Few alibi witnesses called by ‘Serial’ defence

He is seeking a retrial based on new evidence about his case amid questions about the fairness of his conviction raised by the podcast. “To just hear these things that sounded very straightforward”, she said.

So, for now, we’ll be glued to season one, and constantly refreshing the Serial site for more updates on Adnan.

A photo of a thickly-bearded Syed appears to be the first new image many of us have seen of Syed since Serial made him infamous. McClain said that she did not speak up before because she was not aware of the importance of her timeline to Syed’s defense.

David Irwin, a former prosecutor, testified during Syed’s post-conviction hearing in support of the defense’s argument that witness Asia McClain, now named Chapman, should have been called – and may have helped sway jurors in his favor. The slaying was the subject of the podcast “Serial” which began in October 2014, which was released by public radio station WBEZ in Chicago.

The way the state has grilled her makes it seem like McClain may not be the strongest witness, which is important because Syed’s defense team successfully argued her absence in his 2000 trial was pivotal. Syed’s lawyer refuted that well by showing the court Baltimore Sun stories written prior to that letter that mentioned those same details from the case.

“We believe justice was done when Adnan was convicted in 2000, and we look forward to bringing this chapter to an end so we can celebrate the memory of Hae instead of celebrating the man who killed her”, they said.

After the first season of the podcast outlined pertinent new evidence (including an alibi witness that was never called to testify and questions over the health of the defense attorney), Syed filed a motion to reopen post-conviction proceedings that could possibly eventually lead to a new trial. She had been strangled, authorities said.

Attorneys for Syed, who was convicted of killing his high school girlfriend in 2000 and is serving a life sentence, have said the data was given to a jury without a fax cover sheet warning that it referred only to outgoing calls, and any information about incoming calls is unreliable.

Chapman was cross examined by the state on Thursday, and the prosecution attempted to pick holes in her story of Syed whereabouts at the time of the murder.

Gutierrez was disbarred in 2001 and died of a heart attack in 2004.

He was “completely normal”, she said.

“The first half of the day was establishing that Christina Gutierrez – Adnan’s trial attorney back in the original trial -had been declining physically, professionally and finanically”, explains Koenig. “Kind of like a last-ditch effort”, she writes in an email to Serial subscribers.

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

According to the notes, Urick said, “Oh, he killed that girl” and that there’s “a snowball’s chance in hell that they could reopen the case with these” – presumably Chapman’s – “accusations”. The court ruled in May that Ms McClain should be allowed to testify so that her statements could be weighed in deciding whether Syed deserves a new trial.