Maryland judge weighs vacating murder conviction of “Serial” podcast subject Syed

(Reuters) – A judge is due to weigh a request on Monday by Baltimore prosecutors to vacate the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case gained national attention when the podcast “Serial” raised doubts about his guilt.

Adnan Syed, 42, has always said he was innocent and did not kill his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, who was 18 when she was strangled and buried in a Baltimore park in 1999.

The state’s attorney for Baltimore filed a motion to vacate the conviction on Wednesday following a year-long investigation conducted alongside a public defender representing Syed.

Prosecutors wrote that they were not asserting that Syed is innocent but that they no longer had confidence in “the integrity of the conviction,” and that justice required that Syed at least be afforded a new trial. Syed should be released from prison, where he has spent two decades, while prosecutors complete the investigation and decide whether to seek a new trial.

Prosecutors told Judge Melissa M. Phinn of the Circuit Court in Baltimore that they had found new information about two alternative suspects, whom they have not named. They also found new information that cast doubt on the cellphone data prosecutors relied upon at trial to place Syed at the scene of the murder.

The podcast “Serial,” produced by Chicago public radio station WBEZ, drew national attention to the case in 2014.

Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, in a statement said her office had spoken with Lee’s family and that “the person responsible for this heinous crime must be held accountable.”

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