BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: The Maryland Supreme Court announced on Wednesday, June 28 that it will hear an appeal from Adnan Syed after a lower court reinstated his conviction for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The court has scheduled the legal briefs for August and oral arguments on October 5. Officials also noted that appeals from the victim’s family will be heard during set hearings.
In 2000, Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast 'Serial', was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of strangling Hae Min Lee to death and burying her body in a shallow grave in Baltimore's Leakin Park. The Korean-American high school student was last seen alive on January 13, 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. Syed was prosecuted as an adult even though he was only 17 at the time of the murder and has always insisted on being innocent. After spending more than 20 years in jail, he was released in September 2022 when Baltimore prosecutors discovered errors with the testimony at trial and the court decided to overturn his conviction.
Requests Syed made in his appeal
However, Lee's family contested the court ruling, claiming they weren't given prior notice to attend the hearing that freed Syed. Following the re-appeal, the Maryland Appellate Court concurred in March and ordered a new hearing as well as the reinstatement of Syed's conviction. Syed’s attorney, Erica Suter, then appealed that ruling to the state’s highest court. She asked the seven justices to take into account whether the dismissal of Syed's criminal charges by Marilyn Mosby, the former state's attorney for Baltimore, rendered the family's legal appeal moot. Suter also wants the justices to decide if the Zoom testimony satisfied the right of the victim’s representative to attend the hearing and whether the family had enough notice, according to CBS News.
Who is Hae Min Lee's mother?
Min Lee was born in South Korea in 1980 to her mother Youn Kim. Not much is known about Kim except that she and her two children – Hae and her brother Young Lee – moved to the United States in 1992 to live with Lee’s grandparents. However, following Syed’s appeal, Youn and her family submitted their own petition to the court, requesting that victims be given even more of a voice in proceedings to overturn convictions by enabling them to contest the evidence and cross-examine witnesses.
“The State of Maryland supports victims and their families with rights acknowledged by Maryland’s own state constitution and statutory scheme,” said David Sanford, an attorney for the Lee family in a statement after the court announced it will hear the appeals. “We will urge the Maryland Supreme Court to recognize those rights by allowing Young Lee and his family the opportunity to challenge the state’s evidence, to the extent it has any evidence, suggesting Adnan Syed did not murder Young Lee’s sister 23 years ago,” the statement continued. As the case proceeds, Syed will remain free, but there is a chance he could ultimately return to prison, depending on the outcome.
