ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in the decadeslong legal saga of Adnan Syed over whether the family of Hae Min Lee, whose killing is at the center of this case, was given proper time to participate in the hearing where a judge vacated his conviction last year.
Syed, 42, served 23 years in prison stemming from charges that he killed Lee, his high school girlfriend. His case garnered national attention and has been followed by millions after the podcast “Serial” chronicled the case in 2014.
At issue on Thursday was the reinstatement of Syed’s murder conviction in March after a Maryland court said officials failed to provide sufficient notice for Lee’s family to attend the hearing, as well as the degree to which victims and their families are able to participate in such proceedings.
Syed’s attorneys have said his freedom from prison is potentially at stake.
“It is Adnan whose liberty is at stake. The death of Hae Min Lee and the loss suffered by her family is unquestionably tragic,” his lawyer Erica Suter said in remarks outside court after the hearing. “So, too, is the incalculable loss that Adnan and his family have suffered when he spent over half his life in prison for a crime he did not commit.”
David Sanford, an attorney for Lee’s brother, Young Lee, said outside the court on Thursday that it was an “important day for victims’ rights.”
“We do not take a position with respect to Adnan Syed’s underlying guilt or innocence, this is not what today was about,” he said. Instead, the hearing was about [Young] Lee’s right “to have notice, to be present and to be heard in a criminal justice proceeding.”
Lee, who now lives in California, attended last year’s hearing via Zoom. He was notified on a Friday afternoon that it would take place the following Monday and he’s argued this did not give him proper notice to attend.
His attorneys are asking for a new vacatur hearing, which will include…
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