Posted at 11:21 AM, December 26, 2024
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Scripps News Baltimore) — Yet another step in the court case of Adnan Syed, a man whose conviction for killing his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999, currently stands pending a re-do hearing.
Syed’s lawyer, Erica Suter, has filed a motion to reduce his sentence under the Juvenile Restoration Act.
Adnan Syed, center right, leaves the courthouse after the hearing, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, in Baltimore. A Baltimore judge on Monday ordered the release of Syed after overturning his conviction for the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial,” a true-crime series that transfixed listeners and revolutionized the genre. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
The law, passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2021, offers relief to people incarcerated for crimes they were convicted of committing when they were under 18, and have already served 20 years.
Syed’s legal team previously filed under this law a couple of years ago, which led to a Brady investigation by the State’s Attorney’s Office and a vacatur hearing in the fall of 2022.
The State’s Attorney’s Office filed the motion to vacate Syed’s conviction, citing new evidence and possible Brady violations.
READ MORE | Md. Supreme Court orders redo of hearing that freed Adnan Syed
A judge released Syed the same day, vacating his conviction.
Lee’s brother, Young Lee, was only notified on a Friday about the Monday hearing, and this led to additional court proceedings all the way up to the State Supreme Court, which found Young Lee’s rights had been violated.
The conviction, which the Maryland Appellate Court reinstated, remains in place until a new vacatur proceeding is initiated following the ruling of the State Supreme Court.
That proceeding has not yet been scheduled.
In the meantime, his lawyer has filed for a sentence reduction.
“This filing is a small step toward ensuring that Adnan’s custody status is stabilized and his freedom is safeguarded,” says Suter. “We maintain his innocence and our mission of proving that hasn’t changed,” she added. “At this time our concerns are focused on Adnan’s liberty.”
In a statement, the lawyer for Hae Min Lee’s family said they plan to present the family’s position in this matter in the days ahead.
“The family of Hae Min Lee has always said that if there is new and compelling evidence to support vacating the conviction of Adnan Syed, we will be the first to call for Mr. Syed’s freedom,” says David Sanford, the Lee family’s lawyer. “To date, Mr. Syed and the State of Maryland have not presented a shred of new, let alone compelling, evidence that would warrant overturning a murder conviction that has withstood appeals for over two decades.”
In filing for relief under the Juvenile Restoration Act, his lawyers aren’t asking for his conviction to be overturned, but arguing that since his release from prison in 2022, he’s been a law-abiding citizen and should therefore be granted relief under the law.
Sanford goes further in his statement: “The State of Maryland engaged in a charade in 2022: it recycled old evidence and, in the process, bamboozled the trial court and the public into believing that Mr. Syed was likely innocent,” he says. “Adnan Syed remains a convicted murderer. Having failed to produce new evidence and without any acknowledgment of guilt by Mr. Syed, Syed’s attorneys now seek mercy, arguing that Mr. Syed is not a danger to the public.”
This story was originally written by Amanda Engel for Scripps News Baltimore, an E.W. Scripps Company.
Source : CourtTV