Adnan Syed in 1998. Courtesy of Serial
Adnan Syed, the Baltimore man whose 2000 murder conviction was explored in last year’s wildly popular
Serial podcast, won leave to appeal against his conviction on Friday in Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals.
Having exhausted his chances for standard court appeals, Syed petitioned the Court of Special Appeals in
January 2014 to overturn the Baltimore City Circuit Court’s denial of “post conviction relief.” His application for leave to appeal was based on arguments that his trial attorney Cristina Gutierrez failed to seek a plea deal and to pursue a key witness in the case, Asia McClain, who claims to have been with Syed in Woodlawn Public Library on Jan. 13, 1999, when the state ruled he killed his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.