Maryland Supreme Court Affirms Crime Victims’ Rights in Adnan Syed Murder Case

The Maryland Supreme Court last week reinstated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed in a divided ruling that affirmed the rights of Maryland crime victims. Syed’s case was the subject of the award-winning 2014 podcast Serial.

The court held that Young Lee — the brother of Hae Min Lee, whom Syed was convicted of killing — had a right to participate in person at the proceeding in which the conviction was vacated. Syed spent 23 years in prison for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Lee, who was his ex-girlfriend.

In September 2022, prosecutors made a motion to vacate Syed’s conviction before the trial court, detailing prosecutorial misconduct and newly discovered evidence implicating others. Young Lee — who lives in California — participated in the hearing on the motion via Zoom, having received notice on Friday, September 16 that the hearing would be held the following Monday in Baltimore. Lee sought a postponement of the hearing so he could attend in person but the court denied it. The trial court went on to vacate Syed’s conviction based largely on evidence presented confidentially to the judge.

Syed has been out of prison since the hearing, awaiting further proceedings.

Lee appealed, arguing that state victims’ rights protections afforded him the right not just to attend the hearing in person and be heard but also to participate as a party such as by introducing evidence, cross-examining witnesses. The following month, prosecutors dropped the charges against Syed, pointing to new DNA evidence. Syed argued that once prosecutors drop criminal charges, a criminal matter is ended and any pending appeal is moot.

A 4–3 majority of the Maryland Supreme Court disagreed. To hold that a prosecutor’s dismissal of charges “divests a victim of the right to appeal what the victim contends is an unlawful vacatur order,” the opinion said, “would make it essentially impossible for victims to enforce their rights in connection with a vacatur hearing.”

The high court further ruled that, under Maryland’s statutes and constitution, Lee had a right be heard in person on the merits of the motion to vacate Syed’s conviction — but did not have the right to participate as a party. The court interpreted legislation granting victims the right to be heard at a hearing regarding the “alteration of a sentence” to apply to a vacatur hearing, which necessarily changes the defendant’s sentence. It further held that this outcome was necessary under the “constitutional requirement that all victims be treated with dignity, respect, and sensitivity” during all phases of the criminal justice process.

Justice Jonathan Biran wrote for the majority that Lee “did not receive sufficient notice of the hearing to reasonably permit him” to attend. The high court ordered a new hearing on the matter before a new judge.

Three justices joined two separate dissents saying Syed’s conviction should not have been reinstated. “The constitutional right to a fair trial belongs to a criminal defendant alone, because their liberty interest depends upon the outcome of trial,” dissenting Justice Michele Hotten wrote. Justice Brynja M. Booth wrote in another dissent that the majority read the constitutional provision on victims’ rights in a manner “inconsistent with the plain language” and essentially rewrote the legislation in question, thereby creating a broad new victim’s right to participate that was not enacted by the legislature.

An attorney for Lee said in a radio interview his client was relieved that he will be allowed to address the merits of the dismissal and will have access to the evidence that overturned the murder conviction, which had not been introduced publicly at the hearing.

In a statement, Syed’s attorney said that reinstatement of the conviction does not provide justice or closure to the victim’s family and takes a huge toll on Syed and his family.

Syed remains free pending the new hearing on the motion to vacate. The hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Rex Bossert, former editor in chief of the National Law Journal, is a freelance writer.

Suggested Citation: Rex Bossert, Maryland Supreme Court Affirms Crime Victims’ Rights in Adnan Syed Murder Case, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Sept. 6, 2024), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/maryland-supreme-court-affirms-crime-victims-rights-adnan-syed-murder.