Serial: Adnan Syed granted new trial by Baltimore judge

New trial: Adnan Syed's case will be heard again
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Hannah Al-Othman30 June 2016

Adnan Syed, the man convicted of murder who was the subject of hit podcast Serial, has been granted a new trial.

Judge Martin Welch, of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City signed an order today for Syed to stand trial again.

It will be the third time he will sit in the dock over the murder after a judge declared the first hearing a mistrial.

At his second trial, Syed was found guilty of first degree murder in relation to the death of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.

High school student Hae's body was found buried in a Baltimore park in 1999.

Murder victim: Hae Min Lee

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been strangled, and Syed was charged and then convicted of her murder.

Syed was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison for the killing, but has always maintained his innocence, and after his story was told through the hugely popular podcast pressure mounted for his case to be heard again.

However, Ms Lee’s family has criticised the coverage of the case, and maintain that they believe Syed killed Hae Min Lee.

In the order, Judge Welch allowed a new trial, based partly on Syed's defence lawyer's failure to cross-examine Maryland’s cell-tower expert about the technology’s reliability.

Convicted: Adnan Syed has been serving a life sentence for Hae Min Lee's murder

He also ordered that the testimony of a key alibi witness, Asia McLain, from January 13, 2015, be retransmitted to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

Syed's lawyer Justin Brown tweeted the news earlier today, saying: "We won a new trial for Adnan Syed!!! #FreeAdnan."

While Rabia Chaudry, a friend of the Syed family who spearheaded the campaign for a retrial, tweeted: “I am shaking with joy, shaking! Thank you Judge Welch. Thank you.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in