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A Baltimore Circuit judge ruled that Adnan Syed’s sentence will be reduced to time served, followed by five years of probation, marking the end of a years-long legal battle that saw many twists and turns.
Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer issued the ruling, obtained by Oxygen, on Thursday, March 6, writing in her decision that “the court concludes that the Defendant is not a danger to the public and that the interests of justice will be better served by a reduced sentence.”
Prior to being released from prison in 2022, Syed, 43, had already served more than 20 years of a life sentence plus 30 years after being convicted in the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Hae Min Lee. He was also convicted of kidnapping, for which his sentence was reduced to 30 years suspended and five years probation, and robbery, though his 10-year sentence was served concurrently.
Judge Schiffer’s ruling comes just under a week after Syed’s lawyers made a plea to reduce his sentence under the Juvenile Restoration Act (J.R.A.). Passed in 2021, the J.R.A. allows individuals convicted of crimes committed as minors to ask the courts for a reduced sentence after serving 20 years, per CBS News. Syed was 17 at the time of the murder.
What happened to Adnan Syed?
This is the latest development in the Syed case, which was largely brought to the public’s attention by the true crime podcast Serial, released in 2014.
The case once again made headlines in 2022, when former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby sought to vacate Syed’s conviction citing a Brady violation, leading to the murder charges being dropped. Syed was conditionally released from prison, though the conviction was reinstated after the appellate courts agreed that the Lee family was not given proper notice to attend a hearing.
Mosby once again filed a motion to vacate the conviction prior to being voted out of office. Her efforts to clear Syed’s name were then undone last week by current State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates, who determined that Mosby — now under house arrest for 2023 federal charges of fraud and perjury unrelated to the case of Syed — had made “false and misleading statements” about the case in her motion, reported NBC Baltimore affiliate WBAL-TV.
“I would like to offer Mr. Lee and his entire family an apology for how you were treated during this process,” Bates said at the time. “It’s not indicative of what this office is. We recognize the hurt and the pain that your family has gone through. We do say we are sorry about that.”
The family of murder victim Hae Min Lee reacts
The Lee family previously opposed Syed’s sentence reduction, with their family attorney arguing in a Feb. 26 hearing that Syed showed a lack of remorse. “He has never to this day, accepted responsibility for the crime he was convicted of,” Sanford said at the hearing, reported CBS News.
In the wake of Thursday’s decision, the family reiterated their hope that Syed will “take responsibility [for] his crime and express sincere remorse,” Sanford said in a statement shared with Oxygen.
“The State of Maryland just last week acknowledged that it had presented ‘false and misleading’ information to the court in support of Mr. Syed’s release more than two years ago,” the statement read in part. “We now know there was never any new information that called into question Adnan Syed’s guilty verdict. Absolutely nothing changes the fact that Mr. Syed remains convicted of first-degree premeditated murder due to overwhelming direct and circumstantial evidence.”
Another hearing about the decision is set to take place within the next two weeks.
