Killer in ‘Serial’ podcast Adnan Syed seeks new trial

By
Reuters
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Killer in ‘Serial’ podcast Adnan Syed seeks new trial

BALTIMORE: A Maryland man whose 2000 murder conviction was thrown into question by the popular "Serial" podcast was in court on Wednesday to argue he deserved a new trial because his lawyers had done a poor job with his case.

Adnan Syed, 35, appeared in a prison jumpsuit in a courtroom packed with family members, supporters and the producer of the podcast.

He is serving a life term for the murder of his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in Baltimore in 1999.The killing was the subject of "Serial" in October 2014. The podcast, released by public radio station WBEZ in Chicago, has been downloaded more than 68 million times, CBS reported last year.

On the first day of a hearing expected to run through Friday, defense attorney C. Justin Brown asked Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch for a new trial for Syed.

He said Syed had "ineffective assistance by trial counsel" before his conviction.

State prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah rejected the defense´s claims.

"He strangled with his own hands an 18-year-old girl," he said, adding the evidence was overwhelming.

Asia McClain Chapman, a high school classmate of Syed, testified that Syed´s former lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, never contacted her about a potential alibi.

Chapman said she had told prosecutors she had seen Syed at the library the day of the murder.

She shared the information with the "Serial" producers, she said.

Under cross-examination, Chapman said she visited Syed´s family members to tell them about seeing him.

"They said he was having trouble remembering what he did that afternoon...between getting out of school and going to the mosque," she said.

Evidence introduced included letters Chapman had written Syed offering to share information with authorities.

A ruling in May from the Maryland Court of Special Appeals allowed Syed to call Chapman as a witness.

The court returned the case to Baltimore City Circuit Court for post-conviction proceedings.

Welch in November ordered a hearing to look into questions raised by Brown over cellphone tower records that prosecutors used to show that Syed was at the site where Lee was buried.

Syed´s lawyers have said in court papers that phone company AT&T indicated when it provided the data that incoming calls could not be used to determine location, but prosecutors used records on incoming calls to convict him.