- Harvey Weinstein cooling his heels in special Rikers cell after overturned rape conviction New York Post
- Star witness in Harvey Weinstein trial says she’d consider testifying after overturned conviction: ‘This isn’t just about me’ CNN
- Can Weinstein’s Overturned New York Conviction Help Him Appeal California Case? The New York Times
- “Sexual violence is such a thief”: Ashley Judd speaks out against overturn of Weinstein conviction Salon
- Here’s why Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next The Associated Press
Tag Archives: conviction
“Sexual violence is such a thief”: Ashley Judd speaks out against overturn of Weinstein conviction – Salon
- “Sexual violence is such a thief”: Ashley Judd speaks out against overturn of Weinstein conviction Salon
- Star witness in Harvey Weinstein trial says she’d consider testifying after overturned conviction: ‘This isn’t just about me’ CNN
- Can Weinstein’s Overturned New York Conviction Help Him Appeal California Case? The New York Times
- Here’s why Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next The Associated Press
- Judge installed by liberal Democrats over centrist Hochul pick responsible for Harvey Weinstein ruling New York Post
‘It’s All Lies’: Supporters Say Petty Politics Lies Behind Treason Conviction Of Ailing Russian Scientist – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- ‘It’s All Lies’: Supporters Say Petty Politics Lies Behind Treason Conviction Of Ailing Russian Scientist Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- Russian Media Publisher Sentenced to 8 Years in Absentia Over Bucha Comments The Moscow Times
- Russian Hypersonic Missile Scientist Goes on Trial for Treason Bloomberg
- Russian Activist Gets Prison Term For Throwing Molotov Cocktails At Recruitment Center Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- Moscow critic and former publisher sentenced to 8 years for defaming Russian forces in Ukraine war The Washington Post
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Derek Chauvin asks Minnesota Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, weeks after appeals court denied his request for a new trial – CNN
- Derek Chauvin asks Minnesota Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, weeks after appeals court denied his request for a new trial CNN
- Man who witnessed George Floyd murder by police suing Minneapolis over officers’ actions Yahoo News
- Derek Chauvin appeals conviction in George Floyd murder to Minnesota Supreme Court Fox News
- Keith Ellison to publish George Floyd trial diary Tuesday, with intro by Floyd’s brother Star Tribune
- Former police officer, Derek Chauvin convicted of killing George Floyd appeals conviction Yahoo News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Who paid the bribes? Plot hole grows after Householder conviction, as FirstEnergy execs remain unscathed – cleveland.com
- Who paid the bribes? Plot hole grows after Householder conviction, as FirstEnergy execs remain unscathed cleveland.com
- Ex-Ohio House Speaker Convicted in Sprawling $60M Bribery Scheme The Daily Beast
- Larry Householder was convicted of corruption. But there’s plenty of unfinished business still left in the House Bill 6 scandal – LimaOhio.com LimaOhio.com
- Householder: Broken Government – an editorial series on Ohio’s dark-money, campaign, lobbying, ethics and pay cleveland.com
- Householder, Borges hint at appeals following conviction in political corruption scandal 10TV
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Trump Org. fined $1.6 million after conviction for 17 felonies, including tax fraud
New York
CNN
—
The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million – the maximum possible penalty – by a New York judge Friday for running a decade-long tax fraud scheme, a symbolic moment because it is the only judgment for a criminal conviction that has come close to former President Donald Trump.
Two Trump entities, The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp., were convicted last month of 17 felonies, including tax fraud and falsifying business records.
Under New York law, the most the companies can be fined is about $1.6 million, a penalty the Trump Organization can easily afford.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Judge Juan Merchan to make the Trump Org. pay the maximum fine, though he admitted that it will have a “minimal impact” on a multibillion-dollar company.
“We all know that these corporations cannot go to jail as Allen Weisselberg has,” Steinglass said Friday, referring to the Trump Organization’s long-time chief financial officer who was sentenced to five months in jail earlier this week as part of a deal he reached with prosecutors. “The only way to effectively deter such conduct is to make it as expensive as possible.”
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, told CNN that the fine against the Trump Org. is important but he also wants lawmakers to raise the fines for companies that break the law.
“It’s important regardless of who the defendant is, because it’s cheating and greed and cheating the taxpayers,” Bragg said. “It obviously becomes more consequential given that it involved the former president’s corporation and CFO. It sends a message – I hope it sends a message to New Yorkers that you know we’re one system of justice and that this kind of conduct, regardless of who you are, won’t be countenanced in Manhattan.”
