Maryland Supreme Court reinstates Adnan Syed's murder conviction, orders new hearing

WASHINGTON 

The top court in the US state of Maryland ordered Friday the reinstatement of the murder conviction against Adnan Syed, whose case was the focus of the international hit podcast Serial, and ordered a new hearing in the case.

Syed was convicted in 2000 of murdering his then-high school ex-girlfried, Hae Min Lee, 18. Her body was found in Baltimore's Leakin Park, and a coroner later determined that she was strangled to death.

Maryland's highest court ruled 4-3 to reverse a Baltimore court's decision to toss Syed's murder conviction, and set him free in 2022 after prosecutors found flaws in evidence presented in court, and asked that his conviction be vacated. Syed spent two decades in prison after being sentenced to life plus 30 years.

But the Maryland Supreme Court ruled that the Baltimore court violated the rights of Young Lee, the brother of the victim, by failing to provide him with sufficient notice of the hearing that freed Syed, according to multiple reports.

That hearing must now be redone, according to Maryland's Supreme Court.

“In an effort to remedy what they perceived to be an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the Circuit Court worked an injustice against Mr. Lee by failing to treat him with dignity, respect and sensitivity,” the court ruled, according to the Baltimore Banner news website.

Syed is allowed to remain free in the interim.

The Supreme Court's ruling upholds a 2023 ruling from the Appellate Court of Maryland that the hearing be redone, saying Young Lee's rights were violated. Lee's family filed the appeal arguing that they were not properly notified of the efforts to release Syed.​​​​​​​

Syed has maintained his innocence throughout the legal proceedings.