A Baltimore judge has granted a motion to hear new evidence in the case against Adnan Syed, the man convicted of the 1999 murder of his high school classmate and ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The case was dissected in the first season of the popular podcast Serial.
The court order (pdf) granted today (Nov. 6) does not mean Syed gets a brand new trial. Rather, the court will only hear new evidence regarding Sayed’s whereabouts on the day of the murder—Serial listeners might remember that Syed’s lawyer failed to contact Asia McClain as a potential alibi witness—along with new evidence questioning the reliability of cell tower data that had been presented in the case. During Syed’s trial, the prosecution used cell tower records to argue that Syed made calls from the location where Lee’s body was found.
Judge Martin P. Welch wrote that the court was authorized to reopen the “post-conviction proceedings” in the case if it “determines that reopening the matter is in the interests of justice.”