Podcast subject's convictions reinstated

Syed from 'Serial' to go free as case re-enters court

- ALEX MANN AND CASSIDY JENSEN

A jury in 2000 found Adnan Syed guilty of murder and related charges in the death of his high school sweetheart.

Maryland’s Supreme Court reinstated Adnan Syed’s convictions in a ruling Friday, but he will remain free while his case returns to Baltimore Circuit Court.

The order essentially restarts the process after the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office filed a motion to vacate Syed’s conviction for the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, who was strangled to death and buried in a clandestine grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park, citing a violation of her brother Young Lee’s right to participate in the subsequent hearing.

The court’s 4-3 ruling does not require Syed, who was freed nearly two years ago, to be incarcerated again while the case continues.

“On remand, the parties and Mr. Lee will begin where they were immediately after the State’s Attorney filed the motion to vacate,” the court wrote in an opinion published online Friday morning.

Syed and his attorney Erica Suter could not be reached immediately for comment.

In a statement Friday, Lee’s attorney David Sanford said the court’s decision affirmed crime victims’ rights “to be treated with dignity, respect and sensitivity.”

“The Supreme Court acknowledges what Hae Min Lee’s family has argued: crime victims have a right to be heard in court,” Sanford said.