Fans of the popular podcast Serial have awaited updates on the fate of its central character, Adnan Syed, since the show ended in December of last year. Week by week, the most downloaded podcast of 2014 told the story of Syed, convicted in the 1999 murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Now 33, and still proclaiming his innocence, Syed is serving a life sentence for the crime.
Though Syed filed an application (in January of 2014) with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals regarding his conviction, months before Serial even aired, he was finally granted the appeal on Feb. 6, 2015.
Though just a small breakthrough in a lengthy process of legal maneuvers, Syed’s lawyer, C. Justin Brown, was satisfied with the court’s decision.
“It’s the first step in a pretty long process, but we’re extremely happy,” Brown told the Baltimore Sun. The most recent ruling overturns an earlier decision from 2013 that denied a previous request for an appeal.
Both appeals were grounded in the shortcomings of Syed’s late trial attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, through allegations that she provided ineffective counsel for failing to seek a plea bargain with the state during his trial. Though Syed requested a plea deal, Brown claims Gutierrez ignored it. In addition, she failed to investigate a key witness, Asia McLean, who could have provided an alibi.
The district attorney’s office fought to block Syed’s appeal, but the court has ruled in his favor, with the appeal scheduled for this coming June. The Court also announced that a three-judge panel would address the question of whether new evidence from McLean, providing an alibi for Syed, would be admissible.
In all its popularity, Serial had no determining effects on the case it covered. Even now, the odds that the appeal will work are relatively low. But a successful appeal would raise the possibility of a retrial for Syed, and along with it, a possibility for his conviction to be overturned. The podcast shined light on a previously closed case, bringing some new voices into the picture, but Syed’s fate remains untold.
The show has gone beyond Syed to unveil how little evidence is necessary for a murder conviction. With a second season of Serial in the works, the show’s influence is set to raise more questions, no matter what the next story may be.