Serial's Adnan Syed could soon be released from prison on bail

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published 24 October 2016

After more than 16 years in prison, Serial's Adnan Syed may soon be free. Lawyers for Syed, who was featured in the first season of the smash-hit podcast Serial, announced Monday they've filed a motion asking for him to be released on bail. The lawyers are citing the trial's "discredited" evidence as justification for the motion, The New York Times reported.

Syed began serving a life sentence in 2000 for the murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, after being sentenced for the crime in 1999. In a filing submitted to a Maryland court, Syed's lawyer C. Justin Brown insisted Syed was serving time "based on an unconstitutional conviction for a crime he did not commit." "He has no history of violence other than the state's allegations in this case, and if released, he would pose no danger to the community," the filing read.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin P. Welch granted Syed a retrial three months ago, noting that Syed's lawyer did not question a state expert about cell phone towers, which were used to determine Syed's location on the day of the murder. That, Welch wrote, could create "a substantial possibility that the result of the trial was fundamentally unreliable." Cell tower evidence proved instrumental in Syed's original conviction.