But, Bragg said, the fine isn’t enough of a penalty.
“It isn’t sufficient. Plain and simple,” Bragg said, saying the law should “reflect what I think many of us see, particularly those who sat through the trial and saw the 13 year you know pattern of deep greed and misconduct laid bare, we should have stiffer penalties for conduct like that.”
The Trump Org. entities have 14 days to pay the fine.
The real estate business is not at risk of being dismantled because there is no mechanism under the law to dissolve the company. No individual will go to jail based on the jury’s verdict. However, a felony conviction could impact the Trump Organization’s reputation and ability to do business or obtain loans or contracts.
Trump and his family were not charged in this case, but the former president was mentioned repeatedly during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the un-taxed benefits doled out to certain executives, including company-funded apartments, car leases and personal expenses. One prosecutor said Trump “explicitly sanctioned” tax fraud.
One of the jurors told CNN that the jury saw a “culture of fraud,” at the Trump Organization, but referred to Trump as a nondescript “Bob Smith” at times when talking about the company owner’s awareness of the crimes in relation to the charges.
Weisselberg last year pleaded guilty to 15 felonies related to the tax fraud scheme and agreed to testify truthfully against the company at trial.
He remained on paid leave at the Trump Organization, where he was compensated a little more than $1 million a year, until Tuesday when he was sentenced. Weisselberg received a severance package that one person familiar with the deal called “generous.”
Merchan, who sentenced Weisselberg, said at the time that but for the deal he would have given Weisselberg more time in jail after listening to the evidence at trial.
Merchan said he found most “offensive” a $6,000 payroll check Weisselberg had made out to his wife, who never worked for Trump, so she could become eligible for Social Security benefits.
A Trump Org. spokesperson said that Weisselberg “is a victim,” as is the company and former president.
“New York has become the crime and murder capital of the world, yet these politically motivated prosecutors will stop at nothing to get President Trump and continue the never ending witch-hunt which began the day he announced his presidency,” the spokesperson said. “We did nothing wrong and we will appeal this verdict.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office continues to investigate the company’s business practices.
Prosecutors are conducting a wide-ranging investigation and in recent months their focus has returned to the company’s involvement in hush-money payments made to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels from going public with an affair with Trump just before the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has denied the affair.
Prosecutors are also looking into potential insurance fraud after new material came to light from the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into the accuracy of the Trump Organization’s financial statements, the people said.
The biggest threat currently facing the company could be New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million civil lawsuit, which has alleged Trump, his three eldest children, Weisselberg and others defrauded lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of multiple Trump Org. properties for more than a decade.
In addition to money, James, a Democrat, is seeking to permanently bar Trump and the children named in the lawsuit from serving as a director of a business registered in New York state. She is also seeking to cancel the Trump Organization’s corporate certificate, which if granted by a judge, could effectively force the company to cease operations in New York state.
The judge overseeing the lawsuit put an independent monitor in place to review the Trump Organization’s financial statements and business decisions. He recently denied motions to dismiss the case and said he considered sanctioning Trump’s attorneys. The trial is set for October.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and said the lawsuit is politically motivated.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Boston Bruins sign Mitchell Miller despite conviction of assault on black classmate
The Boston Bruins signed a controversial 20-year-old defenseman, who was convicted of assaulting a black, disabled high school classmate, to an entry-level contract on Friday.
Mitchell Miller, who was 14 at the time of the 2016 bullying scandal, tricked Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, into licking a candy push pop that was wiped in a bathroom urinal, resulting in Meyer-Crothers testing for hepatitis, HIV, and STDs.
Miller was also accused of calling 14-year-old Meyer-Crothers “brownie” and the “N-word” while repeatedly beating him during their childhood in Toledo, Ohio, according to the Arizona Republic.
Bruins General Manager Cam Neely released a statement about Miller’s signing.
“Representing the Boston Bruins is a privilege we take seriously as an organization,” Neely said.
“Mitchell was accountable for his unacceptable behavior and demonstrated his commitment to work with multiple organizations and professionals to further his education and use his mistake as a teachable moment for others.”
Mitchell said in the same statement released by the Bruins he would continue to educate himself and share his mistakes with others while playing for the organization.
