A judge in Baltimore has allow Adnan Syed — the subject of the podcastSerial’sdebut time of year — a new trial for the 1999 murder of his gamey schooltime ex-wife - girlfriend Hae Min Lee . Syed , now 35 , wasconvictedof first stage execution in 2000 , at age 19 , and sentenced to life in prison .
In 2014 , the uber - bang podcastSeriallaunched the crime back into public consciousness and onto the home stage , drawing millions of listeners as it explore Syed ’s compositor’s case and the relatively diminished ( and potentially unreliable ) amount of evidence that put him in prison . When the time of year wrapped up at the goal of 2014 , it had an estimated40 million downloads .
With the time of year over , fans of the podcast now have another chapter to follow tight . Retired Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch repeal Syed ’s murder strong belief today , The Baltimore Sunreports , writing that his lawyer at the fourth dimension “ translate ineffective help when she go wrong to cross - examine the state ’s expert regarding the dependableness of cadre tower emplacement evidence , ” referring to the evidence used to place Syed near where the dead body was found .
As for whether or not the podcast played a part in this new ontogeny , the justice admit he did n’t listen to the serial and add together , " Regardless of the public interest wall this shell , the lawcourt used its good efforts to come up to the merit of [ Syed ’s ] petition for post - conviction relief like it would in any other example that comes before the court , unfettered by sympathy , prejudice , or public opinion . "
( Meanwhile , this is a good self-justification to dive back into the myriadSerial - spawnedconspiracy theoriessurrounding the offence . )
[ h / tThe Baltimore Sun ]
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