Adnan Syed case update: Serial podcast reveals what led prosecutors to ask for conviction to be overturned

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

As Adnan Syed’s conviction is overturned, Clémence Michallon remembers the podcast that transformed a genre.

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:

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.