Maryland’s highest court docket to listen to appeals in case chronicled by ‘Serial’ podcast

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The Supreme Court of Maryland introduced Wednesday it should hear an enchantment from Adnan Syed, whose conviction for killing an ex-girlfriend was reinstated by a decrease court docket after he was launched from jail.

The court docket scheduled authorized transient deadlines for August and oral arguments for Oct. 5. The court docket additionally stated it should hear appeals from the sufferer’s household.

Syed, whose case was chronicled within the hit podcast “Serial,” was convicted in 2000 of killing Hae Min Lee. He was free of jail final 12 months after Baltimore prosecutors discovered flaws within the proof offered at trial and a choose agreed to vacate his conviction.

However, Lee’s family appealed the choice, contending they didn’t obtain ample discover to attend the listening to that set Syed free. In March, the Maryland Appellate Court agreed and reinstated Syed’s conviction and ordered a redo of the listening to.

Syed’s legal professional, Erica Suter, then appealed that ruling to the state’s highest court docket. She requested the seven justices to evaluate whether or not former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s resolution to dismiss the fees in opposition to Syed final 12 months made the household’s court docket problem moot.

Last September, a choose denied to postpone the Maryland listening to that launched Syed in order that the sufferer’s brother, Young Lee, might journey from California, however did enable Lee to deal with the court docket by way of Zoom.

Suter additionally needs the justices to determine if the Zoom testimony happy the appropriate of the sufferer’s consultant to attend the listening to and whether or not the household had sufficient discover.

Syed’s lawyer is asking the Supreme Court of Maryland to contemplate whether or not the conviction ought to have been reinstated with out exhibiting that the listening to wouldn’t have resulted in his launch.

The Lee household filed their very own petition asking the court docket to offer victims a fair bigger function in hearings to vacate convictions – by permitting them to problem proof and cross-examine witnesses.

“The State of Maryland supports victims and their families with rights acknowledged by Maryland’s own state constitution and statutory scheme,” stated David Sanford, an legal professional for the Lee household in an announcement after the court docket introduced it should hear the appeals. “We will urge the Maryland Supreme Court to recognize those rights by allowing Young Lee and his family the opportunity to challenge the state’s evidence, to the extent it has any evidence, suggesting Adnan Syed did not murder Young Lee’s sister 23 years ago.”

Maryland legislation grants victims the “right to speak” in sure proceedings, however permitting extra energetic participation in conviction vacatur hearings would “create a sea change in Maryland courts” by successfully letting them play the function of third-party prosecutor, Syed’s attorneys wrote earlier this month. That is a query the state legislature ought to determine, not the courts, the attorneys argued.