'Serial' murder case: Will alibi witness win Adnan Syed a new trial?

1/19

Left to right: Family friend Rabia Chaudry leaves Courthouse East with Yusuf Syed and Shamim Rahman, brother and mother of Adnan Syed.

(Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun)

2/19

Yusuf Syed, brother of Adnan Syed (second from left), family friend Rabia Chaudry, and Shamim Rahman, mother of Yusuf and Adnan (right), leave Courthouse East during a lunch recess on the fifth day of hearings.

(Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun)

3/19

Yusuf Syed, left, the brother of Adnan Syed, and his mother Shamin Rahman, right, watched Adnan Syed leave Courthouse East in shackles after today’s hearing. Adnan Syed was convicted in 2000 by a jury of killing his high school classmate Hae Min Lee and was sentenced to life in prison.

(Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun)

4/19

The family and friends of Adnan Syed wave to him as he leaves Courthouse East after today’s hearing. Syed was convicted in 2000 by a jury of killing his high school classmate Hae Min Lee and was sentenced to life in prison.

(Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun)

5/19

Adnan Syed’s mother, Shamim Rahman, left, and her son Yusuf Syed, right, chat with family and friends near the courthouse in the early evening after the conclusion of the second day of the Adnan Syed hearing.

(Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun)

6/19

Shamim Rahman, the mother of Adnan Syed, left, and family friend Rabia Chaudry, right, gathered with family and friends near the courthouse to chat after the conclusion of the second day of Syed’s hearing.

(Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun)

7/19

Rabia Chaudry, 41, family friend and advocate for Adnan Syed, has been sequestered during the hearing in case she has to testify.

(Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun)

8/19

Adnan Syed enters Courthouse East in Baltimore prior to the second day of a hearing on whether he should be granted a new trial.

(Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun)

9/19

Serial producer Sarah Koenig (right) who narrated the podcast about Adnan Syed arrives at Baltimore Circuit Courthouse East for the second day of hearings on whether Syed should get a new trial in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee.

(Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun)

10/19

Right, Thiru Vignarajah, Deputy Attorney General for Maryland, walks to Courthouse East on the 2nd day of hearings on whether Adnan Syed should get a new trial in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee.

(Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun)

11/19

Right, Thiru Vignarajah, Deputy Attorney General for Maryland, walks to Courthouse East on the 2nd day of hearings on whether Adnan Syed should get a new trial in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee.

(Kim Hairston / Baltimore Sun)

12/19

“Serial” podcast subject Adnan Syed is escorted from the courthouse after the end of the first day of hearings.

(Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun)

13/19

Alibi witness Asia McClain walks from the courthouse with an unidentified man after the first day of the retrial hearing of Adnan Syed of “Serial.”

(Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun)

14/19

Officials escort “Serial” podcast subject Adnan Syed from the courthouse at the end of the first day of hearings for a retrial.

(Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun)

15/19

Thiru Vignarajah, Deputy Attorney General for Maryland, pauses before reading a statement from the family of Hae Min Lee, reacting to the retrial hearing of Adnan Syed of “Serial.”

(Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun)

16/19

Adnan Syed enters Courthouse East in Baltimore prior to a hearing on whether he should be granted a new trial.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor / The Baltimore Sun)

17/19

Shamim Rahman enters Courthouse East in Baltimore for a hearing on whether her son, Adnan, should be granted a new trial in the murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor / The Baltimore Sun)

18/19

Adnan Syed enters Courthouse East in Baltimore prior to a hearing on whether he should be granted a new trial.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor / Baltimore Sun)

19/19

In this Dec. 10, 2014 file photo, prison artwork created by Adnan Syed sits near family photos in the home of his mother, Shamim Syed, in Baltimore. Adnan Syed, a convicted killer at the center of the first season of the podcast “Serial,” appeared in court Feb. 3, 2016, as his attorneys argue for a new trial.

(Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)

By Justin Fenton

Baltimore Sun

Feb. 9, 2016 10:17 AM PT

Baltimore Sun

Reporting from BALTIMORE —

The defense attorney for Adnan Syed, the subject of the first “Serial” podcast, said Syed deserves a new trial at which he can put forth an alibi witness overlooked by his original defense attorneys.

“We believe in our case,” C. Justin Brown told retired Judge Martin Welch on Tuesday morning. “We are fighting absolutely as hard as we can.”

Brown’s comments came after four days of testimony in which Syed, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 slaying of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, is asking for a new trial.

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Syed’s attorneys failed in their first bid for a retrial in 2012, but the popular “Serial” podcast led to new questions about the case, and a former classmate who said she saw Syed in a library at the time of the murder emerged as willing to testify.

The classmate, Asia McClain, had contacted Syed the day after his arrest, but said his attorneys never contacted her.

Attorneys for the state have argued that the hearing was “inconsequential theater” and say Syed is guilty and the conviction should stand. Deputy Atty. Gen. Thiru Vignarajah was set to give his closing argument before noon.

Brown, Syed’s attorney, said Vignarajah had attacked his case with a “tremendous amount of force, trying to get a square peg into a round hole.”

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t fit,” Brown said.

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