Fans who were woefully disappointed by hit podcast Serial’s lackluster season 1 finale can rejoice.
Adnan Syed will finally get a new trial for the murder of Hae Min Lee. News broke on Twitter on Thursday that the man at the center of the hit podcast would finally get a chance at freedom.
Die-hard fans can also comb through the court document granting the new trial.
Syed was convicted in 2000 of killing his ex-girlfriend, a Woodlawn High School classmate, and burying her body in Baltimore’s Leakin Park. He’s been serving a life sentence ever since.
You can breathe easy now, Sarah Koenig. You might just have that big denouement your fans were hoping for.
Update 1:09pm CT, March 29, 2018: After prosecutors appealed the decision of the judge to grant Syed a new trial, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld the original ruling on Thursday, according to CBS News.
A three-judge panel agreed with the original judge that Syed should be granted a new trial because he had an ineffective attorney at his first trial (the lawyer did not call to the stand a key witness who could have testified that it would have been impossible for Syed to murder his girlfriend).
Wrote the appeals court: “Accordingly, Syed’s murder conviction must be vacated, and because Syed’s convictions for kidnapping, robbery, and false imprisonment are predicated on his commission of Hae’s murder, these convictions must be vacated as well. The instant case will be remanded for a new trial on all charges against Syed.”
According to the Baltimore Sun, the Maryland Attorney General’s office is reviewing the decision “to determine next steps.” It could now appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.
H/T Baltimore Sun