A divided Maryland Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, but ordered a new procedural hearing where the state is likely to move to vacate his conviction. File photo by Bennett Leckrone.
The Maryland Supreme Court on Friday reinstated Adnan Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of a former girlfriend and ordered lower courts to hold new hearings on the evidence that freed him in 2022.
A divided Supreme Court on Friday did not question the evidence that freed Syed, but it did say prosecutors moved too quickly to drop the charges against him. The family of the victim, Hae Min Lee, said they were denied their rights by not being given enough notice for Hae Min’s brother, Young Lee, to participate in the “vacatur” proceedings, the hearings that freed Syed.
A majority of the Maryland Supreme Court agreed.
“In an effort to remedy what they perceived to be an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the circuit court worked an injustice against Mr. Lee by failing to treat him with dignity, respect, and sensitivity,” said the majority opinion written by Justice Jonathan Biran.