Adnan Syed, who was the topic of the groundbreaking crime podcast “Serial,” is requesting a sentence discount so he can stay free as he fights his homicide conviction, his authorized staff stated Monday.
Syed was sentenced to life plus 30 years for the 1999 homicide of his highschool ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, when he was 17. He had served practically 24 years in jail when he was launched in 2022 after a Baltimore metropolis choose overturned the conviction.
Lee’s household fought the choice, arguing they weren’t provided enough discover to argue earlier than the courtroom, and Syed’s conviction was reinstated last year, however he was basically allowed to remain free. His authorized staff continues to battle to overturn his conviction.
The discount request, filed Friday in Baltimore Circuit Court and introduced Monday, was made below Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act, which permits individuals imprisoned for no less than 20 years for crimes that occurred once they have been minors to ask for reductions, Syed’s authorized staff stated.
Syed is now 43.
“This submitting is a small step towards making certain that Adnan’s custody standing is stabilized and his freedom is safeguarded,” stated Erica J. Suter, director of the Innocence Project Clinic on the University of Baltimore Law School, which has championed his case.
David Sanford, a lawyer for Lee’s household, stated by e mail Monday that Syed’s authorized representatives “haven’t introduced a shred of latest, not to mention compelling, proof” supporting his innocence or worthiness for a decreased sentence.
“Adnan Syed stays a convicted assassin,” Sanford stated. “Having failed to supply new proof and with none acknowledgment of guilt by Mr. Syed, Syed’s attorneys now search mercy, arguing that Mr. Syed will not be a hazard to the general public. We will talk to the household of Hae Min Lee and current our place to the courtroom within the days forward.”
The Maryland Supreme Court final 12 months affirmed a decrease courtroom’s resolution to reinstate Syed’s conviction as a result of, in line with its ruling, Lee’s brother, Young Lee, was not handled with “dignity, respect, and sensitivity” when a courtroom failed to tell him of the method in a well timed method.
The excessive courtroom didn’t order Syed incarcerated, however his authorized staff stays involved about whether or not that would occur.
“Because the conviction was reinstated, he and his family members stay with the fixed worry that he will likely be despatched again to jail,” the Maryland Office of the Public Defender stated in its assertion Monday saying the sentence discount request.
The workplace is working with the Innocence Project Clinic to overturn Syed’s conviction.
In its request to the Baltimore Circuit Court, Syed’s authorized staff stated he has “performed himself admirably” whereas free, serving to to handle growing old dad and mom and in-laws whereas ha has been working for Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, which seeks to empower prisoners and former prisoners as students, professionals and advocates.
In 2014, “Serial” broke ground as the most prominent in a new wave of true crime podcasts, with its journalists specializing in the shortcomings of a winner-takes-all justice system whose losers are disproportionately nonwhite. HBO adopted up with a docuseries, “The Case Against Adnan Syed,” in 2019.
Syed and Lee attended Woodlawn High School and had been courting secretly — they feared their dad and mom have been too far aside culturally to grasp — once they broke up in December 1998, “Serial” reported. Lee was seeing another person when she disappeared the following month, and her physique was present in February 1999.
Prosecutors introduced cellphone knowledge on Syed’s whereabouts and the testimony of a witness who stated he helped Syed bury Lee’s physique, in line with NBC affiliate WBAL of Baltimore. But a buddy who stated Syed was together with her on the time didn’t testify.
Prosecutors re-examined the case towards Syed and in the end sided together with his defenders after they discovered unreliable proof and no less than two various suspects who weren’t property scrutinized, they’ve stated. The similar establishment that secured a homicide conviction, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, efficiently filed to vacate Syed’s conviction.
DNA from Lee’s sneakers — her physique was discovered with proof of strangulation — was re-examined with extra up to date know-how and excluded Syed as a suspect, prosecutors have stated.
Syed stays a homicide convict as his authorized staff seeks to have his conviction vacated anew. As such, he may be remanded to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence.
“We preserve his innocence and our mission of proving that hasn’t modified,” Suter, of the Innocence Project Clinic, stated in Monday’s assertion in regards to the discount request. “If granted, we are able to flip our focus again to vacating his unjust conviction, once more.”
