Adnan Syed Back in Court: Will His Murder Conviction Remain Reinstated?
Adnan Syed was convicted in 2000 of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, and his conviction was vacated in 2022 before being reinstated this year
Adnan Syed, who was released from prison in 2022 after spending 23 years behind bars following the death of his ex-girlfriend, was back in a Maryland court Thursday, according to the Associated Press, ABC News and USA Today.
Syed, whose case gained massive attention following the hit true-crime podcast Serial, was released in September 2022 after Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated his first-degree murder conviction in connection with the death of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee, PEOPLE reported previously.
Following his release, Young Lee, the brother and legal representative of the victim, said in an appeal that he wasn’t given enough notice to appear at the hearing that vacated the conviction, according to ABC News.
In March of this year, the Appellate Court of Maryland cited Young Lee’s concerns and reinstated Syed's conviction and issued a new hearing, The Associated Press reported at the time. In the interim, Syed was not forced to back to prison.
At Thursday's hearing at the Maryland Supreme Court, judges considered issues such as whether Syed's murder conviction should remain reinstated, the Associated Press reports. They will also consider in what capacity Maryland crime victims can participate in cases of vacating a conviction.
According to the outlet, Syed said on Thursday he hopes for justice for both Lee's family and his own.
“We believe very strongly in trying to find justice for Hae and her family,” he told reporters. “And we’re hoping also that we’re able to find justice for us, too.”
Syed, of Baltimore, was serving a life sentence after his 2000 conviction for Lee's 1999 murder and kidnapping. At the time of the crime, he was 17.
He has always maintained his innocence, which was explored in the 2014 podcast, and later an HBO documentary.
Following questions raised in the hit podcast, Syed's conviction was overturned in 2016 and he was granted a new trial, a ruling upheld by an appeals court in 2018.
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However, he remained behind bars, and in 2019, Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled to uphold his conviction and denied him a new trial.
The case received new life when prosecutors agreed in March 2022 to conduct new DNA tests on evidence used to convict him, eventually leading to his release in September of that year.
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