In all-caps, the Baltimore lawyer announced that Adnan Syed would be getting a new trial. Now, after two years of waiting there is a new development: On Thursday afternoon, a judge granted a new trial and vacated Syed’s conviction.
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The decision comes after Syed’s legal team argued that he had received ineffective counsel during the original trial, and after presenting new evidence, including testimonies from alibi witnesses who may have previously been overlooked.
Asia McClain, a classmate of Syed’s, claimed she saw him at the Woodlawn Public Library at 2:15 p.m. on January 13, 1999 – the same time cops believe Lee was murdered. However, since he is back to being considered “innocent until proven guilty”, he will likely be sent to a pretrial jail detention center, leaving behind, for now at least, the Maryland prison where he is currently serving a life sentence. “It’s gone”, Brown said.
Brown said he was confident about Syed’s longterm chances of being freed from prison.
Brown also acknowledge the state might try to appeal the judge’s ruling, and that the state has 30 days to decide its next steps. “We’re going to fight”. “Our heels are dug in…” But we are overjoyed. Wilds made a plea deal in exchange for probation and became the state’s star witness against Syed. “He was a 17-year-old Muslim. They forgot he was born and raised in America”.
Serial definitely caused people to question the validity of Syed’s conviction, but it was in no way a definitive confirmation of his innocence. Rabia Chaudry, a family friend of Syed who brought the case to the radio producers, launched her own podcast called Undisclosed.
Welch found that the cellphone tower evidence played a more crucial role in determining this latest twist in Syed’s circuitous route through the Maryland court system.
Syed’s current lawyers argued jurors were never told that cell phone tower data linking Syed to the burial site was unreliable.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the cover sheet read, “Outgoing calls only are reliable for location status”.
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“This was the biggest hurdle”. “It remains hard to see so many run to defend someone who committed a terrible crime, who destroyed our family, who refuses to accept responsibility, when so few are willing to speak up for Hae”, said Lee’s family in February to The New York Times. Its reach covered the US, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, and it also scraped its way into the top 10 in Germany, South Africa and India.