Originally drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2020, Miller has yet to play in the NHL.
The team cut ties with Miller weeks later, along with The University of North Dakota, where the young defenseman played college hockey after scrutiny from the public and media.
Miller spent the past two seasons in the USHL before he signed with the Bruins. The team reportedly evaluated Miller for several weeks.
On Friday, in an interview with CBS Boston News, Joni Meyer-Crothers, the mother of Isaiah, said Miller had reached out to her son on Instagram a week before the Bruins’ signing to apologize to him for the first time ever.
“About a week and a half ago, Mitchell reached out to our son on Instagram to tell him that he was sorry and that it most definitely wasn’t ‘hockey-related.’”
With Post wires
Mitchell Miller, after bullying conviction, signs with Bruins
Mitchell Miller, a prospect whose draft rights were relinquished after it publicly surfaced that he and a classmate were convicted of assaulting and bullying a developmentally disabled classmate, signed an entry-level contract Friday with the Boston Bruins.
The 20-year-old defenseman was a fourth-round selection of the Arizona Coyotes in 2020. Shortly after he was drafted, however, a report by the Arizona Republic detailed how Miller and another middle school classmate were convicted in juvenile court in 2016 of racially abusing and bullying Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, who is Black.
In the report, Meyer-Crothers’ mother alleged that Miller started abusing her son in second grade while also using repeated racial epithets.
“When I was in eighth grade, I made an extremely poor decision and acted very immaturely,” Miller said in a statement released by the Bruins on Friday. “I bullied one of my classmates. I deeply regret the incident and have apologized to the individual. Since the incident, I have come to better understand the far-reaching consequences of my actions that I failed to recognize and understand nearly seven years ago.”
“… To be clear, what I did when I was 14 years old was wrong and unacceptable. There is no place in this world for being disrespectful to others and I pledge to use this opportunity to speak out against mistreating others.”
In his statement, Miller said he will continue to participate in community programs to educate himself and share “my mistakes with others to show what a negative impact those actions can have on others.”
Bruins president Cam Neely said the team’s hockey operations department and community relations group spent time with Miller over the past few weeks to “better understand” who he is as an individual and “learn more about a significant mistake he made when he was in middle school.”
“During this evaluation period, Mitchell was accountable for his unacceptable behavior and demonstrated his commitment to work with multiple organizations and professionals to further his education and use his mistake as a teachable moment for others,” Neely said in the statement. “The expectation is that he will continue this important educational work with personal development and community programs as a member of the Bruins organization.”
NHL Central Scouting ranked Miller as the No. 49 North American skater in its final pre-draft rankings, however he slid to the fourth round as teams knew about his past.
Days after the Coyotes drafted Miller, the team said in a statement that “it would have been easy” to dismiss him like other teams did, but “we felt it was our responsibility to be a part of the solution in a real way — not just saying and doing the right things ourselves but ensuring that others are too.”
The Coyotes have the NHL’s first Latino owner in Alex Meruelo and the league’s first Latino CEO and president in Xavier Gutierrez.
Miller ultimately had his draft rights relinquished by the Coyotes less than a month later. He was also released from his scholarship at the University of North Dakota, where Miller was enrolled as a freshman.
He sat out the 2020-21 season before returning to play with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm during 2021-22. Miller was named the USHL’s Defenseman of the Year and Player of the Year after finishing tied for the league lead with 39 goals while also having 83 points — both single-season league records for a defenseman — in 60 games.
Adnan Syed case update: Serial podcast reveals what led prosecutors to ask for conviction to be overturned
Adnan Syed gets new trial
Adnan Syed, the subject of the hit podcast series Serial, walked out of court to cheers after a Maryland judge overturned his murder conviction and ordered his release after over 23 years behind bars.
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the 41-year-old’s conviction and granted him a new trial on Monday.
The quashing of his conviction came after prosecutors said that an almost year-long investigation had cast doubts about the validity of cellphone tower data and uncovered new information about the possible involvement of two alternate unnamed suspects.
Officials now have 30 days to decide whether they will fully drop the charges against Mr Syed. There’s reason to believe they will.
In the meantime, Mr Syed will remain on home detention with a GPS bracelet monitoring his movements.
Mr Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
Lee, 18, vanished after leaving her high school on 13 January 1999. Her strangled body was found in a shallow grave in a Baltimore park around a month later. Mr Syed has always maintained his innocence.
