Adnan Syed gets new trial, helped by trend-setting 'Serial'

Adnan Syed, whose 2000 murder conviction was revisited in the popular podcast 'Serial,' is now getting a second trial after the show revealed missteps by his lawyer. Serial is part of a journalistic genre that has relaunched investigation into cold cases.

|
Carlos Barria/Reuters/File
Convicted murderer Adnan Syed leaves the Baltimore City Circuit Courthouse in Baltimore in February 2016. A circuit judge announced yesterday that Mr. Syed, whose case was made famous by the 'Serial' podcast, deserves a new trial.

A Maryland judge announced yesterday that he will grant a new trial to Adnan Syed, who was convicted 16 years ago in the murder of his former girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. 

Mr. Syed, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest at age 19, was catapulted into the public spotlight in 2014 when he became the subject of the break-out hit podcast "Serial." Over the course of 12 episodes, which were downloaded some 100 million times, executive producer and host Sarah Koenig trailed loose ends and retraced the work of investigators and Syed's lawyer.

Now, as Syed is being called back to trial, "Serial" fans are celebrating the relationship between the show and real life court action. The new trial appears to cement the podcast's place as a founding member of a small but highly popular multimedia genre of journalistic inquiries into cold cases: a new breed of "reality" TV, where reported real life and journalistic methodology are put on display.

These productions take the idea of a "cold case" further than, say, "Unsolved Mysteries," the series which ran from the late 1980s into the last decade, where each episode revisited an unsolved crime or phenomenon with taped interviews and reenactments. Instead, contemporary shows such as "Serial," "The Jinx," and "O.J.: Made in America" delve deeply into one case over a series of episodes.

Part of their popularity has come from the possibility that the journalistic investigations really will unearth something new.

Referring to "Serial" and HBO's show "The Jinx," David Uberti of Columbia Journalism Review writes: "Both of the narrative-driven works take on a cinematic form, enticing their audiences to return with the implicit promise that more damning evidence would be unearthed in subsequent episodes."

How, and whether, that plays out differs from show to show, or case to case.

In the case of the first season of "Serial," which focused on Syed, the podcast set itself up to give answers to a mystery: the intro on the show's website alludes to new information, the possibility of tracking down "someone" who has Syed's alibi. And along the way, Ms. Koenig and the "Serial" team reveal areas where Syed's lawyer, Maria Cristina Gutierrez (who has since passed away), did not take all the steps that she could have to defend her client.

In the final episode, Koenig stopped short of making any definitive claims. However, one of Ms. Gutierrez's failings – that she did not question potentially inaccurate evidence gathered from cellphone towers – has become the reason that Syed will see a new trial, reports The New York Times.

Other shows in the vein of "Serial" have also sparked interest in the possibility of revealing new evidence.

Viewers waited with baited breath – and news agencies sent out push notifications – after a knife uncovered from O.J. Simpson's estate was made public during the airing of FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson," a re-enacted series based on journalist Jeffrey Toobin's 1997 book. The show's producers egged on the idea, tweeting out: "We told you you didn't know the half of it.... Is there really new evidence?"

Long story short – there wasn't.

In "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," however, that conceit did play out to a certain extent. During the HBO show, a handwritten note was uncovered linking Robert Durst, the estranged son and heir of New York's real estate mogul Seymour Durst, to the murder of friend Susan Berman. The day before the final episode aired in 2015, Mr. Durst was arrested in New Orleans for that 2000 murder. (He also appeared to confess to murder during the show, but whether his accidentally recorded confession could be used in court is a matter of debate.)

In the case of the "Serial" investigation into Syed's conviction, the judge rebuffs speculation that he is granting a new trial because of the podcast.

"Regardless of the public interest surrounding this case, the court used its best efforts to address the merits of petitioner's petition for postconviction relief like it would in any other case that comes before the court; unfettered by sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion," he wrote, as quoted in The New York Times. 

However, the Times says, Syed's previous request for post conviction hearings, where a judge would decide whether the case warranted a new trial, was denied in 2010. The decision to set aside the conviction and do a new trial came after Syed and lawyer C. Justin Brown were able to present new evidence in post conviction hearings this past February.

When asked if he felt the new trial would have come about without "Serial," Mr. Brown said he didn’t think so.

"I'm feeling pretty confident right now. This was the biggest hurdle. It's really hard to get a new trial," Mr. Brown said.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Adnan Syed gets new trial, helped by trend-setting 'Serial'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0701/Adnan-Syed-gets-new-trial-helped-by-trend-setting-Serial
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe