Less than a month after a Maryland circuit judge vacated the 2000 murder conviction of accused Adnan Syed, prosecutors dropped all charges against the subject of the first season of the hit podcast “Serial” on Tuesday.
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Emily Witty, spokeswoman for the city of Baltimore’s state’s attorney’s office, stated in an email that her office had indeed dropped its case against Syed and would follow up with further details about its decision later Tuesday.
Laura Nirider, a co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law who accompanied Syed during his prison release, earlier tweeted: “Breaking news: After the latest round of DNA testing generated results that, like previous rounds of testing, excluded Adnan Syed, he has now been formally exonerated!”
Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn last month overturned Syed’s murder conviction and ordered him released from prison, where the 41-year-old had spent more than two decades. Judge Phinn provided prosecutors 30 days in which to decide whether to retry Syed or drop the charges.
Phinn ruled that the state had violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense by failing to share the possible involvement of two alternate suspects. The two suspects may have been involved individually or together, but were not properly ruled out nor disclosed to the defense, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said newly discovered information revealed that one of the suspects was convicted of attacking a young woman in her vehicle, and that one of the suspects was convicted of engaging in serial rape and sexual assault.
Syed has vehemently maintained his innocence for decades and garnered the support of millions in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on the case and raised doubts about some of the evidence, including cellphone tower data.
Prosecutors also referenced unreliable cellphone data used during Syed’s original court case to corroborate his whereabouts on the day of the crime. The notice on the records specifically advised that the billing locations for incoming calls “would not be considered reliable information for location.”
Syed ultimately served more than 20 years in prison for the strangling of Lee, but now has the opportunity to search for justice and share his story through additional episodes being added to Season 1 of “Serial” in honor of his release.
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