Who is Jay Wilds?
Adnan Syed’s 2000 conviction relied heavily on testimony from his friend Jay Wilds, who claimed that Syed confessed to killing Lee and enlisted his help in digging a hole to bury her body in Leakin Park, Baltimore.
Wilds said that he went along with it because Syed threatened to tell the police that he was running a drug operation, which he feared would land him with hefty jail time.
The Serial podcast raised questions about the reliability of his testimony, saying that he had changed his story multiple times – particularly about where he was when he saw Lee’s body.
In 2019, Wilds spoke out publicly for the first time in an interview with The Intercept where he continued to maintain that he saw Lee’s body and helped Syed dispose of it.
However, he changed parts of his story once again, saying that he first saw Lee’s body in the trunk of a car outside his grandmother’s house – and not in the car park of a local Best Buy as he said at trial.
He claimed that he lied to police to protect his grandmother, as he was dealing drugs out of her home at the time.
“I didn’t tell the cops it was in front of my house because I didn’t want to involve my grandmother,” he said.
“I believe I told them it was in front of Cathy’s [a psuedonym] house, but it was in front of my grandmother’s house. I know it didn’t happen anywhere other than my grandmother’s house.
“I remember the highway traffic to my right, and I remember standing there on the curb. I remember Adnan standing next to me.”
He added: “At the time I was convinced that I would be going to jail for a long time if he [Adnan] turned me in for drug dealing, especially to high school kids. I was also running [drug] operations from my grandmother’s house. So that would ruin her life too. I was also around a bunch of people earlier the day [at Cathy’s], and I didn’t want them to get fucked up with homicide.”
Syed has accused Wilds of lying throughout the trial.
In the filing to throw out Syed’s conviction, Baltimore prosecutors raised doubts about the reliability of Wilds as a witness.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 16:50
What we know about two alternate suspects in 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee
Adnan Syed walked out of court a free man on Monday, after an almost year-long investigation uncovered new evidence about the possible involvement of two alternative suspects in the 1999 slaying of student Hae Min Lee.
On Monday, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the 41-year-old’s conviction “in the interest of justice”, granted him a new trial and ordered him to be released under home detention while the investigation into Lee’s murder continues.
His release came days after Maryland prosecutors made a bombshell request for his conviction to be quashed.
On Wednesday – after more than two decades behind bars where Syed has continued to maintain his innocence of any involvement – Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed a motion to throw out his conviction.
She said that “the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction” based on doubts about the validity of cellphone records as well as new information about two unnamed suspects.
Wednesday’s court filing did not name the two alternate suspects in the case, citing an ongoing investigation.
However, prosecutors said that the two alternate suspects were both known to the initial 1999 murder investigation and were not properly ruled out or disclosed to the defence.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Adnan Syed freed: What we know about two alternate suspects in ‘Serial’ murder
The Serial podcast named Ronald Lee Moore, a career criminal and accused murderer from Baltimore, as a suspect in Hae Min Lee’s slaying
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 16:19
Adnan Syed pictured enjoying new-found freedom
Adnan Syed has been pictured enjoying his new-found freedom at home with his family and supporters.
The 41-year-old, who was 17 when he was arrested and charged with murder, was released on Monday after 23 years behind bars.
His freedom comes after attorney and family friend Rabia Chaudry fought for years for his release, with his case finally gaining attention after she reached out to journalist Sarah Koenig.
Ms Koenig then went on to host the Serial podcast series about the case.
Ms Chaudry shared a photo of her and Syed smiling together inside his family home, following the judge’s ruling on Monday.
“I arise full of joy #WeFreedAdnan,” she tweeted on Tuesday morning.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 15:48
Maryland’s new Juvenile Reduction Act led to case landing on prosecutor’s desk
It all began when Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act took effect on 1 October 2021.
The law allows offenders who were juveniles at the time of the offence to apply to have their sentences reduced.
Under the law, the offence must have taken place when the individual was a minor and they must have served at least 20 years of the sentence.
Syed was 17 when he was arrested and charged with strangling Lee to death in 1999.
By 2022, he had spent 23 years behind bars.
As soon as the law came into effect, his attorneys applied for his sentence to be reduced.
