WASHINGTON — Less than three months after being released from serving a life sentence in prison, Adnan Syed has landed a new job.
On December 12 Georgetown University hired Syed as a program associate for their Prisons and Justice Initiative.
Part of his role is to help support the university's Making an Exoneree class, in which students reinvestigate potential wrongful conviction cases like his from decades ago, with the intent of producing short documentaries that could assist innocent people in getting out of prison.
Syed himself was the subject of the popular podcast Serial, which is widely credited with bringing his case into the national spotlight.
In his new position Syed is also tasked with assisting the school in its effort to identify the root causes of mass incarceration, by offering educational programs for those who are currently imprisoned or were recently released.
MORE: Adnan Syed guest lectures at University of Baltimore's Innocence Project Clinic
Back in January Georgetown launched its first 120-credit Bachelor of Liberal Arts program for incarcerated students at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup.
Syed was already serving his 22nd year behind bars at the time, and just so happened to be one of the first 25 people to enroll.
He was eventually released from prison on September 19, after a judge vacated his conviction for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
Timeline: Adnan Syed's 23-year journey to freedom
Despite the case still being litigated at the appellate court level, Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby ultimately decided not to retry the caseciting a lack of evidence.
Lee's family is still in court trying to get the decision overturned. The case is expected to be heard sometime in February of 2023.
