A murder case thrust into the global spotlight by a popular podcast took another turn on Friday, Aug. 30. The Maryland Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling upheld a lower state court’s decision to reinstate Adnan Syed’s conviction in the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
A majority of the justices agreed with an appellate court that Lee’s brother didn’t receive enough notice to attend the hearing to vacate Syed’s conviction in 2022. The justices ordered the case to go back to the circuit court that freed Syed for a new hearing on his conviction.
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Syed’s case drew worldwide attention through the weekly podcast “Serial.” The show focused its first season on Syed’s story in 12 episodes, which casted doubt on his conviction in the strangulation death of Lee in 1999.
Syed was sentenced to life in prison for the murder in 2000 but was released in 2022 after a circuit judge vacated his conviction.
Prosecutors previously claimed that Syed was a “scorned lover” after Lee broke up with him. Syed and Lee were both high school honor students and the children of immigrants. They hid their relationship from their reportedly strict parents.
Syed has maintained his innocence in the murder case and prosecutors eventually asked the circuit judge to vacate his conviction, citing new discoveries involving two alternative suspects.
