Prosecutors dropped charges against Adnan Syed on Tuesday in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial” — after additional DNA testing further undermined his conviction, his lawyer said.
21.09.2022 - 21:53 / deadline.com
HBO Documentary Films is in production on a follow-up episode to the critically acclaimed, four-part docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed. Directed by Amy Berg, the episode will feature exclusive access to Syed leading up to and following his release from prison earlier this week, after 23 years behind bars. The new episode will debut in 2023.
Syed’s prosecution in the 1999 killing of his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee was examined in minute detail in the massively popular 2014 season of the hit podcast Serial. The docuseries premiered in March 2019 and is currently available on HBO Max.
Berg has been filming the follow-up episode in Maryland since early 2021. Most recently, Berg was in the courthouse Tuesday when Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn approved the motion to vacate Syed’s murder conviction. The investigation from the original series was referenced as evidence in the hearing.
New Adnan Syed Prosecution Is “Remote At Best”, Says ‘Serial’ Producer
“We knew the end of The Case Against Adnan Syed was not the end of this story, and we’ve been closely following every twist and turn in the case since the series premiered in March 2019,” said Berg. “It’s gratifying to see many of the questions and issues probed in the original episodes come to bear on the events of this week.”
The Case Against Adnan Syed docuseries was produced by Working Title TV and Instinct Productions and was a production of HBO Documentary Films in association with Sky. Berg directed. Henrietta Conrad, Jemima Khan, Rabia Chaudry served as executive producers.
Prosecutors dropped charges against Adnan Syed on Tuesday in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial” — after additional DNA testing further undermined his conviction, his lawyer said.
Baltimore prosecutors have dropped the charges against "Serial" podcast subject Adnan Syed, who had been convicted of killing a former girlfriend more than two decades ago, but saw his sentence vacated last month. Judge Melissa Phinn granted Balitmore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's request to vacate Syed's sentence on September 19 based on new evidence, the existence of other potential suspects, and gave prosecutors 30 days to decide whether to re-try Syed in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee. Mosby announced her decision in an afternoon news briefing.
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.
Baltimore prosecutors have dropped all charges against Adnan Syed, the man whose conviction on murder charges was chronicled in the hit podcast Serial.
. Emily Witty, a spokeswoman for the city of Baltimore's state's attorney's office, said in an email that her office had dropped its case against Syed and would release further details about its decision later Tuesday.Laura Nirider, a co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law who accompanied Syed when he walked out of prison last month, tweeted: «Breaking news: After the latest round of DNA testing generated results that, like previous rounds of testing, excluded Adnan Syed, he has now been formally exonerated!»Erica Suter, a lawyer who has represented Syed in court during his push to be freed, confirmed the charges were dropped to .«Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,» Suter said. «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.»A Baltimore judge last month overturned Syed's murder conviction and ordered him released from prison, where the 41-year-old had spent more than two decades.
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vacated on Monday. His case attracted major publicity because of its spotlight on the hit true-crime podcast “Serial.”According to NPR, Phinn’s decision relied on an extensive review of Syed’s case by prosecutors in Maryland, which revealed that authorities knew of at least two alternative suspects to Syed in the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999.According to The Associated Press, Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share exculpatory evidence with Syed’s defense.
Ethan Shanfeld After Adnan Syed was released from prison on Sept. 19 after serving 23 years for the murder of Hae Min Lee, HBO Documentary Films announced it is in production on a follow-up episode to its 2019 docuseries “The Case Against Adnan Syed,” set for release in 2023. Directed by Amy Berg, the four-part series followed the killing of 18-year-old Lee and the trial and conviction of Syed, her ex-boyfriend. Berg has been filming the follow-up episode in Maryland since early 2021 and was in the courthouse Monday when a Baltimore judge approved the motion to vacate Syed’s murder conviction. The investigation from “The Case Against Adnan Syed” was referenced as evidence in this week’s hearing.
The Daily Show host Trevor Noah took note of the latest developments in the Serial case – the overturning of the conviction of Adnan Syed – joking about the popularity of podcasts before turning serious about the role of true justice in the justice system.
Adnan Syed‘s criminal case has been an ongoing topic of discussion since the “Serial” podcast generated new interest in his conviction.
https://t.co/0O60tPrtxS“Adnan’s case was a mess — is a mess. That’s pretty much where we were when we stopped reporting in 2014,” Koenig said.
#WeFreedAdnan pic.twitter.com/CAr1DDuzB7"I arise full of joy," Rabia captioned the image. She added the hashtag, "We Freed Adnan."Another of Adnan's attorneys also shared a snap of him enjoying his newfound freedom with his mother, Shamim SyedWelcome home Adnan. pic.twitter.com/x2oG6VKBCI"Welcome home Adnan," attorney Erica J.
In a new 17-minute episode of Serial updating the latest developments in the murder case that rocketed the podcast to international success, host and exec producer Sarah Koenig says she believes “the chances of the state ever trying to prosecutor Adnan [Syed] again are remote at best.”
podcast released Tuesday, a day after Adnan Syed walked out of court following the vacating of his murder conviction, host Sarah Koenig noted that most or all of the evidence cited in prosecutors' motion to overturn the conviction was available since 1999.«Yesterday, there was a lot of talk about fairness, but most of what the state put in that motion to vacate, all the actual evidence, was either known or knowable to cops and prosecutors back in 1999,» Koenig said in concluding the new episode. «So even on a day when the government publicly recognizes its own mistakes, it's hard to feel cheered about a triumph of fairness.
Ethan Shanfeld Adnan Syed has been released from prison after serving 23 years behind bars for the murder of Hae Min Lee, after a Baltimore judge overturned the case. As his story continues, so does true crime podcast “Serial,” which popularized the case and made Syed a household name in its record-setting first season, which investigated the murder. Returning to the mic on Tuesday morning with “Serial’s” first new episode since 2018 was host Sarah Koenig, who was at the Baltimore City Circuit Court when Syed was released Monday. Prosecutors were given 30 days to decide whether to move for a new trial or drop the case against Syed, who is now 41. Here are the main takeaways from the brand new episode of “Serial”:
The case of Adnan Syed, whom you may know as the subject of podcast Serial‘s 2014 season, has taken a huge turn.
Adnan Syed is a free man!
Adnan Syed, the subject of the hit podcast , has been released from prison after spending 23 years behind bars. On Monday, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn overturned Syed's conviction «in the interest of justice,» granting him a new trial. Syed’s shackles were removed, and the judge ordered Syed to be released under home detention while the investigation continues into the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.Under Maryland state law, prosecutors will now have 30 days to decide whether to drop the charges against Syed or to retry the case.The move came after prosecutors made a request for his release Wednesday, saying that «the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction.» After a new, almost year-long investigation, prosecutors said they had doubts about the validity of cell phone tower data presented in the trial, and uncovered new information about the possible involvement of two alternate unnamed suspects.Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of Lee, and was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.