A judge in Maryland has granted a retrial to Adnan Syed, whose conviction for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend was the subject of the first season of the hit podcast “Serial”, Syed’s lawyer announced Thursday. But on Thursday, a judge’s decision to order a new trial for Syed, whose case is at the center of the “Serial” podcast, is opening old wounds for Lee’s family.
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February 28th 1999: Syed – Lee’s ex-boyfriend – was arrested for her murder, and after a first trial ended in a mistrial, a second trial resulted in Syed’s conviction and a life-sentence, despite Syed pleading innocent throughout. She said an assistant state’s attorney involved in the case had discouraged her from attending Syed’s original post-conviction hearings in 2012.
The 2014 series, which raised questions over the fairness of the trial Syed received, became the fastest podcast to reach 5m downloads and found a dedicated British audience. “We hope the court considers it”.
Brown gave credit to the 2014 hit podcast “Serial” that launched Syed’s case to worldwide stardom. The Maryland Office of the Attorney General said in a written statement that they will continue to be in the pursuit of justice for Lee and her family, saying they will seek for a win in an appellate court.
Syed’s attorneys argued for a retrial for a few different reasons.
Chapman spent almost two days on the stand, testifying she and Syed spent about 15 minutes chatting in the library on January 13, 1999, but that despite repeated efforts to reach Syed’s defense team at the time with an offer to be an alibi, she was never contacted.
Koenig hasn’t commented yet if the Serial team will return to cover the retrial, but a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, Justin George, tweeted that she was “surprised by #AdnanSyed getting a new trial & is still processing everything”.
Syed’s lawyers Brown and Christopher Nieto held a press conference Thursday afternoon promising to put out a formal statement later.
Fans of the popular Serial podcast may get a new chapter.
In his opinion, Welch said that Syed’s original trial lawyer “fell below the standard of reasonable professional judgment” when she didn’t raise the issue at trial. We can’t ask her. She was found buried in a shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park.
The Serial podcast, if you haven’t listened to it, is well worth your time.
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Yusef Syed said: “We’ve been living through this night for years, and we’re finally starting to get some justice”.
