Adnan Syed of the popular podcast series Serial has been granted a retrial in the murder case that placed him in jail for life.
Syed’s lawyer Justin Brown announced the news shortly after the decision.
“We won a new trial for Adnan Syed! #FreeAdnan,” Brown said on Twitter on Thursday.
Syed, 35, is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his former Woodlawn High School ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 2000.
Rabia Chaudry, a friend of Syed’s family, helped initiate the campaign for his retrial.
She also tweeted her excitement on Thursday: “I am shaking with joy, shaking! Thank you Judge Welch. Thank you.”
At a post-conviction hearing held in February, his legal team presented testimony of a new alibi witness and an argument that his first defence counsel Maria Cristina Gutierrez was negligent.
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She told The Baltimore Sun in 2001 that her practice suffered due to multiple sclerosis, leaving her physically incapable of practising law. She passed away after suffering a heart attack just three years later.
You can listen to the podcast series on Adnan Syed on the Serial website.
