Adnan Syed asks court to reconsider backing victim’s family
BALTIMORE, Md. - Attorneys for Adnan Syed filed a motion Wednesday asking a Maryland appellate court to reconsider its recent decision to reinstate his decades-old murder conviction and life sentence, a ruling that upheld arguments from the victim’s family claiming a lower court violated their rights.
Syed, whose protracted legal odyssey gained international attention from the hit podcast "Serial," regained his freedom last year after Baltimore prosecutors moved to vacate his conviction, saying they reviewed the case and found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial.
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Adnan Syed case: Legal experts say reinstatement of conviction will have broader implications
Legal experts say a Maryland appellate court ruling that sided with the victim’s family and reinstated Adnan Syed’s murder conviction could have serious implications in Maryland and beyond.
But the victim’s family said they received insufficient notice to attend the September vacatur hearing in person, which violated their right to be "treated with dignity and respect," and the Maryland Appellate Court last month agreed. In a 2-1 decision that was stayed for 60 days, the judges reinstated Syed’s conviction and ordered a redo of the hearing in question.
Wednesday’s motion asks the judges to reconsider the ruling, which prompted celebration within the crime victims' rights movement and criticism from criminal justice reform advocates who warned of a potential chilling effect on existing efforts to fight wrongful convictions and excessive sentences.
Adnan Syed murder conviction reinstated
Adnan Syed's murder conviction has been reinstated by a Maryland Appellate Court. The court decided Tuesday that a lower court violated the rights of Hae Min Lee's family to attend a hearing in the case. The appellate court has ordered a redo of the hearing in which Syed's conviction was overturned. Attorney Lexie Rigden joins FOX 5 to explain what happens next.
David Sanford, an attorney for the Lee family, said he believes the judges will not waver in their commitment to victims’ rights.
"The Maryland Constitution and the collective wisdom of the Maryland State Legislature recognize victims’ rights as being an essential part of the legal fabric of Maryland," he said in a statement Wednesday. "We have confidence that the Appellate Court will uphold those rights again."
While the appellate judges found Lee’s rights were violated because of the timeline, they also found he had no explicit "right to be heard" during the hearing. His attorneys had requested the opportunity to present evidence and interrogate witnesses, which the judges said would "result in a huge shift in practice."
In a dissenting opinion that largely refuted findings of the two majority judges, Judge Stuart Berger said Maryland legislators should develop more specific victims’ rights requirements — including how much notice they should receive for conviction vacatur hearings — instead of leaving it to the courts to interpret a patchwork of existing statutes that don’t directly address the issue.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.