[ad_1]
Adnan Syed has been launched from jail after serving 23 years behind bars for the homicide of Hae Min Lee, after a Baltimore decide overturned the case. As his story continues, so does true crime podcast “Serial,” which popularized the case and made Syed a family identify in its record-setting first season, which investigated the homicide.
Returning to the mic on Tuesday morning with “Serial’s” first new episode since 2018 was host Sarah Koenig, who was on the Baltimore Metropolis Circuit Court docket when Syed was launched Monday. Prosecutors got 30 days to resolve whether or not to maneuver for a brand new trial or drop the case towards Syed, who’s now 41.
Listed below are the primary takeaways from the model new episode of “Serial”:
Prosecutors should not saying Adnan Syed is harmless
Whereas Syed has been launched from jail and positioned below house detention, prosecutors should not exonerating him. Relatively, “they’re saying, Again in 1999, we didn’t examine this case totally sufficient. We relied on proof we shouldn’t have, and we broke the foundations once we prosecuted. This wasn’t an trustworthy conviction,’” as Koenig reviews.
Koenig additionally says that the prosecutor’s workplace didn’t got down to take down Syed’s case, and that “it simply form of crumbled as soon as they took a tough look.”
Juvenile Restoration Act
A few yr in the past, Maryland enacted the Juvenile Restoration Act. It permits those that have spent no less than 20 years in jail for against the law they dedicated after they have been a juvenile to ask to court docket to cut back their sentence. Syed was 17 when he was arrested for killing Hae Min Lee. On Oct. 2, 2021, at some point after the regulation went into impact, Syed’s lawyer, Erica Suter, delivered his case to the Baltimore Metropolis State’s Legal professional’s Workplace.
A brand new prosecutor takes one other have a look at the case
Suter’s request went to Becky Feldman, chief of the sentencing overview unit for the prosector’s workplace. Whereas Feldman served as a Baltimore public defender for years prior, she is comparatively new to the prosecutorial facet (her LinkedIn profile signifies that she began there in December 2020). Thus, Feldman examined Syed’s case with a recent set of eyes and began “pulling threads” with Suter. In March, Feldman’s workplace requested a decide to order new high-tech DNA testing (the outcomes got here again in August with “nothing actually conclusive or helpful”). Whereas they waited for that, she consulted mobile phone and polygraph consultants and investigated Google Maps and land data.
New suspects
When having a look at Syed’s large case file, Feldman found handwritten notes that pointed to alternate suspects. Suter confirmed that they had by no means seen the notes earlier than, however detectives have been conscious of them on the time. Whereas the notes are undated, they seem like written by a prosecutor earlier than Syed was tried. The notes element cellphone calls from two totally different individuals giving the State’s Legal professional’s Workplace details about the identical individual, who apparently had a motive to kill Hae Min Lee and was heard saying he would “make her disappear” and “kill her.”
Feldman stated the state discovered the data in these notes to be credible. Because it seems to be like Syed’s attorneys have been by no means made conscious of those calls, the state might have made a significant breach in not turning over this proof to the protection, which requires a Brady violation.
Koenig didn’t identify both of the 2 new suspects, as neither has been charged with against the law, however she revealed that “one or each of them have related felony histories, largely crimes dedicated after Adnan’s trial, considered one of them for a sequence of sexual assaults.” One of many suspects is at present in jail for sexual assault. One has a connection to the situation the place Lee disappeared. Each have been investigated on the time of Syed’s trial, however “not with a lot vigor, so far as I can inform,” Koenig says.
Feldman information a movement to vacate
Given the “bouquet of issues” referring to Syed’s case, Feldman filed a movement to vacate, because the state may now not “justify holding Adnan in jail anymore.”
Jay’s story doesn’t add up
Listeners of “Serial” will bear in mind “star witness” Jay Wilds, Syed’s good friend from highschool who advised the state Syed killed Lee and confirmed him her physique, then coerced Wilds into serving to bury her in a metropolis park. All through the podcast, Koenig notes how Wilds’ story stored altering. Within the movement to vacate, Feldman pointed to at least one obtrusive instance: the situation the place Wilds claims Syed confirmed him Lee’s physique modified thrice over the course of the investigation.
The state knew Wilds’ testimony was shaky on the time, however they relied on mobile phone data to corroborate it. After talking with mobile phone consultants, Feldman acknowledged in her movement to vacate that the proof is unreliable, and that the state can not use incoming name data to corroborate Wilds’ story.
A problematic detective
Feldman additionally included in her movement a bit about Invoice Ritz, who was one of many two fundamental detectives on Syed’s case. Ritz confronted misconduct allegations on one other homicide case that went to trial the identical yr Syed was charged. He was accused of “manipulating proof, fabricating proof, not disclosing exculpatory proof, not following up on proof that pointed to a unique suspect.” As Koenig notes, “Ritz was one of many two detectives who repeatedly interviewed Jay Wilds.” In 2016, the suspect convicted in Ritz’s different case was exonerated.
It’s unclear what’s going to occur subsequent, but it surely’s seemingly Syed will stay free
The state has 30 days to resolve whether or not to maneuver to a brand new trial or drop the case towards Syed. However as Koenig predicts, “the probabilities of the state ever making an attempt to prosecute Adnan once more are distant at greatest.”
Take heed to the complete episode beneath.
[ad_2]
Source link