His case landed on the desk of Becky Feldman, chief of the Sentencing Review Unit of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, to review the request and she became “bothered by the case”, according to the new episode of Serial released on Tuesday.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 15:15
Adnan Syed was losing ‘hope’ in freedom before shock release
Adnan Syed had been “trying to tamp down hope” that he would ever regain his freedom, before his shock release on Monday, it has been revealed.
In a new episode of the podcast Serial, Sarah Koenig revealed that the 41-year-old had recently been losing faith that his conviction would be overturned.
Syed was 17 when he was arrested and charged with strangling Hae Min Lee to death in 1999.
He had spent the last 23 years behind bars.
On Monday, a judge overturned his conviction and ordered his release.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 14:47
Serial reveals notes about another potential suspect led to conviction being tossed
The discovery of two handwritten notes about another potential suspect ultimately led to Adnan Syed’s conviction being tossed, according to a newly released Serial episode.
The podcast, which first propelled the case to global attention and cast doubts on Syed’s guilt back in 2014, published a new episode titled “Adnan is Out” on Tuesday morning – just hours after he walked out of court a free man.
In it, journalist Sarah Koenig revealed what finally led Baltimore prosecutors to rethink the 41-year-old’s conviction for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
Earlier this year – 23 years on from the brutal murder – Becky Feldman, chief of the Sentencing Review Unit of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, had stumbled across two old, “messy” handwritten notes containing the name of another potential suspect.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Notes about potential suspect led to Syed conviction change, Serial reveals
Notes revealed two separate phone calls by two different people alerted prosecutors to another potential suspect more than two decades ago
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 14:14
Serial releases new episode about Adan Syed’s release
Serial, the hit podcast that propelled the case to international attention and cast doubts on Adnan Syed’s conviction, has released a new episode following his release.
The episode titled “Adnan is out” chronicles what led the prosecutor’s office to call for his conviction to be quashed.
Rachel Sharp20 September 2022 13:30
ICYMI: How one podcast cast doubt on Adnan Syed’s murder conviction
As Adnan Syed’s conviction is overturned, Clémence Michallon remembers the podcast that transformed a genre.
How Serial revolutionised true crime and cast doubt on Adnan Syed’s murder conviction
As Baltimore prosecutors ask for Adnan Syed’s conviction to be vacated, Clémence Michallon remembers the podcast that transformed a genre
Sravasti Dasgupta20 September 2022 13:00
ICYMI: Timeline of Adnan Syed’s legal battle
More than two decades on from his arrest for the murder of his former girlfriend, Adnan Syed has finally walked free from prison.
Now, prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to drop the charges or to retry Syed.
Rachel Sharp reports on the case that has rumbled on for more than two decades:
Timeline of the murder of Hae Min Lee and legal battle of Adnan Syed
Syed’s sudden release marks just the latest twist in a case that has rumbled on for more than two decades
Sravasti Dasgupta20 September 2022 12:02
‘Leftovers at home never tasted so good’
After 23 years in prison, Adnan Syed seems to be enjoying some of the simpler things after his high-profile 1999 murder coniviction was vacated.
Rabia Chaudry, a lawyer and friend of the Syed family, posted a video on Monday afternoon showing the 41-year-old enjoying some leftover dumplings.
Josh Marcus20 September 2022 10:30
Judge tosses Adnan Syed’s murder conviction, orders his prison release
Acting on a request from Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn ordered Syed unshackled in the courtroom and sent home while he waits to find out whether prosecutors will seek a new trial or drop their pursuit of him.
Now 42 years old, Syed emerged from the courthouse to a roaring crowd. Dressed in white with a blue tie, he smiled and waved before he was ushered into a car and driven away.
But his continued freedom is not guaranteed.
Phinn said prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether they will retry Syed in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Hae Min Lee. Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, said after the Monday decision that her office had not yet declared him innocent but that he was entitled to a new trial “in the interest of fairness and justice.”
Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) — whose office has previously defended the handling of Syed’s case in court proceedings — blasted the Baltimore prosecutor for acting without consulting his office, and he called the allegations that prosecutors did not hand over evidence to Syed’s defense as they should have “incorrect.”
“Neither State’s Attorney Mosby nor anyone from her office bothered to consult with either the assistant state’s Attorney who prosecuted the case or with anyone in my office regarding these alleged violations,” Frosh said. “The file in this case was made available on several occasions to the defense.”
While he awaits prosecutors’ next move, Syed will be under GPS supervision, Phinn said.
