BALTIMORE — The Maryland Court of Special Appeals is ordering Hae Min Lee’s family to explain in writing within 15 days why their appeal of a trial judge’s decision to overturn Adnan Syed’s murder conviction should continue, given that the state dropped Syed’s charges Tuesday.
The Lee family, led by Hae Min Lee’s brother Young Lee, is appealing Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn’s Sept. 19 decision to overturn Syed’s conviction on the grounds they weren’t given enough notice to reasonably participate in that hearing. In Maryland, victims of crime and their families have some rights to participate in the criminal cases involving them, although there is debate as to exactly what those rights are in certain cases.
Syed, whose legal case rose to prominence after the hit podcast “Serial” and other media about him, was convicted in 2000 in Lee’s death. The pair dated in high school.
“Today’s court order does not change anything,” attorney Steve Kelly, who represents the Lee family, said in a statement Wednesday. “The family’s goal remains to ensure that their daughter is not forgotten and that her murderer is brought to justice.”
The Lee family is considering its options about how to best proceed in the case, Kelly said.
New evidence in the case about alternative suspects came to light after a yearlong investigation between Syed’s defense attorney, Erica Suter, and Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office, and Phinn overturned Syed’s conviction.
Phinn gave Young Lee a chance to speak at the vacatur hearing, and he did so via videocall from his home on the West Coast. Initially, attorney Steve Kelly, who represents the Lee family, sought a seven-day postponement of that hearing so his client could attend in person. Phinn denied that request, saying an appearance on video was sufficient.
Young Lee said he felt blindsided by the prosecution’s recent decision to throw out the conviction — after the agency spent 20-plus years leading his family to believe they had achieved justice.
“I feel betrayed,” he said at the Sept. 19 hearing. “This is not a podcast for me. This is real life.”
Prosecutor Becky Feldman, who leads the state’s attorney’s office’s sentencing review unit and handled the Syed hearing, told Young Lee about the Monday, Sept. 19, hearing the Friday before, after Phinn scheduled it.
Mosby’s office dismissed the case against Syed entirely Tuesday after new DNA test results from Lee’s shoes excluded Syed, Mosby said.
“There’s no more appeal,” Mosby said Tuesday, appearing to adhere to the school of thought that because the underlying charges no longer exist, there are no grounds for an appeal.
In a statement Tuesday, Kelly said Mosby’s decision to dismiss Syed’s case without sufficient notice further “robbed” the family of their voice in the proceedings.
“By rushing to dismiss the criminal charges, the state’s attorney’s office sought to silence Hae Min Lee’s family and to prevent the family and the public from understanding why the state so abruptly changed its position of more than 20 years,” Kelly said.
In an unprecedented move, the Maryland attorney general’s office is supporting the Lee family’s claim their victim rights were violated.
The office, in a filing last week, asked the appellate court to halt any future events in Syed’s case until the appeal could be heard. The court denied that motion Wednesday, after Mosby’s office had dismissed the charges.
Additionally the court is giving the attorney general’s office 15 days to respond to a motion from Syed’s attorney seeking to disqualify it as a party in the appeal. Under Maryland law, the attorney general represents local prosecutors’ offices in the appellate courts.
Should the court ultimately dismiss the appeal, the attorney general’s response will be largely inconsequential.
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