A key witness in the murder case of Hae Min Lee, which became an online sensation after appearing in the Serial podcast, has come forward as a potential alibi for convicted murderer Adnan Syed.
Asia McClain, who originally said that she was with Syed at the time when police believe the murder took place, withdrew her testimony before the trial. In December 2014, state prosecutor Kevin Urick said in an interview that during the police investigation in 1999, Mc McClain had indicated the Syed family was pressuring her to write an affidavit supporting Adnan, and that she was no longer willing to do so.
Syed was later found guilty of strangling his former girlfriend to death, before partially burying her body in a Baltimore park. He has maintained his innocence ever since, and the murder and trial was serialised in an American podcast, quickly becoming the most popular podcast in the world on iTunes.
Now The Blaze is reporting that Ms McClain has come forward with a new affidavit, confirming that she was present with Syed at 2:36pm on January 13th, 1999.
In the affidavit, embedded below, Ms McClain asserts that she “never told Ulrick that I recanted my story or affidavit about January 13, 1999. In addition, I did not write the March 1999 letters or the affidavit because of pressure from Syed’s family. I did not write them to please Syed’s family or to get them off my back.”
“What actually happened is that I wrote the affidavit because I wanted to provide the truth about what I remembered. My only goal has always been to provide the truth about what I remembered,” she added.
Ms McClain’s affidavit comes as Syed is battling in the courts for his conviction to be overturned in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on the ground that he received ineffective assistance of counsel from his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez. Ms Gutierrez failed to follow up the potential alibi Mc Mclain offered in support of her client’s innocence.
The Court of Special Appeals has instructed Syed’s legal team to "focus only on the plea aspect" of his appeal, suggesting the court does not consider Ms Gutierrez’s actions with regard to the alibi as evidence she failed her client, or that the court has already accepted it as evidence.
Ms McClain has said she is eager to testify in defence of Adnan Syed now, and this morning’s petition asks the court to remand the case back to the Circuit Court, where she and Syed can have their say. It now remains for the Maryland Court of Special Appeals to make its ruling.
