Adnan Syed was acquitted on Tuesday in the murder of He Min Lee in 1999. Prosecutors dropped murder charges in a case that spawned a “serial” podcast and 2019 HBO documentary, after a new round of DNA testing excluded his involvement in the murder case.
Syed was released from prison in September after more than two decades behind bars when Baltimore’s Circuit Court Judge Melissa Finn vacated his sentence.
According to a press release from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, the charges against Syed will result in the dismissal of the criminal case for which he was imprisoned for 23 years. The release also said that the state’s lawyers will not prosecute Syed in the murder trial following the results of fresh DNA tests from evidence found at the scene.
“Ultimately, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,” said Syed’s attorney, Erica Suter, assistant public defender and director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore Law School, in a statement. “The DNA results confirm what we already know and all the basis for the present proceedings: that Adnan is innocent and lost 23 years of his life to a crime he did not commit.”
Syed was indicted in 1999 for the murder of ex-girlfriend Hee Min Lee, but a new investigation found that police withheld information from Syed’s lawyers, including the existence of two additional suspects.
reporting on last month’s decision to vacate his sentence, The Associated Press said Finn ruled that the state had breached its legal obligation to share specific evidence with Syed’s defense. He ordered his release from custody and placed him under house arrest with GPS location monitoring. According to his decision, the state had 30 days to decide whether to seek a fresh trial or dismiss the case.
Speaking about Tuesday’s acquittal, Sutter concluded, “While the proceedings are not fully concluded, it is an important step forward for Adnan, who has been under house arrest since the first vacated offer last month. Joe He still needs some time to process what happened and we want you to give him and his family that space.”
