Maryland State’s Attorney supports Adnan Syed’s request for reduced sentence as victim’s family weighs in

By Christian Olaniran

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    BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The Maryland State’s Attorney’s office said it supports Adnan Syed’s request for a reduced sentence in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend and classmate at Woodlawn High School. The family of Hae Min Lee weighed in calling for a halt to the request, according to court documents.

Syed’s attorneys filed a motion in December 2024 asking for a judge to reduce his sentence based on a Maryland law that allows people who have been imprisoned for at least 20 years for crimes committed when they were minors to seek a change in sentence.

In a filing, the State’s Attorney’s office said it supported the sentence reduction on the basis that Syed was 17 during the time of the killing. The state requested that the court grant Syed’s request for a hearing, and modify his sentence to life, suspending all but time served with a period of probation.

While Syed is free, he fears he will be sent back to prison, his attorneys said last month.

Lee’s family weighs in

The attorney for the Lee family filed a motion asking the court to halt Syed’s request for a sentence reduction until the state decides whether it will seek to vacate Syed’s conviction.

“Adnan Syed’s Motion for Reduction of Sentence is premature. The first question before this Court is whether there is any new and compelling evidence or information that calls into question the integrity of Adnan Syed’s conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee,” Lee’s family lawyer said in a statement. “That question regarding ultimate guilt or innocence needs to be resolved before any thought of reducing Mr. Syed’s sentence can be considered. Currently Mr. Syed remains a convicted murderer and nothing the State or Mr. Syed has ever presented calls that fact into question.”

Syed was released from prison in 2022 after Baltimore prosecutors found flaws in the evidence presented at trial and a judge agreed to vacate his murder conviction, But in August 2024, the Maryland Supreme Court upheld an appellate court’s decision to reinstate the conviction after the court found that Lee’s family did not receive sufficient notice of the vacatur hearing.

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