There was a moment when this case was all anyone could talk about
Adnan Syed has been in prison for over 17 years for the murder of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend.
His case was the subject of a 12-part podcast by Sarah Koenig, which explored variances bits of evidence that were overlooked by Syed’s original trial lawyer.
Over a year ago, a new trial was ordered, but then appealed by the prosecution.
However, on Thursday afternoon, the new trial has been granted despite this appeal, as reported by CBS News:
In a 2-1 ruling, the three-judge appeals court panel agreed with Syed’s current lawyer that his trial lawyer was ineffective for failing to investigate a potential alibi witness who said she saw Syed at a public library at the time the state claimed Syed killed Hae.
The panel said in its written decision that if testimony from Asia McClain had been presented to the jury, it would have “directly contradicted the State’s theory of when Syed had the opportunity and did murder Hae” and could have created reasonable doubt in at least one juror’s mind and led to a different outcome.
In addition, Adnan Syed’s lawyer C. Justin Brown stated that “If the state is so confident in their case, and if they’re so confident that Syed is guilty, they should just try the case. We’re ready to try the case.”
