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The three-day
hearing in Baltimore City Circuit Court will examine cellphone
tower records and a potential alibi for Adnan Syed, 35, who was
convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Hae Min
Lee, in 1999, and is serving a life sentence.
Syed's attorney, C. Justin Brown, told the Baltimore Sun he
would ask Judge Martin Welch for a retrial.
Welch in November ordered a hearing to look into questions
raised by Brown over cellphone tower records that prosecutors
used to show that Syed was at the site in a park where Lee was
buried.
Syed's lawyers have said in court papers that phone company AT&T
had indicated when it provided the data that incoming calls
could not be used to determine location, but prosecutors used
records on incoming calls to convict him.
Welch also will hear testimony from Asia McClain, a high school
classmate, on a possible alibi for Syed. McClain did not testify
in the trial, but said in an affidavit that she saw Syed at a
library around the time of Lee's murder.
The killing was the subject of the podcast "Serial" in October
2014. The podcast, released by public radio station WBEZ in
Chicago, has been downloaded more than 68 million times, CBS
reported last year.
In May, a ruling from the Maryland Court of Special Appeals
opened the door for Syed to call McClain as a witness. The court
returned the case to Baltimore City Circuit Court to reopen
post-conviction proceedings.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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