Decision to free Serial's Adnan Syed appealed by murder victim's family trends now
The family of a murder victim Hae Min Lee have slammed a Maryland court's decision that allowed Adnan Syed to be freed after more than 20 years in jail.
In a recent court filing, Lee's family seeks to appeal the decision to drop all the charges against Syed, which came just one month after he was released from prison.
The family argues that neither the prosecutor nor the court provided the evidence they used to reverse Syed's conviction, and conducted the hearing in private.
They are now asking a Maryland Appeals Court to redo Syed's hearing in public and provide them with the necessary evidence to testify.
Prosecutors dropped charges against Adnan Syed in October for the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast 'Serial'
Syed spent more than two decades behind bars after he was convicted of killing Hae Min Lee, a former girlfriend seen with him above in a high school photo
In September, a judge decided to overturn Syed's conviction, and set him free after 23 years behind bars.
Prosecutors ruled the following month that they would drop the charges against Adnan Syed on Tuesday in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast 'Serial.'
They ruled that DNA on Lee's shoes was found not to did match Syed, and found that prosecutors failed to provide the defense with documents or evidence that would have been favorable to its case.
But Lee's family say the hearing to overturn Syed's conviction was conducted in private — and family members were not provided with the evidence prosecutors used to come to their decision.
They argue in the request for appeal, obtained by DailyMail.com, that the Maryland circuit court did not hold an open proceeding when deciding to overturn Syed's conviction — against state law.
'Fundamental to the American justice system is the presumption of open courts, including transparent proceedings where the evidence is publicly aired and basis for any dispositive ruling is sufficiently clear.
'The Baltimore City State's Attorney and Circuit Court ran roughshod over these principles by secretly collaborating to choreograph a vacatur of Mr. Syed's conviction.'
Lawyers for the family of the slain 18-year-old continue to argue that whatever happened in the hearing to overturn Syed's conviction 'is lost to history.
'No witnesses or evidence appeared, and the hearing became mere spectacle to announce the vacatur and set Mr. Syed free.'
Youn Kim, the mother of Hae Min Lee, is pictured being escorted from her daughter's memorial service in September. The family is now seeking to appeal a Maryland court's decision to overturn Syed's conviction
Syed has repeatedly denied he was responsible for the death of Hae Min Lee
In the court documents, the lawyers argue that there is no evidence that a Brady Violation — in which prosecutors fail to overturn evidence that would benefit the defense's case — had occurred.
'The evidence that the court relied on to grant vacatur and its basis for doing so remain hidden and untested,' the attorneys argue in court documents.
'In doing so, the court and prosecutor also steamrolled Mr. Lee's rights as victim's representative by denying him meaningful input in the process.'
The lawyers also argue that prosecutors failed to give Lee time to respond to the hearing before it was conducted, and denied his request to postpone the hearing so he could travel to Baltimore. Instead, they allowed him to speak on Zoom — which his lawyers say he was unprepared for.
And, the lawyers argue: 'The court also erred in summarily concluding that newly-discovered evidence would have likely changed the outcome at trial.
'No one — not Mr. Lee, not the press, not the public, not even Mr. Syed himself — could know from this ruling what new evidence the court was crediting and how it may tent to exonerate Mr. Syed.
'For example, the State's Attorney claimed that there were alternative suspects under investigation who have been convicted of other crimes, but cited no evidence linking them to the murder of Hae Min Lee.
'Without more, it is impossible to discern the basis for granting vacatur.'
Syed is pictured here smiling and waving after a judge overturned his murder conviction in September. The Maryland prosecutor's office decided the next month to drop all the charges against him
Hae Min Lee's family argues the decision to drop the charges was done in a private hearing, violating the family's rights as victims
Lawyers continue to say that 'there are multiple rulings affirming Mr. Syed's conviction' while the State's motion to overturn the conviction 'was troublingly spare on details and failed to connect the dots on why its new evidence created a "significant probability" that the result would have been different.'
Additionally, they say: 'The State conceded that the investigation — including DNA sampling — was incomplete and made no assertion of Mr. Syed's innocence, yet it failed to explain why it was so urgent to vacate Mr. Syed's sentence even while the inquiry continued.'
In conclusion, the lawyers write: 'The entire process was spectacularly flawed, providing Mr. Lee insufficient notice, no knowledge of the evidence supporting vacatur, and no meaningful opportunity to be heard,' the attorneys write.
'Most significantly, the vacatur determination took place in a closed-chamber prehearing held behind Mr. Lee's back.
'Whatever evidence the State had, it presented only in secret, while at the actual "hearing" the court made no findings of fact to establish that the state fulfilled its obligations.
