Adnan got his conviction vacated and a new trial granted:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-adnan-syed-new-trial-20160630-story.html
This is excellent news. Adnan Syed may be a murderer, but that trial was deeply flawed.
Bumped.
I just finished Serial S1 myself. Syed’s conviction was reinstated by Maryland’s top court in March; he did not and now very likely will not receive a new trial:
I may be misremembering, but is there not a followup to Serial that explains the powerful case against Syed…one that certainly makes it look a lot more clear that, well, he probably did do it?
There was the Undisclosed podcast, and then an HBO special about the case. I’m sure there were lots of other podcasts, too, as anybody can yammer at their phone for 30 minutes about some stuff they heard.
After listening to Serial, then a bunch of Undisclosed, but not the HBO show, I’m not terribly surprised by the Maryland court’s decision. The takeaway I got from those podcasts was that case against him was very weak and the evidence was deeply flawed. It certainly wouldn’t have been enough for me to vote guilty, but I also didn’t hear anything I considered exculpatory. Of course, I really discount any eye witness testimony of exactly what time something happened.
Considering all that, lots of convictions seem to be based on what to me appears to be very flimsy evidence. I know the court wasn’t deciding whether the evidence was believable, that was the jury’s job, but my point is that the court is used to convictions on flimsy evidence, so they didn’t have much righteous outrage pushing them to find an excuse to vacate the conviction.
Didn’t remember I was the last one to post here.
Adnan Syed’s conviction has been overturned by a Maryland court, and he left the courthouse free (for now.)
If I’m understanding correctly, this is because the prosecution says there were Brady violations around not disclosing two other suspects. Investigation into those other suspects has made them doubt Syed’s guilt. Additionally the cell tower data which was so important to the conviction, is now known to be unreliable.
The prosecutors have 30 days to decide to retry the case or let it drop.
The Maryland attorney general says there were no Brady violations, and the prosecutor’s decision has “serious problems”.
Latest news (gift article) https://wapo.st/3MmGsCG
The Maryland Office of the Public Defender said in a statement that DNA testing had “excluded” Syed, and that the State’s Attorney’s Office would thus no longer prosecute the case. The statement noted, though, that the family of the murder victim was still pursuing an appeal of the judge’s order vacating Syed’s conviction.