It’s a good day for “Serial” fans: Adnan Syed, the convicted murderer whose case became the subject of the podcast’s first season, has been granted a new trial by a Baltimore judge.
Syed’s attorney Justin Brown made the announcement Thursday on Twitter. “WE WON A NEW TRIAL FOR ADNAN SYED!!! #FreeAdnan,” the tweet read. The ruling by retired judge Martin Welch was handed down Thursday, four months after Syed’s post-trial hearing.
Syed, 36, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. His story came to prominence after it was the focus of the popular “Serial” pocast, in which host Sarah Koenig undertook an investigation that scrutinized the fairness of his 2000 trial. Since then, a team of lawyers have further examined claims that faulty cellphone records and the dismissal of a potentially important alibi witness negatively affected Syed’s defense.
A date has not yet been set for the retrial.
