In 2000, Adnan Syed, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland, was convicted of strangling and killing his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
The case – in which the prosecution painted Syed as a violent and jealous ex-lover who brutally killed a bright and talented young woman – made national headlines.
On Monday, a US judge overturned his conviction and set a deadline for a new trial.
Hae Min Lee
Born October 15, 1980, Hae Min Lee was a Korean-American high school student who was last seen alive on January 13, 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. Her body was found four weeks later in Leakin Park; she had been killed by manual strangulation.
Lee’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed (born May 21, 1981), was initially convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.[4][5][6] In 2014, the podcast Serial covered the killing, which brought renewed attention to the case. In 2016, Judge Martin P. Welch vacated Syed’s conviction and ordered a new trial. That decision was upheld by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in 2018, but overturned by the Maryland Court of Appeals in 2019. Following an investigation by prosecutors that uncovered new evidence, a judge again vacated Syed’s conviction in September 2022.
What is Serial and when did it come out?
More than a decade after Syed was sent to prison, Rabia Chaudry, a Baltimore-based lawyer and family friend of the Syeds, emailed a journalist named Sarah Koenig and asked her to re-investigate Lee’s murder.
That email helped launch the first season of the podcast Serial. The show premiered in autumn 2014 and each episode tried to piece together a timeline of what happened the night Lee was killed.
Why was the show so popular?
Serial helped ignite the popularity of podcasts. Ms Koenig’s signature confessional style, as well as the true crime topic, kept listeners returning – and downloading – the show every week.
The first season of Serial has been downloaded more than 300 million times and the show is widely cited as one of the most popular podcasts in the world.
Though subsequent seasons of the show were less popular, in many ways, Ms Koenig and her team helped create the formula for a “bingeable” podcast.
What’s next?
With Syed’s conviction overturned, prosecutors have the next 30 days to decide whether they will bring a new trial or drop the charges against him.
If Lee’s murder investigation is reopened, new evidence could help exonerate Syed.
It may also give the grieving Lee family some much-needed closure at long last.
Prosecutors say they have identified two possible “alternate” suspects, neither of whom has yet been named or ever charged in the case.
