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Prosecutors dropped fees in opposition to Adnan Syed on Tuesday within the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, a case that was chronicled within the first season of the hit podcast “Serial.”
Emily Witty, a spokeswoman for town of Baltimore’s state’s legal professional’s workplace, stated in an electronic mail that her workplace had dropped its case in opposition to Syed and would launch additional particulars about its determination later Tuesday.
Laura Nirider, a co-director of the Middle on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker Faculty of Legislation who accompanied Syed when he walked out of jail final month, earlier tweeted: “Breaking information: After the newest spherical of DNA testing generated outcomes that, like earlier rounds of testing, excluded Adnan Syed, he has now been formally exonerated!”
A Baltimore choose final month overturned Syed’s homicide conviction and ordered him launched from jail, the place the 41-year-old had spent greater than twenty years. Circuit Choose Melissa Phinn additionally gave prosecutors 30 days through which to determine whether or not to retry Syed or drop the fees.
Phinn dominated that the state had violated its authorized obligation to share proof that might have bolstered Syed’s protection. After his launch, Syed was positioned on dwelling detention with GPS location monitoring.
Lee’s household had requested Maryland’s intermediate appellate court docket to halt the case. Lawyer Steve Kelly stated Lee’s household isn’t difficult Syed’s launch, however as a substitute needed the choose to carry one other listening to that the household can attend in-person and tackle the court docket — Lee’s brother Younger Lee appeared by way of videoconference on brief discover throughout the earlier listening to. The legal professional didn’t have a direct remark Tuesday.
Final week, state Lawyer Basic Brian Frosh’s workplace filed court docket papers supporting the attraction by Lee’s household.
Syed has maintained his innocence for many years and captured the eye of hundreds of thousands in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” targeted on the case and raised doubts about a few of the proof, together with cellphone tower knowledge.
Prosecutors have beforehand stated {that a} reinvestigation of the case revealed proof relating to the doable involvement of two alternate suspects. The 2 suspects could have been concerned individually or collectively, the state’s legal professional’s workplace stated.
One of many suspects had threatened Lee, saying “he would make her (Ms. Lee) disappear. He would kill her,” in keeping with a court docket submitting.
The suspects have been identified individuals on the time of the unique investigation and weren’t correctly dominated out nor disclosed to the protection, prosecutors stated.
Prosecutors additionally stated new data revealed that one of many suspects was convicted of attacking a lady in her car, and that one of many suspects was convicted of partaking in serial rape and sexual assault.
Prosecutors additionally famous unreliable cellphone knowledge used throughout Syed’s court docket case to corroborate his whereabouts on the day of the crime. The discover on the information particularly suggested that the billing places for incoming calls “wouldn’t be thought of dependable data for location.”
Syed served greater than 20 years in jail for the strangling of Lee, who was 18 on the time. Her physique was discovered weeks later buried in a Baltimore park.
Greater than a decade later, the favored “Serial” podcast revealed little-known proof and attracted hundreds of thousands of listeners, shattering podcast-streaming and downloading information.
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