Adnan Syed

The backstory

The killing

Hae Min Lee, a 17-year-old high school senior, was killed on Jan. 13, 1999, and the medical examiner determined that she died by strangulation, according to the Court of Appeals of Maryland.¹ She was last seen leaving Woodlawn High School that day, the Baltimore Sun reported.⁷ Her body was found on Feb. 9, 1999, in a shallow grave in Leakin Park in Baltimore City, according to the Court of Special Appeals.² Syed, her former boyfriend, was arrested on Feb. 28, 1999, at 17, and charged as an adult.⁷

The trial

Syed’s first trial ended in a mistrial in December 1999; a second trial followed in early 2000.⁷ According to the Court of Appeals, the State argued that Syed killed Lee and buried her in Leakin Park at about 7 p.m., and presented evidence that he was “jealous and enraged at the victim’s new romantic relationship with another man.”¹ The State’s key witness, an acquaintance of Syed’s, testified that Syed called him from a payphone at 2:36 p.m. on Jan. 13 to ask for a ride, that he had earlier heard Syed say he was “going to kill” Lee, and that he helped bury the body that night.¹² That witness pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and received two years’ probation, the Baltimore Sun reported.⁷ Records for Syed’s cell phone showed incoming calls at 7:09 and 7:16 p.m., and the State’s expert placed the cell sites they connected through in the area of Leakin Park.¹

On Feb. 25, 2000, after about three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Syed of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment.²¹ On June 6, 2000, he was sentenced to “a total term of life imprisonment plus thirty years.”²

Post-conviction: the alibi witness

Syed’s later petitions centered on an alibi witness who said she saw him at the Woodlawn Public Library at the time the State said the murder occurred; in a 2015 affidavit she reaffirmed that account and said an assistant state’s attorney had discouraged her from attending an earlier hearing.² In June 2016 a post-conviction judge vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial, and in 2018 the Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding that his trial lawyer’s failure to investigate the witness violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.⁷² On March 8, 2019, the Court of Appeals reversed, 4-3; it agreed that trial counsel “failed to even contact” the witness and that her performance was deficient, but held that the failure did not prejudice Syed.¹⁷ It held that a separate challenge to the cell-tower evidence had been waived.¹ The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in November 2019.⁷

The 2022 vacatur and its reversal

On Sept. 14, 2022, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office moved to vacate the conviction, citing violations of its duty to disclose evidence to the defense and new information about two alternative suspects, whom the motion did not name.³ The prosecutor notified Lee’s brother, who lived in California, by email on the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 16, of an in-person hearing set for Monday, Sept. 19; he asked for a one-week postponement, which was denied, and watched by video.³ The judge granted the motion that day, and Syed was released to home detention.³⁷ On Oct. 11, 2022, after DNA testing of Lee’s clothing produced a mixed profile that excluded Syed as a contributor, the State dropped the charges.³

Lee’s brother appealed. On March 28, 2023, the Appellate Court of Maryland reinstated the convictions and ordered a new hearing on the motion to vacate.⁷³ On Aug. 30, 2024, the Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed, 4-3, in an opinion by Justice Biran: it held that a crime victim has the right to reasonable notice to attend a vacatur hearing in person and to be heard on the merits, that the brother’s rights were violated, and that the case returned to the point just after the motion was filed.³

Sentence reduction

In December 2024 Syed’s lawyers asked the Circuit Court to reduce his sentence under Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act, which lets people imprisoned at least 20 years for crimes committed as minors seek a modified sentence.⁸⁴ On Feb. 25, 2025, State’s Attorney Ivan Bates withdrew the 2022 motion to vacate, saying it “contains false and misleading statements that undermine the integrity of the judicial process,” and supported the reduction.⁶ At the hearing the next day, Lee’s brother spoke about his grief, and a video statement by her mother was played; their lawyer asked the judge to deny the request.⁶ On March 6, 2025, Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer reduced the sentence to time served, with five years of supervised probation, finding that Syed “is not a danger to the public” and that the “interests of justice will be better served by a reduced sentence.”⁴⁵ The conviction remains in place.⁵

Personal backstory

Early life

Syed was 17 when he was arrested in 1999, according to the Baltimore Sun and CBS News.⁷⁴ He was 43 at his 2025 resentencing, the AP reported.⁵ No sourced account of his childhood, family or schooling was found in the sources reviewed.

In prison and after

He spent more than 20 years in prison before his release in September 2022.⁴⁷ His case became widely known through the 2014 podcast Serial, and the judge at his 2025 hearing said Lee’s family “suffered through the defendant’s rise to celebrity from a viral podcast,” CNN reported.⁷⁶ Since his release, according to the AP, he has worked at Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative and cared for aging family members; his lawyers told the court in 2024 that his father had recently died.⁵⁸ He has said he tries to stay out of the media spotlight to avoid causing Lee’s family more pain.⁶

Mental health

No testimony, finding or on-record statement about Syed’s mental health was found in the sources reviewed.

The victim’s family

Lee’s younger brother told the court in 2025 that he felt betrayed when prosecutors began backing Syed’s release in 2022.⁶ The family’s lawyer said after the ruling, “We hope that one day Mr. Syed can summon the courage to take responsibility for his crime.”⁵