Adnan Syed Will Remain a Convicted Murderer

Despite documented problems with the evidence against him and an earlier request from prosecutors to clear his record, Adnan Syed will remain a convicted murderer, according to court papers filed Tuesday night. The decision from Baltimore prosecutors comes ahead of a scheduled hearing Wednesday morning where a judge will consider whether to reduce Syed's sentence, but this means the conviction itself is no longer in question. It's the latest wrinkle in an ongoing legal odyssey that garnered a massive following after being featured in the "Serial" podcast over a decade ago, reports the AP. More:

• The sentence-reduction angle: Syed's attorneys recently filed the request for a sentence reduction under Maryland's Juvenile Restoration Act, a relatively new state law that provides a potential pathway to release for people serving long prison terms for crimes committed when they were minors. That request is supported by prosecutors.
• Tuesday's news: Meanwhile, Baltimore State's Attorney Ivan Bates announced Tuesday that his office is withdrawing a previously filed motion to vacate Syed's conviction in the 1999 killing of his high school ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who was found strangled to death and buried in a makeshift grave.
• Standout quote: "I did not make this decision lightly, but it is necessary to preserve the credibility of our office and maintain public trust in the justice system," Bates said in a statement.

• Background: The original motion to vacate—which was filed by Bates' predecessor Marilyn Mosby—won Syed his freedom in 2022. But his conviction was reinstated following a procedural challenge from Lee's family. (Even though the appellate courts reinstated his conviction, they allowed Syed to remain free while the case continued.) The Maryland Supreme Court ordered a redo of the conviction vacatur hearing after finding that the family didn't receive adequate notice to attend in person. Since the prosecutor's office changed hands in the meantime, the decision of whether to withdraw the motion fell to Bates.
• Bates' findings: After reviewing the motion filed by his predecessor, Bates concluded that it contained "false and misleading statements that undermine the integrity of the judicial process," he said in a statement Tuesday. Bates wrote in an executive summary released Tuesday that his decision "does not preclude Mr. Syed from raising any new issues that he believes will support his innocence in the proper post-trial pleadings. However, properly shifting this burden back to Mr. Syed will re-instill the adversarial nature of proceedings that are the hallmark of the truth-seeking function of our criminal justice system."
• Bates' actions: Instead of asking a judge to again consider Syed's guilt or innocence, Bates chose a different path. He supported Syed's motion for a reduced sentence—without addressing the underlying conviction. Bates said that since his release in 2022, Syed has demonstrated he is a productive member of society whose continued freedom is "in the interest of justice." He said the case "is precisely what legislators envisioned when they crafted the Juvenile Restoration Act." Syed was 17 when Lee was killed; he's now 43. He has been working at Georgetown University's Prisons and Justice Initiative and caring for aging relatives since his release.
• From the victim's family: Attorneys for the victim's family had argued that prosecutors should address the integrity of Syed's conviction before the court considered reducing his sentence. Prosecutors "should not be allowed to duck the issue by hiding behind" his motion for a reduced sentence, attorneys wrote in a recent filing.

(More Adnan Syed stories.)