'Serial' Podcast Subject Adnan Syed Released From Prison After Judge Overturns Conviction

etonline.com:

Adnan Syed, the subject of the hit podcast , has been released from prison after spending 23 years behind bars. On Monday, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn overturned Syed's conviction «in the interest of justice,» granting him a new trial.

Syed’s shackles were removed, and the judge ordered Syed to be released under home detention while the investigation continues into the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.Under Maryland state law, prosecutors will now have 30 days to decide whether to drop the charges against Syed or to retry the case.The move came after prosecutors made a request for his release Wednesday, saying that «the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction.» After a new, almost year-long investigation, prosecutors said they had doubts about the validity of cell phone tower data presented in the trial, and uncovered new information about the possible involvement of two alternate unnamed suspects.Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of Lee, and was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.

Syed has emphatically maintained his innocence through the ups and downs of his 23-year-long legal battle. Lee, 18, went missing after leaving her high school in January 1999.

Her strangled body was found in a shallow grave in a Baltimore park around a month later.Questions about whether he had received a fair trial drew widespread attention when debuted in 2014.