More testimony for convicted killer’s alibi in Syed case

Asia McClain Chapman, a high school classmate of Syed, testified that Syed´s former lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, never contacted her about a potential alibi.

On the first day of a hearing expected to run through Friday, defense attorney C. Justin Brown asked Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch for a new trial for Syed.

Yesterday, a woman who claims that she saw Syed in the library at the time of the murder made a surprise appearance in court in Baltimore.

Family photos in the home of Adnan Syed’s mother in Baltimore.

Chapman also said she would have come to court to testify even if she hadn’t been subpoenaed.

McClain told the court that when she talked by phone with then-prosecutor Kevin Urick in 2010, he told her that her testimony wasn’t important, and he persuaded her that Syed must be guilty.

The Serial podcast is shifting from the Taliban country of Afghanistan back to the streets of Baltimore.

In the mini-sode, Koenig says the main focus of the case is to prove that Syed’s previous lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, was “declining in a bunch of ways”, including “physically, professionally [and] financially” when she originally argued his case. He’s trying to clear his name, after he was convicted of the murder of his ex girlfriend Hae Min Lee while he was in highschool. But a Maryland prosecutor says the decision not to call the witness may have been wise, and was at the very least permissible.

But Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah said there were reasons to think the witness might be unreliable.

The podcast raised questions about the fairness of Syed’s trial.

Chapman has taken the stand for the second day of a three-day hearing to determine whether Syed will be granted a new trial.

The podcast “Serial” revolved around the story of Adnan Syed, now 35 and serving a life sentence.

“This week I’m going to do something I haven’t done before, which is duck back into Adnan Syed’s case for a few days, to report on a court proceeding that’s happening in Baltimore”, Koenig said.