Adnan Syed Appeals Judgment and Conviction

Adnan Syed’s Appellate Case

Serial has quickly become one of the most popular and well-known podcasts in existence. The podcast focuses on a step-by-step and real time examination by one reporter of a 1998 cold case. The subjects of the podcast, Adnan Syed, and his deceased ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, were typical Baltimore teenagers until Adnan was convicted of her murder. The podcast takes us through their daily lives by discussing their activities, sex lives, gossip, and relationships. The narrator explores the alleged case against Adnan by reviewing 1998 evidence, Hae’s diary, Adnan’s cell phone records, and returning to the scene of the action. The narrator consistently reminds the listener that she isn’t sure of Adnan’s innocence but sees several problems with the State’s case. For example, the use of cell phone records that have been since proven to be fairly useless. The popularity of the podcast drew national attention to the shabby state of the prosecution against this 19-year-old Muslim boy and led to other investigators involving themselves in the case.

The Appeal

Recently the Maryland Appeals Court has granted Adnan leave to lodge an appeal of his case. The podcast discusses the allegations by some that Adnan’s defense attorney, Christina Gutierrez, did not defend him to the best of her ability. The attorney was actually disbarred after the conclusion of Adnan’s case for dragging out cases longer than necessary in an attempt to make more money from her clients. On top of that, she died a few short years after his conviction so many questions about her trial techniques will assuredly never be answered. Adnan’s attorney, C. Justin Brown recently told The Washington Post, “I think that it (the grant of appeal) shows that the court is interested in the issues that we raised. If they weren’t interested in them they wouldn’t have granted the (application for leave to appeal.

The Asia Issue

There are certainly instances in the podcast where it appears to the listener that Adnan’s attorney was ineffective. In one episode the narrator takes us through the evidence of an alibi witness named Asia. Asia was a friend of Adnan and Hae’s when they were teenagers in high school. Asia testified back in 1998, and again today, that she not only spoke to Adnan after his break-up with Hae but that Adnan seemed fine with the breakup and talked openly about it. This directly contradicted the prosecution’s theory of the case which was that Adnan murdered Hae out of revenge for their breakup. On top of that, Asia says she was with Adnan during the time Hae was murdered. Gutierrez never even contacted Asia. Even giving the attorney the benefit of a doubt, as the narrator does, we learn that not only did Guiterrez know of Asia’s existence but she also knew of Asia’s statements as Adnan showed letters to Guiterrez containing this information.

Our team at Brownstone Law believes that this is a true test of the power of appeals and hopes for a peaceful and just resolution of this issue.

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