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U.S.|Adnan Syed Will Not Return to Prison, Judge Rules
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/adnan-syed-murder-conviction-prison.html
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A judge agreed to reduce Mr. Syed’s sentence to time served on Thursday for his conviction in the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999.
March 6, 2025Updated 5:41 p.m. ET
Adnan Syed will not return to prison after prosecutors in Baltimore withdrew a motion last week to vacate his murder conviction despite efforts to clear his record, a Maryland judge ruled on Thursday.
Judge Jennifer Schiffer of Baltimore City Circuit Court said in her decision that Mr. Syed “is not a danger to the public” and that “the interests of justice will be better served by a reduced sentence” of time served. Mr. Syed will enter a period of five years of “supervised probation,” according to the court filing.
The case has gone back and forth since it became the subject of widespread attention in 2014, when the podcast “Serial” raised questions about the investigation into the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, 18.
Mr. Syed was 17 when he was found guilty in 2000 of killing Ms. Lee, his former high school girlfriend, and was sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2022 after a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge vacated the conviction, but it was reinstated in 2023. In 2024, the Maryland Supreme Court ordered the trial court to redo the hearing that freed Mr. Syed.
Ms. Lee’s brother and mother had urged the court to uphold his life sentence. David Sanford, a lawyer for the family, criticized the ruling, underscoring Mr. Syed’s past conviction.
“Absolutely nothing changes the fact that Mr. Syed remains convicted of first-degree premeditated murder due to overwhelming direct and circumstantial evidence,” Mr. Sanford said in a statement. “We hope that one day Mr. Syed can summon the courage to take responsibility for his crime and express sincere remorse.”
