Related Articles
The most recent twists in the murder case against Adnan Syed will be explored in a new installment of the HBO docuseries, The Case Against Adnan Syed, airing Sept. 18.
Directed by Amy Berg, the original four-part series aired in 2019 after Syed’s case became a national sensation thanks to the coverage it received on the hit podcast Serial. The show cast doubts on the investigation into, and prosecution of, Syed, who was convicted in 2000 of killing his high school ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. (Syed has long maintained his innocence.)
The new installment of Berg’s documentary will chronicle the efforts that led to Syed’s release from prison earlier this year at the age of 43, though with his murder conviction still intact. It all began when a suspect from Syed’s original trial was caught assaulting a woman, leading his attorneys to demand a new investigation. Things developed further when former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, filed a motion to withdraw the judgment against Syed in September 2022.
The new trailer for the episode features snippets of interviews with Mosby, as well as footage of Syed’s legal team and supporters, and interviews with Syed himself from prison. “How many different ways can these people try to hide from the truth,” Syed says near the end of the clip, adding: “I’d just be grateful to make it home to my family without having to plead guilty.”
Berg started filming this new episode in early 2021 and was on-hand when a Baltimore judge vacated Syed’s first degree-murder conviction and ordered his release from prison in September 2022. Not long after that, prosecutors announced that they would not pursue a new trial against Syed, essentially ensuring his freedom.
Berg’s new episode was originally supposed to air in 2023, but the fact that it’s finally coming out now speaks to the numerous twists the case took over the ensuing years.
In early 2023, an appeals court reinstated Syed’s conviction after Lee’s family argued that the lower court had violated their rights by not giving them enough advance notice to attend a hearing on the decision to drop charges. While Syed was allowed to remain out of prison, the battle over his overturned conviction made its way through courts, with the Maryland Supreme Court ultimately upholding his conviction in August 2024.
Amid all this, Mosby lost her 2022 Baltimore State’s Attorney reelection bid after she was accused of fraud involving Covid-19 pandemic relief money (she was convicted in 2024). And her successor, Ivan Bates, ultimately decided to withdraw the motion to vacate Syed’s murder conviction, saying Mosby’s original contained “false and misleading statements that undermine the integrity of the judicial process.”
However, Bates did back Syed’s application to have his prison sentence reduced under Maryland’s Juvenile Restoration Act, which offers people serving heavy sentences for crimes they committed as minors new opportunities to secure early release. (Syed was 17 when he allegedly killed Lee.) In March of this year, a judge approved Syed’s request saying he was “not a danger to the public,” and adding, “the interests of justice will be better served by a reduced sentence.”
