Adnan Syed’s lawyers seek to reduce his prison sentence

By BRIAN WITTE The Associated Press

FILE - Adnan Syed and his mother, Shamim Rahman, talk with reporters as they arrive at Maryland's Supreme Court in Annapolis, Md., Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, to hear arguments in an appeal by Syed, whose conviction for killing his ex-girlfriend more than 20 years ago was chronicled in the hit podcast "Serial." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Susan Walsh]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Attorneys for Adnan Syed, whose complex legal case was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial,” are seeking to have his prison sentence reduced as he awaits further court decisions. Syed was released from prison in 2022 and has remained free ever since, though his court case is ongoing. His lawyers are seeking to reduce his sentence under a Maryland law that allows people who have been imprisoned for at least 20 years for crimes committed when they were minors to seek a change in sentence.

Syed was released when a Baltimore judge overturned his conviction in response to a request from prosecutors who said they found flaws in the evidence. But in August, Maryland’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that reinstated Syed’s conviction while allowing him to remain free pending a new hearing about whether he should have been released.

The court said the victim’s family didn’t receive adequate notice to allow them to attend the original hearing in person.

The defense attorneys’ filing on Friday seeks to maintain Syed’s freedom until the new hearing.

“This filing is a small step toward ensuring that Adnan’s custody status is stabilized and his freedom is safeguarded,” said Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney and an assistant public defender who directs the Innocence Project Clinic at University of Baltimore Law School.

“We maintain his innocence and our mission of proving that hasn’t changed,” Suter said in a statement.

She also said Syed’s accomplishments and good conduct, both during his incarceration and since release, support reducing his sentence. Since his release, Syed has been working at Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative. His lawyers, including Brian Zavin, who is chief attorney of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s Appellate Division, also noted in Friday’s filing in Baltimore City Circuit Court that Syed has been caring for his elderly parents since his release and that his father recently died.

The filing also said Syed has cared for his spouse’s aging parents.

The Maryland Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling in August came about 11 months after it heard arguments in a case that has been fraught with legal twists and divided court rulings since Syed was convicted in 2000 of killing his high school ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.

She was found strangled to death and buried in an unmarked grave in 1999. Syed was 17 at the time and was sentenced to life in prison, plus 30 years.

David Sanford, an attorney who represents Lee’s family, said in a statement Monday that “if there is new and compelling evidence to support vacating the conviction of Adnan Syed, we will be the first to call for Mr. Syed’s freedom.”

However, he said the state has not “presented a shred of new, let alone compelling, evidence which would warrant overturning a murder conviction that has withstood appeals for over two decades.”

“The State of Maryland engaged in a charade in 2022: it recycled old evidence and, in the process, bamboozled the trial court and the public into believing that Mr. Syed was likely innocent,” Sanford said, adding that attorneys will confer with the family and present their position in court in the days ahead.

Syed, who is now 43, has maintained his innocence.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates is weighing how to proceed given the Maryland Supreme Court’s decision.

Syed’s case was chronicled in the “Serial” podcast, which debuted in 2014 and drew millions of listeners who became armchair detectives. The show, hosted by veteran radio producer Sarah Koenig, transformed the true-crime genre as it shattered podcast-streaming and downloading records, revealing little-known evidence and raising new questions about the case.