Baltimore prosecutors give up fight to vacate Adnan Syed’s murder conviction ahead of hearing to reduce his prison sentence

Baltimore prosecutors are no longer seeking to vacate Adnan Syed’s murder conviction, according to a new court filing submitted just hours before Syed’s due in court for a judge to hear a separate motion to reduce his prison sentence.

Baltimore’s top prosecutor is no longer seeking to vacate the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, the man whose case garnered national attention in the “Serial” podcast over a decade ago. In a new filing Tuesday evening, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates withdrew a motion to vacate Syed’s conviction filed in 2022 by previous state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby, saying the original motion contains “false and misleading statements.” The prosecutor’s reversal came just hours before Syed is due in court for a hearing on a separate motion to reduce his prison sentence. “After a thorough review of the Motion to Vacate Judgment filed by the previous administration in the case of Adnan Syed, my office has determined that it contains false and misleading statements that undermine the integrity of the judicial process,” Bates said in announcement of the decision. Syed was convicted in 2000 for the 1999 murder of his then-high school classmate and ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. In 2014, the “Serial” podcast raised significant questions about the conviction and Syed’s legal representation. Syed’s conviction was vacated in 2022 and he was released, but Lee’s family challenged the decision and the parties having been litigating the issue ever since. Last August, the Maryland Supreme Court reinstated Syed’s conviction, ruling that the rights of Lee’s family were violated because her official representative, her brother Young Lee, was not properly notified of the 2022 hearing to vacate the conviction. The high court’s ruling meant Bates, who took office in 2023, had to decide whether to continue his predecessor’s efforts.