Retired Baltimore judge who presided over Adnan Syed’s murder trial says substantial evidence supported his conviction

Substantial evidence supported the jury’s finding in 2000 that Adnan Syed was guilty of murdering Hae Min Lee, according to an affidavit from the retired judge who presided over the trial.

Wanda Keyes Heard, Baltimore’s former top circuit court judge who retired from the bench in 2019, submitted the affidavit Thursday on behalf of the Lee family, who claim their rights as crime victims under Maryland law were violated last month when a different judge overturned Syed’s conviction and freed him from prison.

“A reading of the trial transcript will show that the jury verdict was supported by substantial direct and circumstantial evidence,” Heard wrote in her affidavit.

Heard kept 100 pages of typed notes from the trial and wrote that she was submitting the sworn affidavit at the Lee family’s request and “in the interest of justice.”

“I heard the evidence and all the testimony,” she wrote. “The verdict and the swift manner of the verdict being reached made it clear to the court that the jury weighed the credibility of the witnesses who testified and were subject to cross examination.”

Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn freed Syed from prison Sept. 19 after prosecutors in Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office claimed to have discovered evidence suggesting Syed’s innocence that was never disclosed to his original defense attorney. Syed was convicted of killing Lee, his ex-girlfriend and Woodlawn High School classmate.

Specifically, Mosby’s office claimed in its motion to vacate Syed’s conviction that it found two handwritten notes from Kevin Urick, the original prosecutor in the case, that suggest someone close to Syed had threatened to kill Lee.

Prosecutors identified one other “alternative suspect” during their reinvestigation with Syed’s defense counsel — a man who was improperly cleared during the original investigation, according to the motion to overturn Syed’s conviction.

Young Lee, Hae Min Lee’s brother, is appealing the decision that freed Syed because he said he was not given proper notice about the Sept. 19 court hearing in order to attend in person and to properly prepare. Young Lee gave a brief statement via video-conference to the court after his lawyer, Steve Kelly, unsuccessfully asked Phinn for a seven-day postponement so that Young Lee could travel from the West Coast, where he lives.

“Here, the voices of the Lee family were silenced. Prosecutors went out of their way to evade the [Maryland] Constitution’s absolute requirements,” Kelly wrote in an appellate filing submitted to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

“They provided the Lee family with barely any notice and no meaningful opportunity to appear and comment on the evidence.”

Mosby, who lost her bid for reelection and will leave office in January as she waits for her federal perjury and mortgage fraud trial to begin, has said her office followed the proper procedures for notifying victims.

Young Lee was told about the Monday, Sept. 19 hearing the Friday before, giving him less than one full business day to make arrangements. In an email, Assistant State’s Attorney Becky Feldman told Young Lee he and his family could “watch” the hearing, but did not say he had a right to speak.

In the days following Young Lee’s appeal, Mosby said her office received new DNA test results from Hae Min Lee’s shoes that excluded Syed. Her office decided to drop the pending murder charge against Syed, and Mosby said she believes there is no evidence linking Syed to Hae Min Lee’s murder.

Because Syed’s criminal case no longer exists, a three-judge panel in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ordered the Lees to explain why their appeal should continue.

The Lee family is arguing it should continue because future hearings to overturn convictions will likely run into the same victims’ rights issues.

Even if the appellate judges decide to allow the case to continue, the Lee family is not seeking to have Syed sent back to prison, according to a statement Kelly issued late Thursday.

Instead, the family is seeking an evidentiary hearing in the case, which Kelly claims was not done earlier, so they can better understand the evidence that led to Syed being freed.

Heard, the judge who presided over Syed’s trial, wrote in her affidavit that she is not sure how DNA evidence from Hae Min Lee’s shoes was sufficient to exonerate Syed, because she cannot recall any evidence then that suggested Syed ever touched the shoes. Heard campaigned for incoming Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who is expected to take office when Mosby leaves.

“The absence of touch DNA on her shoes would seem to be an unusual basis to eliminate Mr. Syed as Ms. Lee’s killer in the face of other overwhelming and riveting testimony of the eyewitness of Jay Wilds, who testified that he assisted Mr. Syed in the burial of her body,” Heard wrote.

Mosby’s office has since said Wilds’ testimony is no longer credible because of inconsistent statements about what happened that he made in the years after the trial.

Joining the Lee family’s side is Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, whose office filed its own papers in the case earlier this week.

Mosby has repeatedly accused Frosh and members of his office of intentionally withholding the original prosecutors’ handwritten notes in order to keep Syed in prison. Frosh denies the claim, calling it unfounded.

Frosh’s office said Urick’s handwritten note, which supposedly states that an alternative suspect made a threat against Lee’s life, is difficult to read and “subject to multiple interpretations.” Mosby’s office never contacted Urick during its investigation, and has not spoken to him about the note, according to the attorney general’s filing.

The threat does not specifically mention Lee by name, and the person who relayed the threat to Urick did not take it seriously, according to the attorney general’s office. The remainder of the note also includes statements that suggest Syed’s guilt.

Frosh’s office declined to share the full contents of the note, citing Mosby’s ongoing investigation into the two alternative suspects.