Baltimore Prosecutors Have Officially Dropped the Murder Charge Against Adnan Syed

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | October 11, 2022 |

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | October 11, 2022 |

Nearly a month ago, Baltimore prosecutors filed a motion to vacate Adnan Syed’s conviction in the murder of Hae Min Lee after a year-long investigation surfaced new evidence that cast suspicion on two other suspects who were not appropriately investigated before Syed’s trial. Less than a week later, a judge granted the motion and released Syed, pending a potential new trial.

As expected, however, prosecutors have declined to retry the case. After serving 22 years in prison, Syed is a free man.

The state attorney’s office will explain its rationale for dropping the case against Adnan Syed this afternoon. Marilyn Mosby had previously said that no action would be taken until DNA came back.

— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) October 11, 2022

The investigation is now expected to turn to the two new suspects in the case, one of whom has — in the years since the trial — “engaged in multiple acts of rape and sexual assault of compromised or vulnerable victims in a systemic, deliberate, or premeditated way,” — and another who police did not vigorously pursue despite initially failing a polygraph test.