Serial’s Adnan Syed argues for retrial

A Maryland man, whose 2000 murder conviction was thrown back into spotlight by the popular “Serial” podcast, was back in court on Wednesday to argue that he deserved a new trial because his lawyers had done a poor job with his case.

A three-day hearing began Wednesday in Baltimore for 35-year-old Adnan Syed, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999.

The witness, classmate Asia McClain, has said in an affidavit that she was in the library with Syed at the time Lee was killed.

Prosecutors called no eyewitnesses or and used no DNA evidence during Syed’s trial, and largely relied on cell tower data that they claimed linked Syed to the park area where Ms. Lee’s body was found. But Mr. Brown says the state intentionally excluded a cover sheet from the AT&T data that warns of the inherent unreliability of cell towers’ locating services.

But there is no time limit for when a court is required to make a post-conviction ruling, so it could take months.

Incoming calls were used as part of the evidence in trial.

Adnan Syed enters Courthouse East in Baltimore prior to a hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016 in Baltimore. McClain said that she contacted Syed in jail while he was awaiting trial, and Syed told his attorney at the time, Cristina Gutierrez, to contact her. But the attorney, who was later disbarred in connection with other cases, never did.

In October previous year, one of the key witnesses for the state’s case against Syed – cell phone expert Abraham Waranowitz – announced that the information he provided in the case may have been unreliable, as he was initially provided with unfinished documentation from which to base his conclusions.

New evidence uncovered as a result of the podcast has prompted this hearing and Syed and his supporters will be hoping that this may lead to him getting a new trial.

“I don’t want to say it’s unusual, but he’s definitely beating the odds here”, said Becky Feldman, chief of the post-conviction defenders division at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

McClain is in Baltimore and could be called to testify, Brown said.

Brown is also expected to try and prove the cellphone records were not reliable and should never have been used as evidence against him.

Will we hear from Syed at the hearing?

Throughout his trial, questions of religious and ethnic bias were also raised, as Syed is the son of Pakistani immigrants. “It is extraordinary to be granted this chance at another hearing, and the interest of whether justice is being served is at stake”.