Adnan Syed's attorney responds to Hae Min Lee's family challenging vacated murder conviction

BALTIMORE - Adnan Syed's attorney responded to Hae Min Lee's family challenging the vacated murder conviction.

Attorney Steve Kelly told WJZ on Thursday that Lee's family is asking for a hearing that would explain why Syed was released from prison after more than 22 years, and his charges dropped.

Lee, a student at Woodlawn High School, was murdered in 1999. Syed was charged and then convicted of first-degree murder in 2000.

After spending more than 22 years in prison, Syed's murder conviction was vacated, and the court dropped his charges, allowing him to walk out a free man.

Now, Lee's murder remains unsolved.

"It is both legally and morally correct that our system honors the rights of victims," said Erica Suter, Syed's attorney. "It is also true that the closure that victims sometimes seek may not be found in the solutions that our legal system offers. The pain that Ms. Lee's family has endured over the past 23 years is unfathomable."   

In a filing Wednesday, attorneys for Lee's family asked the Court of Special Appeals to grant a hearing laying out the evidence supporting Syed's release.

"There are ways the evidence can be heard such that it's not going to compromise the investigation," Kelly said.

The filing references this week's Baltimore Banner story where it obtained handwritten notes from Kevin Urick, a prosecutor on the case.

It references new evidence highlighting a potential new suspect.

But, Urick claimed he was writing about Syed, not any alternative suspect.

In a statement this week, Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office said Urick "has serious credibility issues."

"Call Mr. Urick. Then, call that person as a witness. Impeach credibility," Kelly said. "That's what would have been done at a trial and that's what should have been done here."

A spokesperson for the State's Attorney's Office said it does not have any credible evidence Syed is connected to Lee's murder and said, in part: "Only a portion of (their) findings were outlined in the motion to present enough compelling evidence for the court to consider (their) request, without compromising the rest of this open and pending investigation."

If the Court of Special Appeals does not grant this new hearing, Kelly said he will file a motion to the other appellate court -- Maryland's Court of Appeals.

Baltimore City's State's Attorney's Office argued that an investigation conducted by prosecutors and Syed's defense revealed previously undisclosed evidence pointing to two other suspects. 

Baltimore prosecutors dropped Syed's charges on Oct. 12 after new DNA testing results excluded him from evidence in the murder of his ex-girlfriend.     

Syed's attorneys also argued they did not receive evidence at the time of the trial, a possible violation of the Brady rule requiring prosecutors to turn over all exculpatory evidence.  

"There is no pending criminal case against Mr. Syed," Suter said. "The question before this Court is whether that fact renders Appellant's appeal on the issue of victim notification moot. It does. In his Opposition to Adnan Syed's (1) Response to Appellant and (2) Motion to Strike Judge Heard's Affidavit ("Appellant's Opposition"), Appellant contends that the appeal is not moot because this Court can reverse the vacatur order and remand for a new hearing without violating the prohibition against double jeopardy."

"Appellant makes this argument for the first time. He did not take this position in his Response to this Court's order to show cause why the appeal should not be dismissed as moot. Nor did the Attorney General take this position in its response (and in which it conceded that the appeal is "likely" moot). Appellant's argument fails. The remedy Appellant now seeks is for this Court to not only reverse the vacatur order of September 19 but also the nolle prosequi entered by the State's Attorney on October 11."

Suter went on to say, "the court should dismiss that appeal."