A prosecutor on Tuesday apologized to Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee’s family after announcing his office would not retry Syed for Lee’s 1999 murder.
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said her office would continue to seek justice for Lee but had closed its case against Syed, who spent 23 years in prison for the murder
“This case is over. No further appeals are necessary,” Mosby said during a news conference.
“Although my administration was not responsible for the pain inflicted on Hae Min Lee’s family, nor was my administration responsible for Mr. Syed’s unjust sentence, as a representative of the institution, it is my responsibility acknowledge and apologize to the family of Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed… Justice is never denied, but justice is served. Justice is served today.”
A Baltimore judge last month overturned Syed’s murder conviction and ordered his release from prison, where the 41-year-old had spent more than two decades. Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn also gave prosecutors 30 days to decide whether to retry Syed or drop the charges.
The prosecution withdraws all charges
Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against Syed in Lee’s murder, a case chronicled on the hit podcast Serial, after additional DNA evidence further undermined his conviction, his lawyer said .
The state’s attorney’s office announced it would not pursue the case further based on DNA test results that excluded Syed, the Maryland Public Defender’s Office said in a statement. The Circuit Court dropped the charges on Tuesday, which meant the criminal case was dismissed, according to the public defender.
Syed enters Courthouse East before a hearing on February 3, 2016 in Baltimore. Prosecutors in Baltimore asked a judge on Sept. 14 to overturn Syed’s conviction. On Tuesday, the charges against Syed were dropped. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun/The Associated Press)
“Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,” Syed’s attorney, Erica Suter, said in a statement. “The DNA results confirmed what we already knew and what underlies all current proceedings: that Adnan is innocent and wasted 23 years of his life serving a sentence for a crime he did not commit.”
A Baltimore judge last month overturned Syed’s murder conviction and ordered his release from prison, where the 41-year-old had spent more than two decades. Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn also gave prosecutors 30 days to decide whether to retry Syed or drop the charges.
In ordering Syed’s release from prison last month, Phinn ruled that the state had violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense. After his release, Syed was placed under house arrest with GPS location tracking.
Last month, Lee’s family asked the Court of Special Appeals, which is Maryland’s intermediate appeals court, to stop the case. Attorney Steve Kelly said Lee’s family was not contesting Syed’s release, but wanted the judge to hold another hearing where the family can attend in person and address the court. Lee’s brother, Young Lee, appeared by video conference with little notice during the earlier hearing. Kelly had no immediate comment Tuesday.
Last week, state Attorney General Brian Frosh’s office filed court documents supporting Lee’s family’s appeal.
The family’s appeal remains pending, but Suter, an assistant public defender and director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, stressed that prosecutors’ decision to drop the charges it was an important step for Syed.
“He still needs time to process everything that has happened and we ask that you provide that space for him and his family,” she said.
Syed has maintained his innocence for decades and captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the debut season of Serial focused on the case and cast doubt on some of the evidence, including phone tower data Phone.
New research reveals alternative suspects
Prosecutors have previously said a new investigation into the case turned up evidence of the possible involvement of two alternative suspects. The two suspects may have been involved individually or together, the state attorney’s office said.
One of the suspects had threatened Lee that he would “make her (Ms. Lee) disappear. He would kill her,” according to a court document.
The suspects were known at the time of the original investigation and were not ruled out or disclosed to the defense, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said the new information revealed that one of the suspects was convicted of assaulting a woman in her vehicle, and that one of the suspects was convicted of engaging in serial rape and sexual assault.
Prosecutors also noted that unreliable cellphone data had been used to convict Syed.
Syed served more than 20 years in prison for strangling Lee, who was 18 at the time. His body was found weeks later buried in a Baltimore park.
More than a decade later, the popular podcast Serial revealed little-known evidence and attracted millions of listeners, shattering podcast streaming and download records.