The topic of a preferred true crime podcast was launched from jail on Monday after a decide overturned his sentence.
Circuit Court docket Decide Melissa Phinn ordered the discharge of Adnan Syed, who was convicted of homicide in 2000.
Syed was accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999, however he all the time maintained his innocence. His case gained notoriety once more in 2014 after it was profiled on the primary season of the hit podcast Serial.
Syed arrived in courtroom on Monday afternoon in handcuffs. His mom was among the many supporters gathered within the Baltimore courtroom.
Phinn positioned Syed underneath house detention and ordered him to be monitored by a GPS monitoring machine. She gave prosecutors 30 days to determine whether or not to hunt a brand new trial or dismiss the costs towards him.
‘All proper Mr Syed, you’re free to hitch your loved ones,’ Phinn mentioned because the listening to got here to an in depth.
As Syed walked out of the Baltimore Metropolis Circuit Courthouse, he was greeted by a big, cheering crowd.
Maryland State’s Legal professional Marilyn Mosby mentioned that her workplace would ‘stay dedicated to making sure justice for all underneath the regulation. Which incorporates victims, witnesses, accusers, and the accused.’
Not the entire attendees had been as excited in regards to the choice. The sufferer’s brother, Younger Lee, instructed the courtroom he felt betrayed by prosecutors. ‘This isn't a podcast for me. That is actual life,’ he instructed the courtroom.
Mosby mentioned she understood Lee’s frustration and disappointment. ‘You have got some kind of decision, and also you imagine that you've closure, and the case comes again up and rips an entire new wound that you simply assume has healed,’ she mentioned.
Final week, prosecutors filed a movement asking the decide to vacate Syed’s sentence after new proof was uncovered that casts doubt on his conviction.
‘After a virtually year-long investigation reviewing the information of this case, Syed deserves a brand new trial the place he's adequately represented and the newest proof may be offered,’ Mosby said on September 14.
Prosecutors aren't claiming that Syed is harmless, however as an alternative arguing that he deserves a brand new trial.
‘We imagine that holding Mr Syed detained as we proceed to analyze the case with every thing that we all know now, after we shouldn't have confidence in outcomes of the primary trial, can be unjust,’ Mosby mentioned.
Along with new proof, the Mosby additionally mentioned that the prosecution might have did not disclose info to Syed’s protection – together with the truth that investigators did not rule out two further suspects.
One of many suspects was convicted of attacking a lady, and the opposite was convicted of serial rape and sexual assault, the State’s Legal professional mentioned.
Prosecutors additionally didn't disclose that one of many suspects despatched Lee a threatening textual content message simply earlier than her homicide, telling her ‘he would make her disappear. He would kill her.’
Lee, a Korean-American highschool pupil, was discovered partially-buried in a Baltimore metropolis park in January 1999.
Police started investigating Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend, after receiving an nameless cellphone name.
The prosecution’s case towards Syed relied closely on knowledge from cellular phone towers to triangulate his location on the evening Lee’s homicide. The State’s Legal professional now says that the info collected for the case is ‘unreliable,’ and says that prosecutors shouldn't have relied on it for the unique conviction.
‘It merely wouldn’t rise up in courtroom at this time,’ Mosby mentioned outdoors the courthouse on Monday.
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