A Maryland appeals court docket on Tuesday reinstated the homicide conviction of Adnan Syed, who become determined responsible of the 1999 killing of his former lady friend in a case that drew attention after the podcast “Serial” raised doubts about his guilt.
After an investigation diagnosed troubles with the case, a circuit courtroom decide remaining yr vacated Syed’s conviction in the homicide of Hae Min Lee and ordered his launch. He had served greater than 20 years in jail.The decide left it to prosecutors to determine whether to retry him and they determined to drop the case.
On Tuesday, a Maryland appellate courtroom panel, in a 2-1 choice, ordered a brand new listening to into the matter, saying the lower court had violated the proper of the victim’s own family to attend a essential listening to in the case.
“This Court has the electricity and obligation to treatment the ones violations, as long we are able to accomplish that with out violating Mr. Syed’s proper to be unfastened from double jeopardy,” the panel said in its ruling.
“Accordingly, we vacate the circuit court’s order vacating Mr. Syed’s convictions, which ends up in the reinstatement of the unique convictions and sentence,” it said.
The panel did not specifically order Syed back to prison, however allowed for a two-month put off inside the “mandate” of its selection to allow the events “time to assess a way to proceed.”
Syed has maintained he turned into innocent and did not kill Hae Min Lee, who became 18 whilst she was strangled and buried in a Baltimore park. The podcast “Serial,” produced through Chicago public radio station WBEZ, drew countrywide interest to the case in 2014.
An legal professional for Syed said he stays loose and the cutting-edge decision was now not about Syed’s innocence but extra approximately court cases. The lawyer said Syed’s group will searching for a overview inside the Supreme Court of Maryland.
“The Appellate Court of Maryland has reinstated Adnan’s convictions, not because the Motion to Vacate changed into faulty, but due to the fact Ms Lee’s brother did now not seem in man or woman on the vacatur listening to,” Erica Suter, Syed’s counsel, told Reuters.
“There is not any basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by means of returning him to the fame of a convicted felon.”
Prosecutors filed a movement ultimate September to vacate the conviction after accomplishing a yearlong research along a public defender representing Syed.
Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn finally ordered Syed to be released from jail, where he became serving a existence sentence.