BREAKING: Maryland Supreme Court reinstates conviction of Adnan Syed in killing of Hae Min Lee

The conviction of Adnan Syed has been reinstated by the Maryland Supreme Court. Syed had been convicted in Baltimore in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Hae Min Lee, but that conviction was overturned after The New York Times released the investigative podcast Serial bringing up questions in the case. Syed was convicted in 2000 in Baltimore.

In the lengthy, 187-page majority opinion, the court wrote that the conviction was vacated in 2022 without following the proper procedure of allowing the victim, in this case Young Lee, brother to the deceased, the opportunity to attend the hearing. The court said the lower court judge had "worked an injustice."

"The prosecutor gave the crime victim’s representative, Young Lee (Ms. Lee’s brother), less than one business day’s notice of an in-person hearing on the motion to vacate. As the prosecutor and the presiding judge were aware, Mr. Lee lives in California. The court denied Mr. Lee’s request for a one-week postponement of the hearing, which would have allowed Mr. Lee to attend the hearing in person in Baltimore," the court said.

"The requested postponement having been denied, Mr. Lee observed the hearing remotely," the court continued. "Mr. Syed appeared in person. The court allowed Mr. Lee to make a statement at the beginning of the hearing, prior to the presentations by the prosecutor and defense counsel. After Mr. Lee completed his remarks, the court denied Mr. Lee's attorney's request to be heard briefly."

In conclusion, the court said "In an effort to remedy what they perceived to be an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the circuit court worked an injustice against Mr. Lee by failing to treat him with dignity, respect, and sensitivity and, in particular, by violating Mr. Lee’s rights as a crime victim’s representative to reasonable notice of the Vacatur Hearing, the right to attend the hearing in person, and the right to be heard on the merits of the Vacatur Motion."

The case was the basis of the 2014 season 1 of the Serial podcast. The murder occurred in 1999. On October 11, 2022, Syed was freed as a result of the podcast, hosted by Sarah Koenig. "Adnan's case is over," Koenig reported at the time. "It happened this morning, quickly and quietly. No packed courtroom, no crying, no cheering. Instead, during a court hearing via Zoom, Baltimore City prosecutor Becky Feldman told the judge that her office was dropping all the charges against Adnan. They won’t be re-trying him for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee."

Hae Minn Lee went missing in Baltimore, in 1999. Six weeks after she was last seen at school, her body was found in Leakin Park. Syed, her ex-boyfriend and a high-school classmate, was arrested for her murder. He was later convicted. Serial picked up the story in 2014 and over 12 episodes raised questions about his guilt. That led directly to the conviction being overturned.

The ruling from Maryland's highest court states that the conviction against Syed should be reinstated and the case returned to the lower court where a hearing can be held to determine whether or not the case should be dismissed. 

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