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Crime The Courts

Judge Overturns Murder Conviction of Adnan Syed of 'Serial' Podcast (independent.co.uk) 16

A Maryland judge has overturned the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, in the latest twist to the case at the center of the hit podcast series Serial. From a report: Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the 41-year-old's conviction and granted him a new trial on Monday, ordering his release after more than 23 years behind bars. The move came after prosecutors made a request for his release on Wednesday saying that "the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction." Prosecutors said that an almost year-long investigation had cast doubts about the validity of cellphone tower data and uncovered new information about the possible involvement of two alternate unnamed suspects.

Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Lee, 18, vanished after leaving her high school on 13 January 1999. Her strangled body was found in a shallow grave in a Baltimore park around a month later. Syed has always maintained his innocence.
In a tweet shortly after the ruling was made, Serial tweeted: "Sarah was at the courthouse when Adnan was released, a new episode is coming tomorrow morning."
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Judge Overturns Murder Conviction of Adnan Syed of 'Serial' Podcast

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  • paywalled (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
  • by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @05:13PM (#62895961)

    Serial tweeted: "Sarah was at the courthouse when Adnan was released, a new episode is coming tomorrow morning."

    A) Who is Sarah? If you're gonna casually reference someone, perhaps the last line of the summary, with no explanation as to who they are, isn't the right place to do so?

    B) Why would we care that Sarah was outside the courthouse when Adnan was released?

    C) Hire a monkey as a Slashdot editor and put them head-to-head with the current crop. I'd put money on the monkey doing a better job.

    • by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @05:52PM (#62896159)

      A) Who is Sarah? [...]

      B) Why would we care that Sarah was outside the courthouse [...]?

      C) [...] I'd put money on the monkey doing a better job [than the Slashdot editor].

      A) "Sarah" is Sarah Koenig, the host of Serial.

      B) Serial is one of the most popular podcasts in history, the first season of which was focused on this case in particular and the irregularities surrounding it. It's likely that its listeners will want to hear an update, hence why it matters that she's there.

      C) I'd offer a specific complaint: the summary made no mention of The Innocence Project, who were representing Syed long before Serial arrived on the scene, and who were with him as the spotlight from Serial waxed and waned. They've been fighting the fight this entire time and deserve a HUGE amount of credit, yet the summary offered them none. That's a travesty.

    • Even better, she's not mentioned in the brief article being referenced - to find out who she is, you either have to go to Serial's webpage and hunt around for the information in their about section, or read through several of the snippets of related stories at the bottom of the article. Serial might very well be 'one of the most popular podcasts in history', but seeing as this bit of news is, by definition, aimed at those who don't follow it, some sort of hint would be nice. It would have been so easy:

      Serial, the podcast that has repeatedly questioned Syed's guilt, tweeted that host Sarah Koenig was on the scene for the event: "Sarah was at the courthouse when Adnan was released, a new episode is coming tomorrow morning."

      Jus

    • Serial tweeted: "Sarah was at the courthouse when Adnan was released, a new episode is coming tomorrow morning."

      A) Who is Sarah? If you're gonna casually reference someone, perhaps the last line of the summary, with no explanation as to who they are, isn't the right place to do so?

      B) Why would we care that Sarah was outside the courthouse when Adnan was released?

      C) Hire a monkey as a Slashdot editor and put them head-to-head with the current crop. I'd put money on the monkey doing a better job.

      You caught me with the double on A and B such that I did not see C coming . . . I almost peed myself. Well played sir, well played.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Monday September 19, 2022 @05:20PM (#62895993)

    I'm thinking that's about as relevant to the Slashdot audience as this particular submission is. Is there a reason we're supposed to care about the "Serial" podcast?

    • by znrt ( 2424692 )

      serialpodcast paying for it is reason more than enough. where do you think you are?

      i guess the link is in location services based on cellphone tower triangulation being used in courts. for added drama, the possibility of an innocent man having beeng wrongly accused of killing his ex and having his life wrecked for spurious use of flaky triangulation. are you not entertained?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by OffTheLip ( 636691 )
      As long as this serial podcast thing handled the big/little endian problem correctly I don't have a problem with it being covered by /.
    • Just imagine, a blog for nerds discussing something that 100% of its audience doesn’t care about

      It has 340 million downloads. Many people care.

  • new trial is not guilty and will they set bail for new trial?

    • Prosecutors have 30 days to refile charges if they choose.

      It was obvious from Serial and the first appeal that the conviction was unsound, and this was always Konig's position, not that Adnan was innocent. Adnan Syed had inadequate council who was later disbarred and failed to challenge the phone tower data and interview witnesses. The police focused only on one line of inquiry and a lot of leads were deliberately ignored. The original appeal, which also set aside the conviction, was only overturned due a l

  • what about the bestbuy payphone?

  • Released on home detention. So he is still the primary person of interest.
  • Reality no longer exists. New episode coming soon.

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