Adnan Syed case: Hae Min Lee's family asks a Baltimore judge to reject 'Serial' subject's bid to have sentence reduced

Dan Belson, The Baltimore Sun on Feb 21, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Lawyers representing the family of Hae Min Lee asked a Baltimore judge to delay a ruling next week on whether Adnan Syed should have his life sentence reduced under a 2021 Maryland law.

Attorneys for the homicide victim’s family also argued in a Thursday court filing that the “Serial” podcast subject should be behind bars if his first-degree murder conviction ultimately stands.

Lee family attorney David Sanford wants Circuit Judge Jennifer Schiffer to wait for prosecutors to decide what to do with a request to vacate Syed’s convictions that was filed during former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s administration. Mosby lost to Ivan Bates in the 2022 Democratic primary race.

Bates’ administration has until Feb. 28 to share their position on Syed’s convictions. A spokesperson for the State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment Friday when asked if Bates had made a decision.

“The interests of justice and efficiency demand that the Court defer ruling until essential predicate matters are resolved,” Sanford’s filing says.

He also argued that the judge should wait for a Maryland Supreme Court ruling on two pending cases related to the Juvenile Restoration Act. One of those cases relates to the weight a judge can give to a defendant’s assertions of innocence when considering a sentence reduction. The other centers on the weight a judge can give to a defendant’s age as well as their rehabilitation and maturity.

“If the Court adjudicates Mr. Syed’s Motion before these cases are decided, it will be flying blindly and unnecessarily risk reversal,” Sanford’s filing says.

The Lee family request is counter to what Syed’s defense team and Baltimore prosecutors both agree on — that the 43-year-old should not serve any more jail time for his convictions stemming from Lee’s death in 1999. They’ve both argued in court filings Syed’s sentence should be reduced to the over two decades that he has already spent behind bars.

Next Wednesday’s hearing will only focus on Syed’s sentence — his convictions still stand as Bates’ office decides what to do about them.

“Adnan Syed stands convicted of premeditated murder and nothing these past 25 years changes that fact,” Sanford said in a Friday statement regarding his filing for next week’s hearing.

Syed made his request for a sentence reduction in December under the Juvenile Restoration Act, a 2021 law that allows people convicted of crimes when they were minors to request a reduction in their sentence after a certain amount of time elapsed.

The hearing comes just shy of 26 years after a 17-year-old Syed was arrested on suspicion that he killed Hae Min Lee, Syed’s girlfriend at Woodlawn High School. Lee’s body was found Feb. 8, 1999, buried in a shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park after the 18-year-old was strangled to death.

Syed was arrested a few weeks later and was ultimately convicted of all counts, including first-degree murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life plus 30 years, without the possibility of parole, but has maintained that he didn’t kill his high school sweetheart.

His case — and potential innocence — was the focus of the first season of the hit podcast “Serial” in 2014. He’s made several bids for freedom over the past two decades, culminating in his release and convictions being vacated in 2022.

A higher court later reinstated Syed’s convictions, finding that the 2022 hearing violated Hae Min Lee’s brother Young Lee’s right as a crime victim’s representative to participate. Syed, who works for Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, was not put back behind bars as proceedings continue.

Sanford argues that not showing remorse for the crime — which Syed maintains he didn’t commit — should weigh against the 43-year-old’s bid for freedom.

“Despite overwhelming evidence that points to unquestionable guilt, Adnan Syed continues to profess innocence, never having accepted responsibility for the crime of murder and never having expressed any remorse,” Sanford said in the statement.

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