Murder case dropped against 'Serial' podcast's Syed
STORY: Prosecutors in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday dismissed their murder case against Adnan Syed, the subject of the hit podcast “Serial”.
Syed had served more than 20 years in prison over the 1999 killing of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
A circuit court judge had vacated the now 42-year-old's murder conviction last month, after a probe identified problems with the case, and left prosecutors to decide whether to retry him.
On Tuesday, the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, Marilyn Mosby, told a news conference that she’s ordered the case against Syed be dropped.
That’s after touch DNA testing was done on evidence, including Lee’s clothes and shoes, for the first time.
Mosby said DNA was found on Lee's shoes, but it was not Syed’s.
And that the investigation into who killed Lee remains open.
Mosby apologised to the Syed and Lee families, saying:
"The criminal justice system should be based on fair and just prosecution, and crux of the matter is that we are standing here today because that wasn't done 23 years ago," adding that, "Today, justice is done."
Syed had all along maintained he did not kill Lee, who was 18 when she was strangled and buried in a Baltimore park.
The podcast "Serial", produced by a Chicago public radio station, drew national attention to the case in 2014.
Mosby said Syed will now need to go through an innocence certification process, for those who are wrongly convicted.
