Murder of Hae Min Lee

Hae Min Lee (Hangul: 이해민; 1980–1999) was a Woodlawn High School senior in Baltimore, Maryland who disappeared on January 13, 1999. Her body was found February 9, 1999, in Leakin Park, the victim of murder by manual strangulation. Adnan Masud Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was convicted of first degree murder and was serving a life sentence plus 30 years. Syed was granted a new trial in July 2016. ^[2]

Her murder initially only generated local interest until it was the subject of the podcast Serial in 2014, which brought international attention to Syed's trial.^[3]

Background

Hae Min Lee was born in South Korea in 1980 and emigrated with her mother Youn Kim and her brother Lee to the United States in 1992 to live with her grandparents.^[4] Lee attended the magnet program at Woodlawn High School near Baltimore, Maryland.^[5] She was an athlete who played lacrosse and field hockey.^[6]

Investigation

Lee disappeared on January 13, 1999, and her family reported her missing that day, after she failed to pick up her younger cousin from school at about 3:15 pm. On February 9, 1999, Lee's body was found by a passerby in Leakin Park. On February 1, 1999, the Baltimore County Police received an anonymous phone call suggesting that Lee's ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed, was responsible for her murder, and that Syed had threatened to kill Lee. On February 3, Baltimore Police received call records for a cell phone belonging to Syed. They noticed a number of calls on the day of Lee's disappearance to a woman named Jen Pusateri. When questioned, Pusateri told police that a friend of hers, Jay Wilds, who had known Syed from high school, told her that Syed had killed Lee. The police questioned Wilds, who told them that he had helped Syed bury Lee's body and dispose of her car. Syed was arrested on February 28, 1999, and charged with first degree murder. Officers also interviewed the man that discovered the victim's body. ^[7]

Trials and appeals

Syed's family hired defense attorney Cristina Gutierrez to represent him. During Syed's first trial, jurors accidentally overheard a sidebar dispute between Gutierrez and the presiding judge in which he referred to her as a "liar".^[8] After learning that the jury had heard his characterization, the judge declared a mistrial. A second trial lasted six weeks and Syed was found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery on February 25, 2000.^[9] Syed was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.^[10]

Adnan first appealed his case in 2012 based on inadequate assistance of counsel because Gutierrez did not call Asia McClain as an alibi witness, this appeal was denied in 2013.

On February 6, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals approved Syed's application for leave to appeal.^[11]

On May 19, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded the case to Superior Court for potential hearing on the admissibility of alibi testimony of Asia McClain, who claimed to have been talking with Syed in the library at the exact time the evidence the prosecutor said Syed attacked Lee in a Best Buy parking lot several miles away.^[12] On November 9, 2015, the Superior Court decided it would hear the case.^[13] According to the investigation by Serial, McClain's account of her encounter with Syed on the day of the disappearance would have been helpful at trial.

C. Justin Brown, Syed's current appeals lawyer, has claimed that new evidence about the reliability of incoming call data from AT&T is suspect and should be reviewed by an appeals court, stating, "the cell tower evidence was misleading and should have never been admitted at trial."^[14]

On November 6, 2015, The Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch ordered that Syed's post-conviction relief proceedings, which determines if he deserves a new trial, would be re-opened "in the interests of justice for all parties."^[15] The post-conviction relief hearing, originally scheduled to last two days, lasted five days from February 3 – 9, 2016.^[16] The hearing was attended by people from across the US, including Koenig and McClain, who testified that she talked to Syed at the library on January 13, 1999.^[17]

On June 30, 2016, Judge Martin P. Welch granted Syed's request for a new trial, ruling that Gutierrez "rendered ineffective assistance when she failed to cross-examine the state's expert regarding the reliability of cell tower location evidence," vacating Syed's conviction.^[18][19] In October 2016, Syed's attorneys requested bail be granted to Syed until his new trial.^[20]

Aftermath

Serial and Undisclosed podcasts

From October 3 to December 18, 2014, the murder trial of Adnan Syed was the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig. The podcast episodes generated international interest in the trial, and had been downloaded more than 100 million times by June 2016.^[21] In 2015, lawyer Rabia Chaudry (an advocate for Syed who had introduced the case to Koenig) and others began producing a podcast called Undisclosed: The State vs. Adnan Syed.^[22]

Investigation Discovery aired a one-hour special called Adnan Syed: Innocent or Guilty? on June 14, 2016 based on a new analysis of evidence brought up in the podcasts.^[23][24][25]

The two books were published that are related to Serial: Confessions of a Serial Alibi written by Asia McClain Chapman released on June 7, 2016 and Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial by Rabia Chaudry released on August 9, 2016.^[26] Chaudry's book covers the entire case and important case details not covered in Serial.

The Innocence Project DNA testing

The Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Virginia Law School has identified several other potential suspects responsible for similar crimes in the area and will be requesting new DNA tests, specific to Hae's case, be taken.^[27] Deirdre Enright of the Innocence Project said that they are waiting to hear back from Maryland whether they can file for DNA testing while the appeal motion is pending.^[28]

References