A Maryland appellate court panel on Tuesday reinstated the murder conviction of “Serial” podcast subject Adnan Syed, deciding a lower court had violated the right of the victim’s family to attend a critical hearing in the case.
In a 2-1 decision, the Maryland appellate court ordered a do-over of the hearing at which Syed’s conviction was vacated, which it said “results in the reinstatement of the original convictions and sentence.” The panel ruled that a circuit court judge had violated the rights of Young Lee, the brother of the teenager that Syed had previously been convicted of killing, in how it conducted the hearing.
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to state its an embarrassment.
he served almost 20 years. he did time, i think everyone should move on.
It didn't quite go like that (whether or not the AG was perturbed). The "Season 13" podcast (17 minutes - very compelling) at the bottom of the website serialpodcast.org explains everything.
In short, the reinstatement is on a technicality - the victim's brother was not present at the trial; he zoomed in - which is likely not enough to uphold the reinstatement vs the reasons for vacating the conviction.
A new law went into effect in MD in 2020, the Juvenile Restoration Act, which stated that after 20 years of incarceration, a juvenile (one convicted as as juvenile) is subject to a review of the case for the purpose of a possible sentence reduction. Syad's lawyer turned the case over to the Chief of the Sentencing Review Unit for the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office. She was responsible for reviewing the "facts of the crime" for a portion of the decision. In reviewing, she found a number of troubling things about the prosecution. These issues escalated to the extent that the current Prosecutor's Office (no one left from 2000) decided that they could no longer stand behind the verdict.
The review led to the discovery of 2 Brady violations by the prosecutors (failure to reveal to the defense certain relevant facts of the case), as well as other questionable investigative procedures. The "cell phone records" (crucial evidence) no longer hold up to modern standards. Other important stuff...
Syad was not officially exonerated however.
I'm getting an error message on the URL of the link serialpodcast.org, so I removed it. But I tested it & it works.
If you have nothing to do, all 12 previous podcasts make for a real great listen. Very interesting case.
Joey - gun to my head? He's innocent.
Quote:
And the DA could withdraw its motion to dismiss. If I am remembering correctly, the old DA who was leaving office because she was accused/convicted of some mortgage fraud and is no longer there. If the new DA withdraws motion etc, Syed could go back to jail. I remember the Maryland AG’s office was really perturbed by this conviction being vacated. The 60 days is probably to give the new DA a chance to review and figure out if he wants to withdraw the motion. If that is the case, the conviction is still valid and he goes back to prison.
It didn't quite go like that (whether or not the AG was perturbed). The "Season 13" podcast (17 minutes - very compelling) at the bottom of the website serialpodcast.org explains everything.
In short, the reinstatement is on a technicality - the victim's brother was not present at the trial; he zoomed in - which is likely not enough to uphold the reinstatement vs the reasons for vacating the conviction.
A new law went into effect in MD in 2020, the Juvenile Restoration Act, which stated that after 20 years of incarceration, a juvenile (one convicted as as juvenile) is subject to a review of the case for the purpose of a possible sentence reduction. Syad's lawyer turned the case over to the Chief of the Sentencing Review Unit for the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office. She was responsible for reviewing the "facts of the crime" for a portion of the decision. In reviewing, she found a number of troubling things about the prosecution. These issues escalated to the extent that the current Prosecutor's Office (no one left from 2000) decided that they could no longer stand behind the verdict.
The review led to the discovery of 2 Brady violations by the prosecutors (failure to reveal to the defense certain relevant facts of the case), as well as other questionable investigative procedures. The "cell phone records" (crucial evidence) no longer hold up to modern standards. Other important stuff...
Syad was not officially exonerated however.
I'm getting an error message on the URL of the link serialpodcast.org, so I removed it. But I tested it & it works.
If you have nothing to do, all 12 previous podcasts make for a real great listen. Very interesting case.
Joey - gun to my head? He's innocent.
It's actually Episode 13, not Season 13. Good lord, the podcast is not 13 seasons long, it only covers up to a bit beyond the incarceration, although recorded 14 years after.