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.”
“Adnan’s case was a mess,” Koenig says after summarizing the reasons why a Maryland judge vacated Syed’s conviction in the 1999 murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee. “Is a mess. That’s pretty much where we were when we stopped reporting in 2014.”
In the new episode Koenig describes the atmosphere in the courtroom yesterday as Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the first-degree murder conviction and ordered Syed’s release from prison after 23 years behind bars. “Shockingly quiet,” is how Koenig describes it.
Prosecutors, she said, “stopped short of exonerating” Syed, but conceded that his conviction in 2000 “wasn’t an honest conviction.”
The origins of the reconsidered case came just short of a year ago with the Oct. 2, 2021, passage of a new Maryland law called the Juvenile Restoration Act that allows prisoners convicted as juveniles who have served at least 20 years behind bars to seek new sentences. Lawyers for Syed, who was 17 at the time of Hae Min Lee’s murder in 1999, petitioned the court under the new law.
A new prosecutor assigned to review the case made some disturbing discoveries, including notes handwritten by a detective during the initial investigation that linked two additional suspects to the murder – information that was not shared with Syed’s lawyers at the time.
The new investigation also found problems with the much-discussed cell phone location records – a significant aspect of both the trial case and the original Serial podcast – as well as inconsistencies in the supposed eyewitness testimony of Jay Wilds, an acquaintance of both Syed and Hae Min Lee. Wilds was a controversial presence in the 2014 Serial podcast, dividing listeners as to his credibility.
“Jay’s story has gotten even more confusing in the years since the trial,” Koenig says in the today’s Serial episode.
Koenig says that as prosecutors re-investigated the charges against Syed, “the case just kind of crumbled.” Koenig adds sardonically, “I know. If you’ve heard Season One of Serial, you know how I got there.”
Last week, prosecutors moved to have the conviction vacated.
The podcaster notes that Baltimore prosecutors have stated that they will continue to investigate the murder case with the newly uncovered leads, but Koenig adds that she believes “the chances of the stte ever trying to prosecute Adnan again are remote at best.”
