On Tuesday, Oct. 11, the court of Maryland dropped all charges against Adnan Syed, whose case was the main topic of the hit podcast “Serial.” Before his release, Syed had served 23 years of his life sentence after being convicted of strangling a high school classmate of his, Hae Min Lee. Lee and Syed were engaged in an on-again, off-again relationship during their time at Woodlawn High school in Baltimore county. Eighteen-year-old Lee was found buried at a Baltimore park in 1999.

Syed’s case was brought to the spotlight by the revered crime podcast “Serial.” This left many people questioning the validity of the case against Syed as more discrepancies in the investigation were revealed by host Sarah Koenig. However, it took Baltimore investigators until Sept 19th, 2022, to realize there were issues involving key evidence used against Syed. Prosecutors had also brought up the possibility of “alternative suspects” in the still open and pending murder case.

Syed’s case was brought to the mainstream once “Serial” debuted and explored the case in extensive detail. The podcast started in 2014 as a spinoff from the same creators of “This American Life”, a radio program produced by Chicago Public Media. The show has earned many awards throughout its run, including the Dupont-Columbia award for Journalism, the Scripps Howard award for Journalism, and the first Peabody award ever given to a podcast.

Mr. Syed, 41, had been cleared of all charges after additional DNA testing confirmed he was no longer a suspect. The state attorney of the city of Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, stated that her office will continue to investigate Lee’s case but in terms of Mr. Syed, “this case is over.” The items that were DNA tested had not been tested before, relieving Syed of all suspicion entirely.

Before Syed’s initial release, he was subject to house arrest for 30 days during which the court would decide whether to retry Syed or not. This is only because Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn had ruled that the state had withheld evidence that could’ve provided support in Syed’s case. However, after Tuesday, Oct. 11, his house arrest was lifted. Syed’s lawyer spoke after the hearing, exclaiming her excitement while also noting that Syed isn’t ready to speak publicly yet.