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Serial.
Adnan Syed - the convicted killer at center of hit US podcast Serial - may finally be exonerated after his legal team is allowed to test his murdered ex's rape kit and hairs on her body after 20 years
Prosecutors and defense lawyers in Adnan Syed's murder case agreed to file a joint motion on Thursday, asking a judge to test evidence from Hae Min Lee's killing for DNA sing modern methods.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10604179/Adnan-Syed-scores-legal-win-evidence-tested-DNA.html
Prosecutors and defense lawyers in Adnan Syed's murder case agreed to file a joint motion on Thursday, asking a judge to test evidence from Hae Min Lee's killing for DNA sing modern methods.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10604179/Adnan-Syed-scores-legal-win-evidence-tested-DNA.html
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19864044/serial-podcast-how-to-listen/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_(podcast)
BALTIMORE (AP) — The creator of a true-crime podcast that helped free a Maryland man imprisoned for two decades in a murder case said that she feels a mix of emotions over how long it took authorities to act on evidence that's long been available.
In a new episode of the “Serial” 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. Because we’ve built a system that takes more than 20 years to self-correct. And that’s just this one case.”
She argued that the case against Syed, which was featured on the first season of “Serial” in 2014, involved “just about every chronic problem” in the system, including unreliable witness testimony and evidence that was never shared with Syed's defense team.
On Monday, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn in Baltimore ordered Syed's release after overturning his conviction for the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee, Syed's ex-girlfriend. Syed was 17 at the time of Lee’s slaying and has always maintained his innocence.
At the behest of prosecutors who had uncovered new evidence, Phinn ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated as she approved the release of the now-41-year-old.
Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense. She ordered Syed to be placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring. The judge also said the state must decide whether to seek a new trial date or dismiss the case within 30 days.
The Baltimore prosecutor’s office filed a motion last week to vacate Syed's conviction, a filing that Koenig described as a “firework" coming from the same office that asked a jury to convict Syed more than two decades ago.
“The prosecutors today are not saying Adnan is innocent. They stopped short of exonerating,” she said. “Instead they’re saying that ‘back in 1999, we didn’t investigate this case thoroughly enough. We relied on evidence we shouldn’t have and we broke the rules when we prosecuted. This wasn’t an honest conviction.'”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/serial-host-evidence-freed-syed-145459205.html
In 2000, Adnan Syed, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland, was convicted of strangling and killing his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
The case - in which the prosecution painted Syed as a violent and jealous ex-lover who brutally killed a bright and talented young woman - made national headlines.
On Monday, a Maryland judge overturned his conviction and set a deadline for a new trial.
Conviction quashed in Serial podcast murder case
For nearly 25 years Syed has maintained his innocence. His case won a massive boost from an unlikely source - a podcast.
What is Serial and when did it come out?
More than a decade after Syed was sent to prison, Rabia Chaudry, a Baltimore-based lawyer and family friend of the Syeds, emailed a journalist named Sarah Koenig and asked her to re-investigate Lee's murder.
That email helped launch the first season of the podcast Serial. The show premiered in autumn 2014 and each episode tried to piece together a timeline of what happened the night Lee was killed.
Who killed Hae Min Lee?
That's the question at the heart of Serial and it will
"For the last year I've spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for an hour after school one day in 1999," Ms Koenig says in the first episode.
Only now, the "kids" she interviewed were adults and some of their stories had changed.
As each episode revealed new details - and potential new suspects - internet sleuths and armchair detectives sprang into action and argued their theories on social media.
Within months, the chatter around Syed's case would ultimately help him win a new trial.
Who are the other suspects?
In the latest episode of Serial, Koenig lays out why Adnan Syed's conviction was overturned. She says his lawyers argued new evidence had emerged showing that during the original trial prosecutors failed to investigate and rule out two potential suspects who were known to detectives at the time. Syed's lawyers also questioned the reliability of witness statements and cell phone evidence originally used to convict him.
A judge agreed and overturned Syed's conviction, but it does not mean he's been cleared of Lee's murder. Prosecutors now have to decide whether they will retry Adnan Syed or re-open Hae Min Lee's case and look for new suspects.
The Serial podcast is hosted by journalist Sarah Koenig
Why was the show so popular?
Serial helped ignite the popularity of podcasts. Ms Koenig's signature confessional style, as well as the true crime topic, kept listeners returning - and downloading - the show every week.
The first season of Serial has been downloaded more than 300 million times and the show is widely cited as one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
Though subsequent seasons of the show were less popular, in many ways, Ms Koenig and her team helped create the formula for a "bingeable" podcast.
But did it really help Syed?
In 2015, Syed was granted a new trial based, in part, on new evidence uncovered while making Serial.
But a judge also denied his request for bail. He remained imprisoned for years as his legal team argued for a new trial and tried to appeal his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court.
In 2019, HBO premiered a four-part documentary series produced by Ms Chaudry called The Case Against Adnan Syed.
The series argued that Syed, who is Muslim, was convicted, in part, because of racial bias.
It ultimately revealed that forensic analyses had found no trace of his DNA on Lee's body at the time of the murder.
What about Lee and her family?
The Lee family refused to participate in Serial, and has always maintained that they believe Syed was rightfully convicted and justice was served during the original trial.
In 2016, when Syed was granted a new trial, the family told reporters that the podcast had "reopened wounds few can imagine", according to the Baltimore Sun. They also said they believed people had been misinformed by the podcast and regretted that "so few [were] willing to speak up for Hae".
Before the judge ruled on Monday, Young Lee, the victim's brother, made an emotional plea before the court on behalf of the family.
"This is not a podcast for me. This is real life - a never-ending nightmare for 20-plus years."
What's next?
With Syed's conviction overturned, prosecutors have the next 30 days to decide whether they will bring a new trial or drop the charges against him.
If Lee's murder investigation is reopened, new evidence could help exonerate Syed.
It may also give the grieving Lee family some much-needed closure at long last.
Prosecutors say they have identified two possible "alternate" suspects, neither of whom has yet been named or ever charged in the case.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-62964216