Adnan Syed’s murder conviction on hold for now, as Maryland Supreme Court considers appeal

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Adnan Syed is not going to return to jail and his homicide conviction is on maintain, for now, as Maryland’s Supreme Court docket decides whether or not to listen to his enchantment.

The state’s highest court docket issued an order on Thursday that forestalls the reinstatement of Syed’s homicide conviction by a decrease court docket.

Syed’s authorized case started greater than 20 years in the past, and gained worldwide consideration from the hit podcast “Serial.” He regained his freedom in September from a decide after Baltimore prosecutors moved to vacate his conviction, saying they reviewed the case and located different suspects in addition to unreliable proof used at trial.

However the sufferer’s household stated they acquired inadequate discover to attend the September listening to earlier than the decide in individual, which violated their proper to be “handled with dignity and respect,” and the state’s intermediate appellate court docket agreed. In a 2-1 resolution in March that was stayed for 60 days, the judges reinstated Syed’s conviction and ordered a redo of the listening to in query.

With the 60 days nearing an finish, Syed’s lawyer, Erica Suter, requested the Supreme Court docket of Maryland on Wednesday to difficulty a keep within the case to stop her consumer from doubtlessly being incarcerated whereas the court docket considers whether or not to listen to an enchantment.

Justice Shirley Watts famous in her order, which was authorised with a majority of the court docket’s seven justices, that the sufferer’s household and the workplace of the state’s lawyer normal have consented to the keep of the decrease court docket’s mandate whereas the Supreme Court docket considers whether or not to listen to the enchantment and throughout the pendency of an enchantment.

Suter is asking the court docket to assessment a number of authorized points, together with whether or not former Baltimore State’s Legal professional Marilyn Mosby’s resolution to dismiss the costs in opposition to Syed final yr made the household’s court docket problem moot.

Syed, who has at all times maintained his innocence, was 17 when his highschool ex-girlfriend and classmate, Hae Min Lee, was discovered strangled to loss of life and buried in a makeshift grave in 1999. He was arrested weeks later and in the end convicted of homicide in 2000.