Baltimore: After spending 16 years in prison for the killing of his former high school girlfriend, a man at the center of popular podcast “Serial” has a chance at freedom.
Retired Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin Welch on Friday ruled that Adnan Syed, 35, deserved a new trial because his lawyer didn’t challenge testimony in the case that became the focus of the podcast, which captivated millions of listeners.
Syed was convicted in 2000 of murdering Hae Min Lee a year earlier and burying her in a shallow grave in a park in northwest Baltimore.
He was sentenced to life in prison. During a post-conviction hearing in February, Syed’s attorneys argued he deserved a retrial on the grounds that his original attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, did not contact Asia McClain Chapman, an alibi witness who said she saw him at the library about the same time prosecutors say Lee was murdered.
“This is obviously an incredible victory,” Syed’s attorney Justin Brown said.
