"Serial" subject Adnan Syed asks to be released from prison
BALTIMORE — A defendant awaiting retrial for the slaying of his high school girlfriend and whose story was the center of a popular podcast is asking to be released from prison.
Justin Brown, a lawyer representing Adnan Syed, wrote in a motion filed Monday that Syed should be released while awaiting retrial because he poses “no danger to the community” and has already served 17 years in prison “based on an unconstitutional conviction for a crime he did not commit.”
Syed was convicted in 2000 of strangling 17-year-old Hae Min Lee, his former girlfriend. His story became the centerpiece for the first season of the “Serial” podcast, and a judge in June granted Syed a new trial because his attorney failed to cross-examine an expert witness about cell tower data linking Syed to the crime scene.
“Completely absent from Syed’s record are circumstances that typically cause courts concern regarding pretrial release,” Brown wrote in his motion. Brown also wrote that Syed is not a flight risk because of his strong ties to the community, and because he enjoys so much support from the public after “Serial,” which attracted millions of listeners and inspired an army of armchair investigators to help hunt down evidence to bolster his defense.
The Attorney General’s office, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.
Brown said in a statement that “there is no reason to think Adnan would run from the case he has spent half his life trying to disprove.”
In his request for a new trial, Brown argued that Syed’s original attorney erred by failing to call an alibi witness to share with the jury her claim that she saw him in the library shortly before Lee’s slaying. Brown also said the attorney failed to ask any questions about cell tower records.
The state thus far has opposed Syed’s motions, and appealed the judge’s granting of a new trial. State officials have said that if they lose the appeal, they will retry the case.