BALTIMORE — Baltimore prosecutors dropped all charges against Adnan Syed, the subject of the popular “Serial” podcast who was recently released after spending 23 years in prison for the 1999 murder of his high school girlfriend when he was a teenager.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa M. Phinn, citing prosecutorial misconduct, vacated Syed’s conviction Sept. 19 on charges he murdered Hae Min Lee. She gave prosecutors 30 days to decide whether to proceed with a new trial or to drop the charges.
Charges were dropped after the Baltimore City State’s Attorney Office tested DNA evidence in the case, which it said confirmed Syed’s innocence.
Erica Suter, an assistant public defender and Syed’s attorney, said in a press release the proceedings are not completely over yet, but Syed can live free.
“Finally, Adnan Syed is able to live as a free man,” said Suter, also the director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore Law School. “The DNA results confirmed what we have already known and what underlies all of the current proceedings: that Adnan is innocent and lost 23 years of his life serving time for a crime he did not commit.”
Suter was scheduled to hold a virtual press conference at 2 p.m.