Prosecutors and the legal professional for Adnan Syed, the Maryland man on the middle of the primary season of the ‘Serial’ podcast, have demanded new DNA checks that might exonerate him greater than 20 years after his homicide conviction, in response to a brand new court docket case.
Baltimore State’s Lawyer Marilyn Mosby’s workplace and Syed’s legal professional have requested additional testing of clothes and different gadgets recovered from Syed’s ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who was discovered died in a Baltimore park in 1999. They filed the joint request on Thursday.
Syed, who has maintained his innocence, was convicted of Lee’s homicide in 2000. He appealed the case, however america Supreme Court docket declined to listen to him in 2019. Syed stays imprisoned within the Maryland and sentenced to life.
Nonetheless, a Maryland legislation handed in 2021 permits these convicted of crimes as minors to hunt new sentences after 20 years in jail. Syed’s legal professional contacted the town legal professional’s Sentencing Assessment Unit, Mosby stated in a press release. Syed was 17 when he was arrested.
“Through the strategy of reviewing this case for potential re-sentencing, it turned clear that extra forensic testing – which was not obtainable on the time of the preliminary investigation and trial on this case – could be an acceptable solution to go,” Mosby stated.
Study extra in regards to the case of Adnan Syed:The Supreme Court docket won’t hear the enchantment for a brand new trial within the “Serial” case. What’s subsequent for Adnan Syed?
Among the many gadgets that can be examined are Lee’s clothes, footwear and hair recovered from the place Lee was discovered. In keeping with the submitting, each events are on the lookout for DNA checks that might detect traces of pores and skin cells left behind when somebody touches an object. Such checks haven’t beforehand been carried out on the gadgets, in response to the court docket doc.
Lee was fatally strangled, and in response to the submitting, her explanation for dying and the way during which her physique was disposed of “point out that her attacker was in shut bodily contact with Ms. Lee on the time of her dying and burial.”
“If (Syed)’s DNA will not be current on this proof, that reality could be exculpatory and should present a foundation for an investigator to find out that (Syed) is harmless,” the submitting stated.
In a press release, Erica J. Suter, Syed’s legal professional, stated she contacted the district legal professional’s workplace final spring and thanked the workplace for agreeing to the checks.
“Mr. Syed has been ready for greater than twenty years for the chance to clear himself, not simply within the court docket of public opinion, however in court docket,” she stated. “We look ahead to lastly gaining access to the forensic instruments to determine Mr. Syed’s innocence.”
Syed and his attorneys have stated over time that his lawyer failed to offer efficient authorized recommendation as a result of she didn’t observe up on potential witness claims that might have offered Syed with an alibi. One other witness gave conflicting statements and admitted beneath oath to mendacity to police, and proof counting on cellphone tower information to put Syed within the park the place Lee was discovered was additionally questioned by his attorneys .
The “Serial” podcast popularized Syed’s case in 2014, and two years later he gained a brand new enchantment trial. Nonetheless, the state appealed this resolution. In 2018, an appeals court docket upheld the choice for a brand new trial, however a yr later Maryland’s highest court docket sided with the state.
Whereas Maryland Lawyer Normal Brian Frosh’s workplace has dealt with current appeals on this case, the joint DNA request got here from the Baltimore State’s Lawyer’s Workplace.
In 2019, an HBO documentary ‘The Case In opposition to Adnan Syed’ additionally revealed new particulars about DNA testing of some case-related gadgets, together with fingernail clippings, blood samples, a bottle of alcohol and a condom wrapper, reported the Baltimore Solar.
None of those components, which aren’t the identical as these sought within the new file, had a match with Syed’s DNA. The sequence additionally revealed that Syed turned down a plea deal that might have required him to confess guilt.
‘I FEEL FREE’:Chicago teenager charged with homicide in 1985 turns into 3,000th individual exonerated in US
Not all information on the location expresses the standpoint of the location, however we transmit this information robotically and translate it via programmatic expertise on the location and never from a human editor.