Syed has maintained his innocence since he was arrested for Lee’s murder in February 1999, when he was a 17-year-old in high school. Investigators at the time determined that she died by strangulation, and Syed was convicted of murder in 2000 and sentenced to life behind bars. He had long sought to overturn his conviction and get a new trial, but until recently, he had faced opposition from prosecutors.
Syed’s case was featured on “Serial,” which had its first season in 2014. Host Sarah Koenig detailed the events surrounding the death of Lee, raising questions about the handling of the investigation, the conduct of Syed’s defense and whether Syed might have been innocent.
Over a decade after his conviction, Syed started to see some hope that he would get new legal proceedings.
In 2016, a circuit court vacated Syed’s conviction, citing the “ineffective assistance” of a former attorney who failed to investigate an alibi witness, and in March 2018, the Court of Special Appeals upheld the ruling granting Syed a new trial. But in March 2019, Maryland’s highest court reinstated Syed’s murder conviction.
Then on Wednesday, the Baltimore City state’s attorney office said in a motion in circuit court that it wanted the conviction tossed and Syed released. The office said its own nearly year-long investigation into the case, which was conducted with Syed’s defense, had found new evidence of potential suspects, as well as materials that should have been handed over to defense attorneys that were not.
The move drew widespread praise from supporters of Syed, who have long waged a public and legal campaign for his freedom.
C. Justin Brown, a former attorney for Syed who began representing him in 2009, released a statement that celebrated the ruling, but expressed concern at how long it took to arrive at this decision.
“It has now been revealed that prosecutors were aware of another viable suspect in Hae Min Lee’s murder, but that they sat on that information for more than 20 years,” Brown’s statement said. “While we do not know how this happened, nor whether it was intentional, we do know it is inexcusable.”
But that feeling was not universal.
Young Lee, Hae Min Lee’s brother, said at the hearing Monday that prosecutors’ motion to vacate the conviction left him feeling “betrayed.”
“That’s really tough for me to swallow, and especially for my mom,” he said.
Young Lee said he was “not against investigation or anything of that sort,” adding, “knowing that there could be someone out there free for killing my sister — it’s tough.”
“I ask that you make the right decision,” he said to the judge.
After the hearing, Steven J. Kelly, an attorney for the family, said in a statement: “For more than 20 years, no one has wanted to know the truth about who killed Hae Min Lee more than her family. The Lee family is deeply disappointed that today’s hearing happened so quickly and that they were denied the reasonable notice that would have permitted them to have a meaningful voice in the proceedings.”
Mosby said DNA analysis will help determine whether Syed’s case will be dismissed or if prosecutors will seek a new trial. She said she understands Lee’s brother’s feeling, but that Syed is entitled to fairness in the criminal justice system.
“You have some sort of resolution and believe that you have closure, and the case comes back up and it rips a whole new wound that you think has healed,” Mosby said. “I understand his frustration.”
Prosecutors have not disclosed the identities of the other potential suspects. But Becky Feldman, chief of the state’s attorney’s office Sentencing Review Unit, on Monday described them as “credible, viable suspects.”
According to court filings, one had threatened to make Lee “disappear” and “kill her,” she said, and alleged one of them “engaged in multiple instances of rape and sexual assault.” One had relatives who lived near the area where Lee’s car was found.
Feldman said authorities at the time “improperly cleared” one suspect by relying on a polygraph test that was “not reliable.”
Prosecutors’ filing said the suspects “may be involved individually or may be involved together,” and made references to them throughout the motion as “one of the suspects,” without clarifying which person they were referring to.
The state’s attorney’s investigation also determined that a key witness in the case, Jay Wilds, was inconsistent in his accounts to police. For example, Wilds testified that he had helped Syed bury Lee’s body. But he gave two different accounts to authorities about where he saw the body and a third to the media, according to the motion. Wilds was an important character in the “Serial” podcast.
The investigation also found that the data prosecutors used to corroborate Wilds’s account could have also been misleading or inaccurate. Attorneys used data from incoming calls to place Syed at the site of Lee’s body, but the state’s attorney’s office said in the motion that type of cellphone data “would not be considered reliable information for location.”
“If that evidence had been disclosed, perhaps Adnan would not have missed his high school graduation or 23 years of birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, community events, everyday moments of joy,” said Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney, outside the courthouse on Monday. “Perhaps the real killers would have been brought to justice.”