‘Serial’ Redemption: Prosecutors Drop Murder Charges Against Podcast Subject Adnan Syed

Benjamin Lindsay
·2 min read

Adnan Syed was exonerated Tuesday in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee. Prosecutors dropped the murder charges in a case that gave rise to the “Serial” podcast and a 2019 HBO docuseries after a new round of DNA testing excluded his involvement in the murder case.

Syed was released from prison in September after serving more than two decades behind bars when a Baltimore’s Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn vacated his conviction.

Per a press release from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, the charges against Syed being dropped will result in the dismissal of the criminal case for which he was incarcerated for 23 years. The release also noted that the state’s attorney would not further prosecute Syed in this murder trial following the results of new DNA testing from evidence found at the scene.

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“Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,” said Syed’s attorney Erica Suter, assistant public defender and director of the Innocence Project Clinic at University of Baltimore Law School, in a statement. “The DNA results confirmed what we have already known and what underlies all of the current proceedings: that Adnan is innocent and lost 23 years of his life serving time for a crime he did not commit.”

Syed was convicted for the 1999 murder of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, but a new investigation found that police withheld information, including the existence of two additional suspects, from Syed’s lawyers.

Reporting on last month’s decision to vacate his conviction, The Associated Press said Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share exculpatory evidence with Syed’s defense. She ordered him released from custody and placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring. Per her ruling, the state had 30 days to decide whether to seek a new trial or dismiss the case.

Speaking to Tuesday’s exoneration, Suter concluded, “While the proceedings are not completely over, this is an important step for Adnan, who has been on house arrest since the motion to vacate was first granted last month. He still needs some time to process everything that has happened and we ask that you provide him and his family with that space.”

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