The ever-surprising case of Adnan Syed, whose murder conviction was examined in a massively popular season of the podcast Serial, has taken another stunning turn: The 2022 vacation of his conviction has been overturned on appeal.
According to The Washington Post, a Maryland appellate court panel today reinstated Syed’s conviction in the 1999 murder of his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Syed, 17 at the time of the murder, was convicted of the crime in 2000, but in a surprising twist last year Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the conviction due to problems in how prosecutors had turned over evidence to defense attorneys before the original trial.
But today, in a 2-1 decision, the Maryland appellate court reinstated the convictions and prison sentence – at least for now – by ruling that the process by which the conviction was vacated violated the rights of Hae Min Lee’s brother Young Lee, who has argued that he was given less than one day’s notice prior to Syed’s release from prison. Prosecutors at the time stated that they would no longer pursue the case against Syed.
Young Lee had argued that the Baltimore city state’s attorney gave him less than one business day’s notice of the hearing at which Syed’s conviction was vacated, and that the short notice didn’t allow him time to prepare a response or to attend a hearing in the case.
Any further action in the case, apparently including Syed’s return to prison, will be on hold for 60 days to allow both sides time to plan their responses.
