The story of Adnan Syed, 35, was told in the successful podcast Serial.
A Maryland judge granted a new trial to Syed today, according to court documents.
Syed, from Baltimore, US, is serving a life sentence for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
She was 18-years-old when she went missing on January 13 1999. Her body was found six weeks later in a shallow grave.
He was convicted in 2000 of strangling Hae Min Lee and burying her body in Baltimore’s Leakin Park.
I am shaking with joy, shaking! Thank you Judge Welch. Thank you
Rabia Chaudry
His lawyers have been seeking a new trial amid questions about the fairness of the case that were raised by the podcast in late 2014.
Serial, released in 2014 by public radio WBEZ Chicago, has been downloaded more than 68 million times.
As the podcast grew in popularity, it also raised questions over whether Syed, who has been battling for 16 years to overturn his conviction, was granted a free trial.
Rabia Chaudry, a friend of Syed’s family who spearheaded the campaign to get him a new trial, tweeted: “I am shaking with joy, shaking! Thank you Judge Welch. Thank you.”
GETTY
Syed, 35, was convicted in 2000 for murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee
GETTY
Syed seen at a hearing in February
GETTY
Syed’s family pictured during the February hearing
Judge Martin Welch of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City signed the order.
He cited the failure to cross-examine a mobile phone tower expert about the technology’s reliability as a factor in ordering the new trial.
The judge also ordered that classmate Asia McLain’s testimony be resubmitted to the the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
Judge Welch, who oversaw a five-day hearing in February about reopening the case, said Syed’s original lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez, had failed to cross-examine prosecutors’ expert about the reliability of cellphone tower location evidence.
MARYLAND COURT
Judge Martin Welch of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City signed the order for a retrial
MARYLAND COURT
Judge Welch oversaw a five-day hearing in February about reopening the case
During the hearing, Syed’s lawyers had argued that Gutierrez had failing skills when she defended him. She later was disbarred, and died in 2004.
Judge Welch rejected Syed’s lawyers’ contention that his original defence team had failed to call an alibi witness, Asia McClain Chapman.
A former high school classmate of Syed, she testified during the hearing that she had spoken with him at a library on the day that Lee went missing and that he appeared calm.
The podcast presented by American journalist Sarah Koenig looked into the murder week by week introducing listeners to evidence, witnesses and discussions before leaving them to make up their own minds.