Murder of Hae Min Lee

Hae Min Lee (; October 15, 1980 – January 13, 1999) was a Korean-American high school senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, who disappeared on January 13, 1999. Her body was found four weeks later in Leakin Park, the victim of murder by manual strangulation. Adnan Masud Syed, her ex-boyfriend, was convicted in February 2000 of first-degree murder and given a life sentence plus 30 years.
Lee's murder initially only generated local interest until it became the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial in 2014, which brought international attention to the crime and to Syed's trial. In July 2016, Judge Martin P. Welch vacated Syed's conviction and ordered a new trial.
== Background ==
Hae Min Lee was born in South Korea in 1980 and emigrated with her mother Youn Kim and her brother Lee to the United States in 1992 to live with her grandparents. Lee attended the magnet program at Woodlawn High School near Baltimore, Maryland. She was an athlete who played lacrosse and field hockey.
Lee disappeared on January 13, 1999. Her family reported her missing after she failed to pick up her younger cousin from school at about 3:15 PM. Lee had attended Woodlawn High School that day and had been seen by several friends leaving the campus at the end of the school day.
On February 1, the Baltimore County Police received an anonymous phone call suggesting that Lee's ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed, was responsible for her murder. Investigators learned that Lee and Syed had dated for much of the previous year but had recently broken up. On February 3, Baltimore Police received call records for a cell phone belonging to Syed. Two people were questioned from this call log, Jay Wilds and Jennifer Pusateri. Pusateri told police that her friend, Jay Wilds, had called her that day using Syed's phone. In a subsequent interview, she told police that Wilds had admitted to her that he helped Syed bury his ex-girlfriend's body. The investigating officers also questioned Wilds, who initially denied any involvement, but eventually confessed to helping Syed bury Lee's body and dispose of her car.
On February 9, Lee's partially buried body was found by a passerby in Leakin Park. Syed was arrested on February 28, 1999, and charged with first-degree murder.
==Trials and appeals==
Syed's family hired defense attorney Cristina Gutierrez to represent him. During Syed's first trial, jurors accidentally overheard a sidebar dispute between Gutierrez and the presiding judge in which he referred to her as a "liar". After learning that the jury had heard his characterization, the judge declared a mistrial. A second trial lasted six weeks and Syed was found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery on February 25, 2000. Syed was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
Adnan first appealed his case in 2012 based on inadequate assistance of counsel because Gutierrez did not call Asia McClain as an alibi witness; this appeal was denied in 2013.
On February 6, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals approved Syed's application for leave to appeal ("leave" meaning "permission").
On May 19, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded the case to Circuit Court for potential hearing on the admissibility of alibi testimony of Asia McClain, who claimed to have been talking with Syed in the library at the exact time the prosecutor said Syed attacked Lee in a Best Buy parking lot several miles away. On November 9, 2015, the Superior Court decided it would hear the case. According to Sarah Koenig's investigation as told in Serial, McClain's account of her encounter with Syed on the day of the disappearance would have been helpful for Syed during his trial.
Syed's appeals lawyer Justin Brown claimed that new evidence about the reliability of incoming call data from AT&T is suspect and should be reviewed by an appeals court, stating, "the cell tower evidence was misleading and should have never been admitted at trial."
On November 6, 2015, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch ordered that Syed's post-conviction relief proceedings, which determines if he deserves a new trial, would be re-opened "in the interests of justice for all parties." The post-conviction relief hearing, originally scheduled to last two days, lasted five days from February 3 – 9, 2016. The hearing was attended by people from across the U.S., including Koenig, and McClain testified that she talked to Syed at the library on January 13, 1999.‘Serial’ takes the stand: How a podcast became a character in its own narrative Washington Post. February 8, 2016
On June 30, 2016, Judge Welch granted Syed's request for a new trial, ruling that Gutierrez "rendered ineffective assistance when she failed to cross-examine the state's expert regarding the reliability of cell tower location evidence," vacating Syed's conviction. In October 2016, Syed's attorneys requested bail be granted to Syed until the retrial started. Adnan Syed of Serial Seeks Release on Bail October 26, 2016 On December 29, 2016, Judge Welch denied bail for Syed.Judge denies bail for 'Serial' podcast phenom Adnan Syed December 29, 2016
== Aftermath ==
=== Serial and Undisclosed podcasts ===
From October 3 to December 18, 2014, the murder trial of Adnan Masud Syed was the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig. The podcast episodes generated international interest in the trial, and were downloaded more than 100 million times by June 2016. In 2015, lawyer Rabia Chaudry (an advocate for Syed who had introduced the case to Koenig) and others began producing a podcast called Undisclosed: The State vs. Adnan Syed. Undisclosed found that the condition of Lee's body was inconsistent with the State's theory of her burial, and also that Jay Wilds, a key state witness, frequently seemed not to know what to say during police interviews, until a tapping sound was heard. After the tapping sound, he would apologize and give an answer.
Investigation Discovery aired a one-hour special called Adnan Syed: Innocent or Guilty? on June 14, 2016 based on a new analysis of evidence brought up in the podcasts.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Investigation-Discovery-o-Premiere-ADNAN-SYED-INNOCENT-OR-GUILTY-614-20160531
In 2016 there were two books published related to the case. Confessions of a Serial Alibi written by Asia McClain Chapman was released on June 7, 2016, and Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial written by Rabia Chaudry was released on August 9, 2016.The Woman Behind Season One of Serial: Rabia Chaudry Releases New Book on the Untold Story of Adnan Syed and the Murder Case that Captivated Millions Innocence Project, August 12, 2016.
===The Innocence Project DNA testing===
The Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Virginia Law School has identified several other potential suspects responsible for similar crimes in the area and will be requesting new DNA tests, specific to Hae's case, be conducted. Deirdre Enright of the Innocence Project said that they are waiting to hear back from Maryland whether they can file for DNA testing while the appeal motion is pending. As of 2015, Syed's legal team had not yet started pursuing DNA testing.
==References==
Category:People murdered in Baltimore
Category:1999 murders in the United States
Category:1999 in Maryland
Category:South Korean people murdered abroad
Category:Deaths by strangulation in the United States
Category:South Korean murder victims
Category:January 1999 events