Adnan Syed, the Baltimore man who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999 and the subject of groundbreaking 2014 podcast, Serial, was told on Friday he will not get a retrial.
In 2016, Adnan was granted a retrial by The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on the grounds that he had received ineffective legal counsel at his original trial.
Advert
The state appealed the the retrial initially but the appeal was rejected. Now a new appeal has been upheld with four judges against three.
The judges on the court stated that Adnan's first trial lawyer failed to investigate the alibi of Adnan's schoolfriend, Asia McClain, who claimed to have seen him at a public library at the time he was alleged to have committed the murder.
Judges said that Asia not being present did not prejudice the trial but admitted that Adnan's original legal team was "deficient".
Advert
Justin Brown, Adnan's lawyer, said the case could now go to federal courts.
Adnan's lawyer told the Baltimore Sun newspaper that there were "at least three other avenues of relief" and took to Twitter to reassure followers of the case that Adnan would keep trying to clear his name.
The Adnan Syed case was first brought to global attention in the first season of the Serial podcast. The12 episodes were downloaded 175 million times.
HBO will shortly air a documentary series called The Case Against Adnan Syed.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Life News, TV News, Real, TV Entertainment
