The Baltimore City state’s attorney’s office withdrew its motion to toss out the murder conviction of “Serial” subject Adnan Syed, but prosecutors will not seek to have him sent back to prison. In a hearing Wednesday that could determine whether Syed remains free, his supporters and family members of the woman he was convicted of killing testified before Judge Jennifer Schiffer as she weighs whether to reduce his sentence permanently. They described two irreconcilable versions of Syed: wrongly convicted man and supportive mentor both behind bars and after his release, or remorseless killer whose fame is helping him escape punishment, the Washington Post reports. Syed spent two decades in prison before a “Serial” podcast in 2014 cast doubts on his conviction in the death of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. State’s Attorney Ivan Bates filed a memo explaining why he would no longer support overturning Syed’s conviction. The move was a sharp contrast with the decision of former state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby, who in 2022 dropped the case against Syed, saying new DNA evidence supported his claims of innocence and declaring, “The case is over.” Syed was released from prison and has remained free.
“The State does not now make any factual assertions about Syed’s guilt or innocence,” Bates wrote. “We are simply unable to conclude that there is ‘newly discovered evidence’ that undermines the trial result, nor that there is ‘new information … that calls into question the integrity of the … conviction.’ As such, we also cannot conclude that the interest of justice and fairness justifies vacating the … conviction.” An attorney for Syed, Erica Suter, said that Bates’s decision “ignores the injustices on which this conviction was founded.” In 2022, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn found deficiencies in how prosecutors had turned over evidence to defense attorneys decades ago, the second time a judge had overturned his conviction. In March 2023, a Maryland Appellate Court reinstated Syed’s conviction in a 2-1 decision that ordered a do-over of the hearing at which Syed’s conviction was vacated. In August 2024, the Maryland Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling upheld the appellate court’s decision, with the majority ruling saying Syed’s convictions should be reinstated because the rights of Lee’s brother, Young Lee, had been violated. Young Lee’s request to delay the case by a week so he could attend in person had been denied. The case was sent back to the circuit court for a new hearing. Bates apologized to Young Lee, who Bates said “never felt that the system supported him or his family.” Bates said that he does not see Syed as a threat to society, based on his record. “We as an office deserved to treat you and your family better. We did not, we failed, and I do apologize,” Bates said.” “Today, Mr. Syed is released from confinement. Yet this case continues to torment the Lee family,” Bates wrote. “We hope that our decision to withdraw this motion will achieve finality for the Lee family and allow all parties, including Mr. Syed himself, to find closure and some measure of peace.”