The family of murder victim Hae Min Lee have hit back at her convicted killer after his lawyers filed to have his prison sentence reduced.
Lee was just 18 when she was strangled and dumped in an unmarked shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park in 1999.
Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, who was 17 at the time, was convicted of murdering Lee and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in 2000.
The case captured national attention a decade ago when it was the focus of the popular true crime podcast ‘Serial.’
Syed, now 43, has always maintained his innocence, and was released from prison in 2022 after his conviction was overturned when flaws were found in the evidence.
In 2023, it was then reinstated after a court ruled that Lee’s family didn’t receive enough notice to allow them to attend the hearing in person.
That decision to reinstate the conviction was then upheld by the state Supreme Court in August of this year in the latest twist in the legal saga surrounding the case.
Syed has remained free pending a new hearing about whether he should have been released, with his lawyers filing to have his sentence reduced last week.
Lee was just 18 when she was strangled and dumped in an unmarked grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park in 1999
Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, seen here, who was 17 at the time, was convicted of murdering Lee and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in 2000
David Sanford, an attorney who represents Lee’s family, said that the state had not presented ‘a shred’ of evidence that warranted overturning the conviction.
In a statement, Sanford said: ‘The family of Hae Min Lee has always said 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.
‘To date, Mr. Syed and the State of Maryland have 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.
‘Adnan Syed remains a convicted murderer. Having failed to produce new evidence and without any acknowledgement of guilt by Mr. Syed, Syed’s attorneys now seek mercy, arguing that Mr. Syed is not a danger to the public.
‘We will confer with the family of Hae Min Lee and present our position to the court in the days ahead.’
Syed’s lawyers said in their filing on Friday that his accomplishments and good conduct, while incarcerated and since his release support the reduction.
Erica Suter, who represents the convicted killer, said: ‘This filing is a small step toward ensuring that Adnan’s custody status is stabilized and his freedom is safeguarded.’
Brought to tears: Youn Wha Kim is pictured crying as her daughter’s murderer is sentenced in 2000
Syed asked Lee to junior prom in 1998 after placing a bet with his friend on who would get the prettiest date for the hottest event in their social calendar
Adnan Syed pictured as a young man, before being jailed over Hae Min Lee’s murder
Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates is weighing how to proceed given the Maryland Supreme Court’s decision.
Lee, a Korean-American, was a scholar at school, an athlete and wanted to be an optician.
She played on the lacrosse and field hockey teams and was manager of the wrestling team.
Syed asked Lee to junior prom in 1998 after placing a bet with his friend on who would get the prettiest date for the hottest event in their social calendar.
Images taken from that night show Syed with his arms wrapped around Lee, who described him as the ‘sweetest guy’ in a diary entry on her whirlwind night.
He later described their first kiss at prom as ‘one of the best moments of my whole life, like one of the happiest times.’
But because their teenage relationship had to be kept a secret from their parents, the couple were forced to sneak around, lie about their whereabouts and put special systems in place just to speak on the phone.
This became too much for Lee. She broke off the relationship with Syed around December 1999. She was last seen alive on January 13, 1999.
The Korean-American girl was also a scholar at school, as well as an athlete who wanted to be an optician. She was killed in 1999
Hae Min Lee’s brother, Young (left) and mother Youn Wha Kim are pictured here following her tragic death.
Last year, on the one-year anniversary of his release, Syed called a press conference from his Maryland living room where he called for an investigation into his case, ‘to essentially understand how our rights as a family have been violated.’
He highlighted ‘two new pieces of information’ in his case, and alleged that there had been prosecutorial misconduct – specifically by Kevin Urick and Kathleen Murphy.
Syed said that he has always pushed for justice for his ‘friend’ Lee, and her family saying: ‘We have the upmost respect and concern for Lee’s younger brother.’
He said that there is evidence that Urick committed a Brady violation and that the AG ought to probe him for it.
Syed believes this due to the new evidence that came to light that convinced officials keeping Syed locked up for the murder was no longer justifiable.
Syed gets emotional as he speaks to reporters outside the Robert C. Murphy Courts of Appeal building after a hearing, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, in Annapolis
The ‘new evidence’ was twofold. Firstly, two new suspects were identified in the case.
They were known to prosecutors in 1999, but they were not properly ruled out during the murder investigation.
Secondly, prosecutors determined that they no longer had faith in the old evidence used in the murder trial – namely, they did not believe the star witness to be credible anymore.
When the new investigator, Becky Feldman, found the evidence, she contacted Syed’s lawyer Erica J. Suter to see if she was aware of it. She was not.
This means that the prosecutors at trial in 2000 failed to hand over key information to the defense team as required, in what is known as a Brady violation.
If it’s ruled that a Brady violation was in fact breached, this could be enough to get Syed’s case exonerated in itself.
