On Tuesday, 23 years after he was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, US native Adnan Syed became a free man. The Baltimore prosecutors dropped all charges against Syed after the results of advanced DNA testing of the victim's shoes, skirt, pantyhose and jacket ruled out his involvement.
The case against the Baltimore man, which garnered worldwide attention through the hit true crime podcast 'Serial,' is finally closed. He can never be charged again.
"Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man," his lawyer, Erica Suter, said in a statement. "Adnan is innocent and lost 23 years of his life serving time for a crime he did not commit," she added.
His conviction was quashed last month after the state declared it "lacks confidence in the integrity of the conviction." But, his innocence was declared only Tuesday after Baltimore's state attorney Marilyn Mosby dropped the charges, reported CNN.
"The items that we tested had never before been tested," Mosby said. "We used advanced DNA to determine that it was not Adnan Syed. Prosecutors will continue to investigate Lee’s death and prosecute whoever is responsible. As for Syed, “this case is over," she added.
Mosby said the responsibility for the conviction belonged to past administrations. Tendering an apology to Lee’s family and Syed and his family, Mosby said, "Equally heartbreaking is the pain and sacrifice and trauma that has been imposed not just on (Lee’s) family, but Adnan and his family, who together spent 23 years imprisoned for a crime as a result of a wrongful conviction."
Syed's case
Hae Min Lee was found strangled to death in 1999 in a forest, three weeks before she went missing. Lee was Syed's ex-girlfriend and high school classmate.
Syed, who was 17 at that time, was charged with her killing. A year later, a jury found 'the scorned lover' guilty of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment. He was sentenced to life in prison despite professing innocence.
His numerous appeals went in vain and Syed remained in prison for over two decades. In 2014, the turning point happened when his story was featured in the 'Serial' podcast that cast shadow over his conviction.
The podcast went viral and the case gained the limelight. The episodes of the show have been downloaded more than 340 million times and Syed's case went on to be featured in many more programmes, including the HBO docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed.'
However, last month, Baltimore's state attorney's office, which studied the case over the past year, revealed that the investigation found that despite there being the involvement of two other people in the case, these were not properly turned over to the defence attorneys.
The reliability of cell phone data records also came under question in the new investigation besides the account of the man who claimed he helped Syed cover up the body.
Finally, the conviction was quashed on 20 September "in the interest of fairness and justice" and Syed walked out of the court as a free man.
