What next for Adnan Syed in Hae Min Lee murder case

Adnan Syed – the man who spent 23 years in jail for murdering his high school sweetheart before prosecutors admitted he might not be the killer – has had his conviction reinstated.

The 41-year-old, whose case was popularized by the podcast ‘Serial,’ has the potential of going back to prison after the Maryland appeals court said victim Hae Min Lee’s family were not told about a key case hearing with sufficient time.

Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore City State Attorney who dealt with Syed’s initial motion to vacate, said: ‘To now send this case back to court prolongs the pain for the Lee family, and leaves a cloud hanging over a man who deserves to be free, Adnan Syed.’

DailyMail.com breaks down the key questions that now stand. 

Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast ‘Serial,’ departs after a judge overturned Syed’s 2000 murder conviction on September 19, 2022

Why was Adnan Syed’s murder conviction reinstated?

On September 19, 2022, a judge ordered Syed’s release from his life sentence for strangling Hae Min Lee because they could no longer justify keeping him locked up based on new information. 

However on March 28, 2023, the Maryland appeals court ruled that the lower court violated the right of the victim’s family to attend a critical hearing in the case – and have therefore dismissed the circuit court’s vacation of Syed’s convictions.

This ‘results in the reinstatement of the original convictions and sentence,’ the court said. This means the hearing will have to be re-heard. 

Hae Min Lee’s brother, who represents the victim in this case, has long argued that he was not given enough time to attend the vacation hearing. The Baltimore city state’s attorney gave him less than one business day, he claims. 

The panel ruled in his favor on March 28. The circuit court judge did indeed violated the rights of Young Lee in how it conducted Syed’s vacation hearing. 

Adnan Syed was found guilty of murdering Hae Min Lee (pictured) on February 25, 2000, and was sentenced to life imprisonment June of the same year. Lee was his high school sweetheart

Adnan Syed was found guilty of murdering Hae Min Lee (pictured) on February 25, 2000, and was sentenced to life imprisonment June of the same year. Lee was his high school sweetheart

Will Adnan Syed go back to prison? 

The news on March 28, 2023 does not necessarily mean that Adnan Syed is going back to jail.

He does not have to immediately return behind bars, because the appeals court issued a 60-day stay of its ruling. This was granted to give both sides time to consider their next steps. 

Erica J. Suter, Syed’s lawyer, said she planned to appeal the decision to reinstate his conviction to the Supreme Court of Maryland. 

She said: ‘There is no basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the status of a convicted felon. For the time being, Adnan remains a free man.’ 

It is possible that after the vacation hearing is re-heard, the outcome will be the same. This will, yet again, release Adnan Syed as a free man – like he was on September 19, 2022. 

According to Doug Colbert, a law professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law: ‘It’s really difficult to envision something new occurring at the do-over proceeding.’ 

However, if the Circuit Court is perhaps shown different evidence this time around, the judgement to vacate Syed’s murder conviction may be different. 

It is unclear if either sides, or the State’s Attorney’s Office’s Sentencing Review Unit, have gathered new information in the six months since Syed has been free. 

What is brought forward at the new motion to vacate hearing will determine if Adnan Syed is imprisoned again, or released again. 

Adnan Syed pictured as a young man, before being jailed over Hae Min Lee's murder

Adnan Syed pictured as a young man, before being jailed over Hae Min Lee’s murder

Why was Adnan Syed released from prison in the first place?

On September 19, 2022, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn vacated Syed’s murder conviction and he was released from prison the same day.

This occurred because new evidence had come to light that convinced officials keeping Syed locked up for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee was no longer justifiable. 

The ‘new evidence’ was twofold. Firstly, two new suspects were identified in the case. They were known to prosecutors in 1999, but they were not properly ruled out during the murder investigation. 

Secondly, prosecutors determined that they no longer had faith in the old evidence used in the murder trial – namely, they did not believe the star witness to be credible anymore.  

The new information and suspect leads had potentially serious legal ramifications.

When the new investigator, Becky Feldman, found the evidence, she contacted Syed’s lawyer Erica J. Suter to see if she was aware of it. She was not.

This means that the prosecutors at trial in 2000 failed to hand over key information to the defense team as required, in what is known as a Brady violation.

If it’s ruled that a Brady violation was in fact breached, this could be enough to get Syed’s case exonerated in itself.

As of March 29, 2023, it has still not been announced if a Brady violation was indeed found in the case. 

On October 12, 2022, a new set of DNA results led Baltimore prosecutors to drop charges against Syed, after they were given a month to potentially re-imprison him after being freed. 

This is what has allowed him to walk as a free man for the last six months.

Syed, now 41, pictured on Monday, September 19, after he was released from prison

Syed pictured as a teen before the murder of Lee

The 41-year-old was serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2000 of strangling Hae Min Lee and burying her body in a shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park

Why was Adnan Syed jailed for 23 years? 

Adnan Syed was found guilty of murdering Hae Min Lee on February 25, 2000, and was sentenced to life imprisonment June of the same year. 

Lee was his high school sweetheart. 

Syed’s charm and popularity at school was used to manipulate people around him, Judge Wanda K. Heard said at the time as she sentenced him to life plus 30 years in jail.

Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Urick told court 23 years ago that Syed killed Lee after his ex-girlfriend started seeing a new guy.

The crime of passion, they claimed, was solely because Syed’s pride had been wrecked.

Syed was convicted of strangling Lee (with him above at junior prom in 1998). The two were high school classmates who had dated. He went to prison for the crime - but in 2022 a judge ruled that it was no longer justifiable keeping him behind bars because of new information

Syed was convicted of strangling Lee (with him above at junior prom in 1998). The two were high school classmates who had dated. He went to prison for the crime – but in 2022 a judge ruled that it was no longer justifiable keeping him behind bars because of new information

Lee, a Korean-American, was a scholar at school, an athlete and wanted to be an optician. She played on the lacrosse and field hockey teams and was manager of the wrestling team.

Syed asked Lee to junior prom in 1998 after placing a bet with his friend on who would get the prettiest date for the hottest event in their social calendar.

Images taken from that night show Syed with his arms wrapped around Lee, who described him as the ‘sweetest guy’ in a diary entry on her whirlwind night.

He later described their first kiss at prom as ‘one of the best moments of my whole life, like one of the happiest times.’

But because their teenage relationship had to be kept a secret from their parents, the couple were forced to sneak around, lie about their whereabouts and put special systems in place just to speak on the phone.

This became too much for Lee. She broke off the relationship with Syed around December 1999. She was last seen alive on January 13, 1999. 

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk

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