The Supreme Court today affirmed the Appellate Court's decision reinstating Adnan Syed's convictions and ordered that a new vacatur hearing be held.
"In an effort to remedy what they perceived to be an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the circuit court worked an injustice against Mr. Lee by failing to treat him with dignity, respect and sensitivity and in particular, but violating Mr. Lee's rights as a crime victim's representative to reasonable notice of the Vacatur Hearing, the right to attend the hearing in person and the right to be heard on the merits of the Vacatur motion," writes Justice Biran in the majority opinion.
This will require the hearing to restart from the moment after the State's Attorney (then Marilyn Mosby) filed the motion to vacate.
However, the Court explicitly stated that Syed will not have to return to the court in the meantime.
In a footnote in their conclusion, the Court writes, "Although the effect of this opinion is to affirm the Appellate Court's decision to reinstate Mr. Syed's convictions pending further proceedings on the Vacatur Motion, we shall order no change to Mr. Syed's conditions of release."
This is an affirmation in part and a reversal in part of the Appellate Court's decision which had ruled that while Young Lee had a right to attend the hearing in person, "a victim does not have a statutory right to be heard at a vacatur hearing."
WMAR-2 News has been covering this case since the very beginning, when victim Hae Min Lee went missing in January 1999.
RELATED: FROM THE WMAR ARCHIVE: Original coverage of Hae Min Lee's disappearance and murder
The case brought before the state's Supreme Court in October wasn't intended to determine Adnan Syed's innocence or guilt in the murder of Hae Min Lee, but about whether or not Lee's brother, Young Lee, was provided proper notice to a vacatur hearing the year before.
Adnan Syed back in court today
Lee's murder and Syed's trials and conviction attracted the attention of millions when Sarah Koenig started the podcast Serial in 2014.
The now quarter-decade-long saga between Hae Min Lee's initial disappearance and the deeply legal questions the Court has had to consider has had many twists and turns.
WMAR-2 News went In Focus on how we got to the Md. Supreme Court last fall with a half-hour special, The Hae Min Lee Files.
The Hae Min Lee Files
How this will impact the future of victims' rights in Maryland isn't yet clear. DC Attorney Susan Simpson told us last September that this case "is like bizarro land criminal procedure."
"I think, this was a broader increase in victims' rights than many of us were expecting," says Appellate Court attorney Steven Klepper.
State's Attorney Ivan Bates was elected to office after the original September 2022 vacatur hearing. A spokesperson for his office tells WMAR-2 News that they are reviewing the opinion right now.
Syed's attorney Erica Suter released the following statement:
"To paraphrase United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the highest court’s decision may be final but that does not make its reasoning right. Today, a nearly evenly split Supreme Court of Maryland reached a result that we could not disagree with more. However, we must respect the Court's decision, and so we look to Adnan’s future. Despite its decision, the Court states that it is not sending Adnan back to prison.
Adnan is innocent. This appeal was about the process for the vacatur, it did not challenge the substance of the vacatur – that there was a Brady violation, that the other evidence supporting his conviction has been debunked, and that subsequent DNA testing excluded Adnan.
The weight Hae Min Lee’s family must bear is not lost on us. As this appeal was not about Adnan’s innocence, it was also never a challenge to the suffering that the Lee family has endured. Wrongful convictions devastate the wrongly accused, their family, and the family of the victim. Reinstating Adnan’s wrongful conviction does not provide Hae Min Lee’s family with justice or closure, and it takes a tremendous emotional toll on Adnan’s family, who already lost a son and brother for more than two decades.
After spending 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Adnan is once again fighting for his freedom. In the past two years, since the vacatur was first granted, he has begun to rebuild a life for himself and his family. He is currently employed through Georgetown University with the Georgetown Prison and Justice Initiative [washingtonpost.com] and has been a model citizen. Though this latest ruling is a roadblock in the way of Adnan’s exoneration, we have faith that justice will prevail, and will work tirelessly to clear his name once and for all."
-Erica Suter, Attorney for Adnan Syed
It is unclear when a new hearing might be scheduled, however the majority opinion did explicitly state that a different circuit court judge would be required for the new hearing "to avoid the appearance that allowing Mr. Lee and/or his attorney to speak to the evidence at a new vacatur hearing may be a formality."