all happened a few days ago now) to decide whether or not to retry Syed.

Marilyn Mosby's tenure as Baltimore's chief prosecutor has been an unmitigated disaster for Charm City, highlighted by her persistent refusal to prosecute ...

Supreme Court [declined](https://thedailyrecord.com/2019/11/25/supreme-court-declines-adnan-syeds-appeal/) to reconsider the matter. But it is the timing of Mosby’s conduct that makes it a slap in the face to the victim’s family, the citizens of Baltimore, and the incoming chief prosecutor. Two former classmates of the alibi witness claimed that she was [fabricating](https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-serial-syed-alibi-questioned-20160822-story.html) the story to help Syed. But reviewing all the evidence, the Maryland Supreme Court [upheld](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-maryland-serial-case/maryland-top-court-upholds-serial-murder-conviction-idUSKBN1QP2CV) Syed’s conviction, and in 2019, the U.S. “Neither State’s Attorney Mosby nor anyone from her office bothered to consult with either the Assistant State’s Attorney who prosecuted the case or with anyone in my office regarding these alleged violations. Mosby’s office does not say that they believe that Syed is innocent, only that they “lack confidence in the integrity of the conviction.” Mosby now claims that other suspects existed whose identities were not disclosed to Syed’s defense; she has not provided their identities. [Serial](https://serialpodcast.org/season-one), released in 2014, claimed to have found an alibi witness: a high school student who would testify that she saw Syed in a [library](https://www.thewrap.com/serial-alibi-witness-asia-mcclain-last-time-she-saw-adnan-syed-jealous/) at the time of the murder. Now, Mosby is under federal [indictment](https://www.wbaltv.com/article/marilyn-mosby-new-superseding-indictment/39398046) for perjury and submitting false statements in an alleged attempt to swindle the federal government for Covid-19 relief funds to buy a vacation home in Florida. Experienced investigators and civilians pointed out the many [problems](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-maryland-serial-case/serial-alibi-witness-posed-terrible-risk-to-defense-maryland-says-idUSKCN1NY1A0) with this alleged alibi witness. It’s little wonder that Baltimoreans finally [voted her out of office](https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-covid-health-general-marilyn-mosby-1742b1a284798e76a89f974cd8c5e497) in the 2022 Democratic primary, nominating instead a prosecutor who promises to try to restore order. Syed had shown Lee’s body to a friend—who testified at trial—and then enlisted the friend to help dispose of the body. Cell-phone tower evidence corroborated that Syed was in the park when the victim was buried.

The Baltimore City state's attorney said in a statement that Attorney General Brian Frosh's office had made a “willful decision” to sit on evidence.

[recently](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/14/adnan-syed-vacate-conviction-serial/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22&itid=lk_inline_manual_15) said in a motion in circuit court that it wanted the conviction tossed and Syed released. In that instance, she said, she would “consider that option.” Syed his right to a fair trial and now forces a family to relive an unimaginable nightmare because of his unconscionable misdeeds,” Mosby said.