Court Reinstates Adnan Syed’s Murder Conviction in ‘Serial’ Case and Orders New Hearing

A Maryland appeals court on Tuesday reinstated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, the subject of the “Serial” podcast who was freed last year after he had spent 23 years fighting charges that he had killed his former high school girlfriend.

The Appellate Court of Maryland ruled that a trial court had violated the right of Young Lee, brother of Hae Min Lee, the victim, to have been notified of and to attend the hearing in September when a judge vacated Syed’s conviction.

In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court ordered the trial court to hold a new hearing on the motion to vacate Syed’s conviction that would give Lee enough notice to attend in person, unlike the previous hearing, which he joined via Zoom.

The decision does not mean that Syed, 41, must immediately return to prison because the appeals court issued a 60-day stay of its ruling to give both sides time to consider next steps, said David Sanford, one of Lee’s lawyers.

Sanford applauded the appeals court for agreeing with Lee that the trial court had violated his right to be given adequate notice of the hearing in September and to be physically present at the hearing.

“We are equally pleased that the Appellate Court is directing the lower court to conduct a transparent hearing where the evidence will be presented in open court and the court’s decision will be based on evidence for the world to see,” Sanford said in a statement.

Erica J. Suter, Syed’s lawyer, said she planned to appeal the decision to reinstate Syed’s conviction to the Supreme Court of Maryland, the state’s highest court.

“There is no basis for re-traumatizing Adnan by returning him to the status of a convicted felon,” Suter said in a statement. “For the time being, Adnan remains a free man.”

She added, “Ensuring justice for Hae Min Lee does not require injustice for Adnan.”

The Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, which had pushed to overturn Syed’s conviction, was reviewing the decision, according to a spokesperson, James E. Bentley II.

“We must allow the appeals process to play itself out,” Bentley said in a statement. “Mr. Syed and his legal team may file for an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court, and we must respect their rights to do so until those rights are either heard or that request is denied; we are in a holding pattern.”

Doug Colbert, a law professor who teaches criminal procedure at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, called the decision “stunning and surprising.”

Colbert, who briefly represented Syed at the first bail hearings after his arrest in 1999, said in an interview that he found it odd that a court would find that a Zoom call didn’t satisfy the right of a victim’s relative to be heard.

“The court honored and respected Mr. Lee’s right to speak,” he said. Still, he added that a new hearing in the case would be unlikely to change the outcome for Syed. “It’s really difficult to envision something new occurring at the do-over proceeding,” Colbert said.

A prominent victims’ rights lawyer, Paul Cassell, said the decision was welcome news to those fighting for a greater voice for crime victims.

“It is precedent-setting,” said Cassell, a former federal judge who teaches victims’ rights at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. “I think what this case shows is when the spotlight is on, and when attorneys are available to assert victims’ rights, then victims’ rights are respected.”

Lee had argued that the trial court had given him only 30 minutes of notice to race home, gather his thoughts without the input of his lawyer, and speak extemporaneously about his sister’s murder, with no information about the evidence supporting the state’s motion to overturn Syed’s conviction.

Lee had asked the trial court to postpone the hearing so he could attend in person, but Judge Melissa M. Phinn of Baltimore City Circuit Court rejected his request. Lee then joined the hearing on Zoom after one of his lawyers called him at work.

“This is not a podcast for me,” Lee had said, voice wavering, when he addressed the court. “This is real life — a never-ending nightmare for 20-plus years.”

After Lee spoke, Phinn vacated Syed’s conviction, finding that prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence that could have helped Syed at trial and discovered new evidence that could have affected the outcome of his case.

Syed had been serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling Lee, whose body was found buried in a park in Baltimore in 1999. Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment.

The appeals court found that Phinn had denied Lee’s request to postpone the hearing to overturn Syed’s convictions, “despite there being no showing that it was necessary” to hold it that day in September.

Maryland law provides victims’ relatives with the right to prior notice of a hearing on a motion to vacate and the right to attend the hearing, the court said.

David Gray, who teaches criminal law and procedure at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, said he was concerned that the decision might set a precedent for victims to insert themselves into criminal cases.

“It’s a big old mess,” he said, “and I think that’s a consequence of giving a victim effective standing in a criminal case.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.