Adnan Syed, Subject Of 'Serial' Podcast, Will Get A New Trial

Months after he was granted a new hearing because of new evidence, Adnan Syed, whose 2000 murder conviction was a key focus of the hit podcast Serial, has been granted a new trial, according to his attorneys.

Announcing the news Thursday, attorney Justin Brown tweeted in all-caps: "WE WON A NEW TRIAL FOR ADNAN SYED!!!"

The order for a new trial that was issued by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch also denies two requests for post-conviction relief. One of those requests centered on a trial attorney's "failure to contact a potential alibi witness"; the other was based on "withholding potentially exculpatory evidence related to the reliability of cell tower location evidence."

As we reported when Syed was granted a hearing last fall:
"More than 15 years after he was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Adnan Syed has been granted a hearing to let his lawyers present a possible alibi and questions about cellphone data. Attorneys for Syed, the key figure in the popular podcast Serial, also want to probe 'alleged prosecutorial misconduct.' "The new development comes months after the Maryland Court of Special Appeals granted Syed's request for a review of his case, giving new momentum to his efforts to appeal his 2000 conviction in the murder of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee in January of 1999. Lee's body had been found in a city park, one month after she disappeared. She had been strangled. "Now 35, Syed is serving a life prison term over Lee's death. Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch granted the request for a hearing Friday, ordering that it be scheduled sometime in the next 10 days."
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.