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In 2000, 18-year-old Baltimore man Adnan Syed was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. Syed was sentenced to life in prison and served close to 23 years in prison for the crime.
That was until this week, when Syed was released from prison at the age of 41 after his murder conviction was vacated by a Baltimore City Circuit Judge.
The vacation of his conviction doesn’t mean Syed is formally recognised as innocent. Instead, Judge Melissa Phinn expressed serious concern over Syed’s initial conviction based on new evidence as well as evidence that was not handed over to Syed’s defence team. Syed and his supporters have always maintained his innocence.
Syed has been released from prison, but Phinn has ordered him to remain on house arrest. The state has 30 days to make a decision as to whether Syed will face a new trial, or whether the case will be dismissed.
While Syed’s fate remains undetermined, he’s just one of many people around the globe who have spent time in prison for crimes they strongly contend that they did not commit.
Unfortunately, wrongful convictions do happen, and they often share similar underlying causes.
The case and the podcast
The murder of Hae Min Lee was the first case featured on the highly popular podcast series Serial, one of the pioneers of the true-crime podcast genre.
It very quickly became one of the most rapidly downloaded podcasts of all time, and the first series now boasts over 300 million downloads worldwide since its release in 2014.
Lee was a senior high-school student at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She disappeared one day after school, and her body was found in a nearby park one month later. Based on the results of the autopsy, Lee had been strangled.
As Lee and Syed had dated not long before the time of Lee’s death, Syed became a prime suspect. Other suspects emerged, but none were investigated as closely as Syed.
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