Mosby defends decision to drop charges against Adnan Syed, discusses DNA results
BALTIMORE -- One day after announcing that all charges will be dropped against Adnan Syed, Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby told WJZ in an exclusive interview that she is confident that Syed did not kill Hae Min Lee.
Lee was Syed's ex-girlfriend.
State's Attorney Mosby said new testing found DNA on Lee's shoes, but Adnan Syed was not a match for it.
"Do you believe the DNA results now fully exonerates Adnan," Ava-joye Burnett asked Mosby.
"At this point, what I can tell you is that we believe that he was wrongfully convicted," Mosby said. "And, so you know, the case is over for Adnan Syed."
But Mosby said those test results revealed something else. There was a mixture of DNA for four other individuals.
"Who are these people," Burnett asked.
"So, again, this is an open and pending investigation," Mosby said. "I can't tell you or reveal anything at this point because it's open and pending. It will be prejudicial to the individuals that have not yet been charged."
Syed was convicted for the 1999 murder of his Woodlawn High ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
But in September, when lawyers argued that information about two other potential suspects was illegally withheld from Syed and his former attorney, a judge vacated that conviction. Today, Syed is a free man.
In the past, Syed's family has publicly expressed sadness for Lee's family.
"My mom also feels her mother's pain too, you know, because she lost a child as well," Yusuf Syed, Adnan's younger brother, told WJZ in a September interview. We do feel for them a lot."
WJZ asked Lee's family attorney if they had hope that a new suspect would be charged.
"We're always hopeful, you know; they're always hopeful. I'm always hopeful," Attorney Steve Kelly said. "They will do everything they can. I will do everything that I can if there is someone else out there who needs to be brought to justice—to bring them to justice—but their hope is small."
State's Attorney Mosby did not win her re-election bid, but she says she along with her team will work hard in the next two and a half months to ensure justice for Lee and her family.
"It's a very sad situation," Mosby said. "But the one thing that I can assure them is that my office is going to do everything we can and utilize every resource that we have to go after the real perpetrators of this offense."
