#Hae min lee trial
#Hae min lee plus

The post-conviction relief hearing, originally scheduled to last two days, lasted five days from February 3–9, 2016. On November 6, 2015, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch ordered that Syed's post-conviction relief proceedings, to determine his eligibility for a new trial, would be re-opened, 'in the interests of justice for all parties'. Justin Brown, filed a motion on August 24, 2015, saying that a newly recovered document showed that the cell tower evidence used by prosecutors was misleading and should not have been admitted at trial. On May 18, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded the case to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. On February 6, 2015, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals approved Syed's application for permission to appeal for a potential hearing on the admissibility of the alibi testimony of Asia McClain. This appeal was initially denied in 2014. The judge said the letters McClain sent Syed in jail were weak and possibly damaging evidence for the defense, since they did not state the time she saw him at the library and contradicted Syed's own account from that day'. 'The judge had ruled that Gutierrez's decision not to call McClain as a witness was part of her defense strategy rather than an act of incompetence. This was based on Gutierrez's failure to investigate an alibi witness, Asia McClain, who maintained she was talking with Syed in the library at the exact time that prosecutors said Syed attacked Lee in a Best Buy parking lot several miles away. He later made an appeal for post-conviction relief in 2010, based on ineffective assistance of counsel. Syed appealed his conviction in 2003, which was unsuccessful.

#Hae min lee plus

Syed was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years and Syed’s family immediately fired Gutierrez following the verdict. On February 25, 2000, the jury found Syed guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery.

#Hae min lee trial

Syed’s second trial began in January and lasted six weeks. After learning the jury had overheard this exchange, the judge granted Guttierez's motion for a mistrial. Jurors accidentally overheard a sidebar dispute between Gutierrez and the presiding judge Gutierrez interpreted a statement by the judge as tantamount to accusing her of lying and said as much - unaware that members of the jury were in earshot. Syed's first trial began in December 1999, but ended in a mistrial after only three days. Syed's family hired defense attorney Cristina Gutierrez to represent him. Syed was arrested on February 28, 1999, and charged with first-degree murder. On February 16, Baltimore Police applied for cellular phone records for a phone belonging to Syed. One of Syed's friends told the police that Syed had expressed intentions of killing Lee and stated that he had helped Syed bury Lee's body after Syed confessed to killing her on January 13. On February 12, 1999, the Baltimore City Police Homicide Division received an anonymous phone call suggesting that the investigators should focus on Lee's ex-boyfriend and classmate, Adnan Syed. Police attention became focused on the person who reported finding the body.

On February 9, Lee's partially buried body was discovered by a passerby in Leakin Park in Baltimore. On February 6, a dog-led search was conducted around Woodlawn High School. At 1:30 a.m., they reached her boyfriend, who said he had not seen her that day. that evening he said the last time he saw her was around the time classes ended at school. They reached Adnan Syed, who was a former boyfriend, early around 6:30 p.m. On that day, officers called various friends of Lee to try to find her. Lee had attended Woodlawn High School that day and had been seen by several people leaving the campus at the end of the school day.īaltimore police immediately began investigating her disappearance. Her family reported her missing after she failed to pick up her younger cousin from daycare around 3:15 p.m. She was an athlete who played lacrosse and field hockey. Lee attended the magnet program at Woodlawn High School near Baltimore, Maryland. Hae Min Lee was born in South Korea in 1980 and emigrated with her mother Youn Kim and her brother Young Lee to the United States in 1992 to live with her grandparents.