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One Year Later, Adnan Syed (of “Serial”) is Granted A New Hearing

One Year Later, Adnan Syed (of “Serial”) is Granted A New Hearing

Last updated on: November 6, 2015 at 6:52 pm by Dilshad Ali

One Year Later, Adnan Syed (of “Serial”) is Granted A New Hearing 2015-11-06T18:52:03-04:00 Dilshad Ali

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Adnan Syed – photo courtesy of Rabia Chaudry’s Split the Moon site.

I think that noise you heard was the collective mic being dropped.

Adnan Syed, who’s case became world-famous as the first featured story on the podcast Serial, is officially getting the second chance his team has been fighting for.

First his friend and arguably his most vocal and dedicated advocate, Rabia Chaudry, teased us by saying on Facebook, “Big news in Adnan’s case about to drop! Alhamdulillah!”

And minutes later the news begin filling up all our social media feeds:

A Baltimore judge reopened Syed’s case on Friday, and his lawyers will be able to present new evidence about his whereabouts on the day of the disappearance of Hae Min Lee, who was later found murdered.

Syed was tried for Lee’s murder and found guilty in a case that included data from cell towers that claimed to show his cellphone had been near the location where Lee’s body was found.

The reliability of the cell tower information as well as the lack of investigation around a possible alibi from another person who said she may have seen Syed on the day the crime allegedly took place had been considered key pieces of evidence that could overturn Syed’s conviction.

And a collective cheer went up across the world. You think I’m exaggerating? Hardly. Since Serial debuted last fall with Syed’s case, no one could’ve imagined how it would capture so many hearts and minds. At the time, Rabia was one of my bloggers at Patheos Muslim and started blogging each episode of the podcast — and week by week more and more people were drawn to her posts for the behind-the scenes story to what Serial was narrating. (After the eighth episode, Rabia, knowing that attention on this case would only continue to grow, left Patheos to become independent. Man, as an editor who appreciated her fierce, smart writing and of course her huge following, was I sorry to see her go. But more so as a friend, I knew this was the right move for her personally and for the case.)

The attention only grew exponentially as the podcast’s season progressed. And then a funny thing happened once the final podcast on the Adnan Syed case dropped, which left listeners up in the air with no dramatic conclusion of did-he-or-didn’t-he-murder-his-girlfriend. (Because honestly folks, did you think there would be a neat conclusion in 12 episodes?):

The interest only grew.

And, Rabia very smartly capitalized on the attention, leveraging the continuing interest to conduct her own investigations with the help of others and continue to push for Syed to be granted another hearing. She continued to blog on the case and publish evidence from Syed’s botched trial. Soon after she, along with lawyers Colin Miller and Susan Simpson, launched Undisclosed, a podcast that meticulously looked at Syed’s case from the beginning.

As one of million who has followed along while Rabia and her team relentlessly pushed for the truth to come out in Syed’s case, who prayed that justice would be served for Syed, for Hai Min Lee and for all their families, there is only one word for me that describes receiving the news today that Syed is getting a new hearing:

Alhamdulillah.

In one of her first blog posts about Syed and Serial’s focus on his case, Rabia wrote:

For 15 years I’ve believed Adnan as he’s held on to his innocence. It has been a drawn out trauma for those of us who know and love Adnan. I’ve run around with his case files for years, sometimes in the trunk of my car, sometimes storing them at my mothers, sometimes at Adnan’s parents. I held on to them through a bad marriage, divorce, single parenthood, remarriage, moving, and moving, and moving. I read them, forgot them, revisited them, forgot things again. Over 5 years, then 10, then 15 many details faded, but a few remained rock solid. Parts of his trial, the visits to him, the appeals, the people involved in the case – it was snips of a movie. Watching him grow from a skinny teenager with sparse facial hair to a big, broad man in prison was like a movie. But it wasn’t a movie. It was his life.

And later, in a time when she grew despondent that Syed’s case would never be overturned, that he would never be freed, Rabia asked for an audience with a renowned Sufi shaykh to seek some guidance. Before that meeting, she had a dream, and in a blog post titled “Meta to the Max,” she wrote this:

The dream was very clear, and I still remember it like I just had it. I was driving, it was nighttime, I was alone. I don’t know where I was going but all of the sudden the car ran out of gas. I realized my phone wasn’t charged, I couldn’t call for help, and all around the car I just saw darkness. I felt afraid but I got out to look around. About 100 yards ahead I could see a roundabout and beyond that a sign rising into the sky. It was my destination. I couldn’t believe it. I was despondent that I’d never get there, that I was literally lost in the dark, but now I was within sight and within walking distance. And so I started walking.

Two days later when I met the shaykh I took Adnan’s picture. He was a tiny, gentle, congenial man. Quiet, smiling, sweet. He stared at Adnan’s picture for a long time and then put it down on the table. He nodded at me and said, “He’s innocent, and he will come home.”

Now, Syed is one step closer to coming home.

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