The Maryland Supreme Court on Friday reinstated Adnan Syed's murder conviction, ruling that the 2022 court hearing that cleared the accused of murder violated the rights of his alleged victim's family.
The 4-3 ruling came nearly a year after the court heard arguments in October in the case that gained notoriety thanks to the hit 2014 true-crime podcast “Serial.”
Syed was convicted in 2000 of killing his former high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee after she was found strangled to death in an unmarked grave, and was initially sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
In September 2022, a Baltimore court overturned Syed's conviction after city prosecutors found flaws in his evidence after Syed had served 22 years behind bars.
ADNAN SYED ASKS MARYLAND COURT TO RECONSIDER MURDER CONVICTION
Adnan Syed gets emotional as he speaks to reporters outside the Robert C. Murphy Court of Appeals building after a hearing on February 2, 2023 in Annapolis, Maryland. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun via AP, File)
The seven-judge panel wrote in its ruling that Lee's family had a right to participate in the 2022 hearing, saying the victim's brother, Young Lee, was not given reasonable notice and was therefore not treated with “dignity, respect and sensitivity.”
“In an effort to remedy what they perceived as an injustice against Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the circuit court committed an injustice against Mr. Lee,” the judges wrote in their decision.
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The panel said Syed, who was 17 when he was arrested and is now 43, can remain free while the case goes to a new trial judge to again determine whether his conviction can be overturned.
The Lee family must be given notice of the new hearing “with sufficient advance notice to afford Mr. Lee a reasonable opportunity to attend such hearing in person” and speak if he so chooses.
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Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2000 for the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999, when she was 17. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Yusuf Syed)
David Sanford, an attorney representing Lee's family, told The Associated Press that the high court's ruling “recognizes what Hae Min Lee's family has argued: crime victims have a right to be heard in court.”
But Syed's attorney, Erica Suter, argued that the state had met its obligation and invited Young Lee to participate in the hearing via video conference.
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The ruling is the latest twist in Syed’s long-running legal battle. In 2019, a court ruled 4-3 to deny the murder defendant another trial. A lower court had ordered a new trial in 2015 on the grounds that Syed’s attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, failed to contact an alibi witness and therefore failed to provide an effective defense, according to AP.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the court's decision.
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A tribute to Hae Min Lee, Class of 1999, in a Woodlawn High School yearbook. Lee was kidnapped and murdered in 1999, and her classmate Adnan Syed was convicted of her murder in 2000. (Getty Images)
Prosecutors decided to vacate Syed's sentence in 2022 after reviewing evidence in his case under a Maryland law that targeted “juveniles sentenced to life in prison” because he was under 18 when Hae Min Lee's body was found.
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They said they used “Advanced DNA” test to determine that Syed was not responsible for Hae's murder and pointed to other potential suspects, including one who had allegedly threatened Hae and another linked to an address where her car was later discovered.
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“The State no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction,” prosecutors said at the time.
Syed has maintained his innocence and has often expressed concern for the victim's family, according to AP.
