The highest court in Maryland on Friday ordered a lower court to redo a hearing that had freed Adnan Syed, whose conviction for the murder of his former high school girlfriend gained widespread attention when the case was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.”
In 2022, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City moved to vacate Mr. Syed’s 2000 conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee, for which he had been serving a life sentence, and the conviction was overturned. In 2023, the Appellate Court of Maryland reinstated it, ruling that a lower court had violated the right of Ms. Lee’s brother, Young Lee, to have been notified of and attend the hearing.
Ms. Lee was killed by strangulation in 1999 at 18 years old. She had been a student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, Md. Mr. Syed spent 23 years in prison fighting charges that he had killed her.
The court upheld an appellate court’s decision to reinstate his conviction. In the opinion filed on Friday, the Supreme Court of Maryland agreed that the rights of Mr. Lee had been violated.
The high court’s ruling said that the prosecutor gave Mr. Lee “less than one business day’s notice” for the in-person hearing, and that his request for a one-week postponement was denied.
The filing said that “Mr. Lee’s rights as the crime victim’s representative were violated,” adding that the case would be remanded to the circuit court for Baltimore City for further proceedings.
The decision by the Maryland Supreme Court, which passed with a 4-3 ruling, meant that Mr. Syed’s murder conviction would remain reinstated. It was the latest development in a long-running saga surrounding the case.
The justices did not order changes to Mr. Syed’s release, meaning he can remain free as the lower court decides on the conviction.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement: “The decision is currently under review by our office and we have no further comment at this time.”
David Sanford, who represents the family of Ms. Lee, said in a statement: “If there is compelling evidence to support vacating the conviction of Adnan Syed, we will be the first to agree.” He added, “To date, the public has not seen evidence which would warrant overturning a murder conviction that has withstood appeals for over two decades."