A US judge last Monday annulled the conviction of a man imprisoned for 23 years for a murder he always denied and made famous on the ‘Serial’ podcast.
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Adnan Syed, 42, had been sentenced to life in prison in 2000 for the death of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in Baltimore, on the east coast of the United States.
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In an unexpected twist, City Attorney Marilyn Mosby last week asked to vacate the sentence, explaining that there were doubts about his guilt, and he asked for his freedom.
Mosby explained that he discovered the existence of “two alternative suspects”, key information that was not well valued at the time and, above all, that was not shared with the defense before the trial.
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On Monday, a judge upheld the request at a hearing in a packed Baltimore courtroom. “In the interest of justice and equality, the motion is granted and the accused will be released with an electronic bracelet”Judge Melissa Phinn declared.
Officers then removed Adnan Syed’s handcuffs, as part of the room applauded before a call to order. The man, with a bushy beard and a white cap, did not react to the decision.
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“She had a hard time believing it was real” and now “she wants to spend time with her family,” her attorney Erica Suter said outside the courthouse as her client drove away without commenting.
‘Cheated’
Prosecutor Mosby insisted on the fact that justice “has not yet declared Adnan Syed innocent” and that she would wait for the results of the DNA analysis before abandoning the investigations against him or organizing a new trial, which must be decided. within a maximum period of 30 days.
Whatever the decision, Mosby promised to continue the investigation “to ensure that Hae Min’s relatives know for sure who the culprit is.”.
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During the hearing, the victim’s brother spoke by telephone to explain his consternation. He said “living a nightmare that never stopped” and also feeling “deceived” by prosecutors who claimed for years to have found the culprit.
The case began in 1999 when police found the body of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee half-buried in a Baltimore forest.
Adnan Syed, then 17, was arrested and sentenced to life in prison a year later. According to the accusation, the boy had not endured that she would leave him and would have strangled her.
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Syed always denied the crime and claimed to be a victim of prejudice against Muslims.
In 2014, a team of journalists carried out their own investigation, narrated throughout 12 episodes of the “Serial” podcast and that generated, according to the producers, some 300 million downloads and also inspired a documentary on the HBO network.
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Alibi
The independent investigation of “Serial” showed that Adnan Syed’s defense did not take into account a mobile phone expert opinion favorable to the accused, as well as the testimony of a young woman who gave him a potential alibi.
His work led to the reopening of the case and In March 2018, a Maryland appeals court ordered a new trial, considering that the defense had given “ineffective help” to its client..
In March 2019, the Supreme Court of that state recognized the lawyer’s mistake in not presenting some elements, but at the same time estimated that “with all the evidence” the verdict would not have been different, if they had been included, therefore who rejected the request for a new trial.
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Adnan Syed’s defense then went to the United States Supreme Court and in 2019 it refused to intervenewhich seemed to end Syed’s hopes of freedom.
But the Baltimore prosecutor, who has a service dedicated to correcting judicial errors, reopened the case that finally led to judicial review. A new episode of the “Serial” podcast series will be released on Tuesday, it was announced on his Twitter account.
AFP
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