ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Prosecutors dropped prices towards Adnan Syed on Tuesday within the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, a case that was chronicled within the first season of the hit podcast “Serial.”
Emily Witty, a spokeswoman for town of Baltimore’s state’s legal professional’s workplace, mentioned in an e mail that her workplace had dropped its case towards Syed and would launch additional particulars about its resolution later Tuesday.
Laura Nirider, a co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law who accompanied Syed when he walked out of jail final month, earlier tweeted: “Breaking news: After the latest round of DNA testing generated results that, like previous rounds of testing, excluded Adnan Syed, he has now been formally exonerated!”
A Baltimore decide final month overturned Syed’s homicide conviction and ordered him launched from jail, the place the 41-year-old had spent greater than twenty years. Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn additionally gave prosecutors 30 days by which to determine whether or not to retry Syed or drop the fees.
Phinn dominated that the state had violated its authorized obligation to share proof that would have bolstered Syed’s protection. After his launch, Syed was positioned on residence detention with GPS location monitoring.
Lee’s household had requested Maryland’s intermediate appellate court docket to halt the case. Attorney Steve Kelly mentioned Lee’s household isn’t difficult Syed’s launch, however as a substitute wished the decide to carry one other listening to that the household can attend in-person and handle the court docket — Lee’s brother Young Lee appeared through videoconference on brief discover through the earlier listening to. The legal professional didn’t have an instantaneous remark Tuesday.
Last week, state Attorney General Brian Frosh’s workplace filed court docket papers supporting the attraction by Lee’s household.
Syed has maintained his innocence for many years and captured the eye of thousands and thousands in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” centered on the case and raised doubts about a few of the proof, together with cellphone tower information.
Prosecutors have beforehand mentioned {that a} reinvestigation of the case revealed proof relating to the attainable involvement of two alternate suspects. The two suspects might have been concerned individually or collectively, the state’s legal professional’s workplace mentioned.
One of the suspects had threatened Lee, saying “he would make her (Ms. Lee) disappear. He would kill her,” in line with a court docket submitting.
The suspects have been recognized individuals on the time of the unique investigation and weren’t correctly dominated out nor disclosed to the protection, prosecutors mentioned.
Prosecutors additionally mentioned new data revealed that one of many suspects was convicted of attacking a lady in her automobile, and that one of many suspects was convicted of participating in serial rape and sexual assault.
Prosecutors additionally famous unreliable cellphone information used throughout Syed’s court docket case to corroborate his whereabouts on the day of the crime. The discover on the information particularly suggested that the billing areas for incoming calls “would not be considered reliable information for location.”
Syed served greater than 20 years in jail for the strangling of Lee, who was 18 on the time. Her physique was discovered weeks later buried in a Baltimore park.
More than a decade later, the favored “Serial” podcast revealed little-known proof and attracted thousands and thousands of listeners, shattering podcast-streaming and downloading information.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”