Adnan Syed Murder Conviction Should Be Vacated, Prosecutors Say

Prosecutors are requesting Mr. Syed be given a new trial. They said they weren’t asserting that Mr. Syed is innocent. “However, for all the reasons set forth below, the State no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction,” said the office of Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, which is overseeing the reinvestigation.

The office is recommending Mr. Syed be released on his own recognizance pending the continuing investigation.

Mr. Syed, a Baltimore native, has been serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2000 of strangling Ms. Lee, his ex-girlfriend. He was 17 years old at the time of the crime, and was charged as an adult.

Mr. Syed has maintained he is innocent, and both the 2014 “Serial” podcast and a later HBO documentary raised questions about his conviction. In 2018, a special appeals court ruled Mr. Syed deserved a new trial, but that decision was reversed almost a year later by Maryland’s highest court.

In March, attorneys for Mr. Syed approached Baltimore’s Sentencing Review Unit about a new review of the case.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is overseeing the reinvestigation of Adnan Syed’s murder conviction.PHOTO: JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Prosecutors said in the court filing Wednesday there is evidence suggesting there are two suspects who may have been involved, either separately or together. The suspects were known at the time of the first investigation but not properly ruled out, prosecutors said.

Identifying details of the two suspects, including their names, are being withheld because the investigation is ongoing, prosecutors said. References to the suspects were mentioned throughout the motion but prosecutors didn’t delineate which suspect they were referring to.

In their reinvestigation, prosecutors found a document in the state’s trial file detailing one person’s statement, saying that one of the suspects had motive to kill Ms. Lee and had threatened her in the presence of another person. The suspect said “he would make her [Ms. Lee] disappear. He would kill her,” according to the court filing.

That information was never given to the defense, the filing said. Prosecutors are required by law to give defense counsel exculpatory evidence upon request.

The reinvestigation also revealed that the grassy lot where Ms. Lee’s car was found in Baltimore was located behind a house that belonged to one suspect’s relative.

“This information was not available to the Defendant in his trial in 2000, and the State believes it would have provided persuasive support substantiating the defense that another person was responsible for the victim’s death,” prosecutors said in the filing.

Further revelations include that one of the suspects, “without provocation or excuse,” attacked a woman he didn’t know while she was in her vehicle. One suspect was accused and later convicted of rape and sexual assault. Both incidents occurred after Mr. Syed’s trial, prosecutors said, but they added that they found the information relevant given the possible involvement of the suspects.

The motion also calls into question the validity of cellphone records and data, which were an important piece of evidence for the prosecution in Mr. Syed’s original trial, as well as a key witness’s testimony.

“There is an abundance of issues that gives the State overwhelming cause for concern,” prosecutors said as they requested a new hearing in the case.

The reinvestigation of Ms. Lee’s murder is continuing, and prosecutors said they plan to ensure justice for the victim.

“But after reviewing the evidence and the new information about alternative suspects, it is our duty to ensure that justice is done,” Ms. Mosby said Wednesday. “We believe that keeping him detained as we continue to investigate the case with everything that we know now, and when we do not have confidence in results of the first trial, would be unjust.”

Write to Talal Ansari at talal.ansari@wsj.com