This week the first episode of Season Two of the hugely popular podcast Serial suddenly arrived on the internet.
Focusing on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who apparently abandoned his post and was consequently held captive by the Taliban for over five years, fans over the world are happy to see the return of the Peabody-winning podcast, but the most frequent question asked by listeners has been "But what happened to Adnan Syed?"
Here's a run-down of everything that has happened involving the case of Syed and everything that has happened since the first season aired.
October 3rd 2014, the first episode of Serial Season One was released, and presenter Sarah Koenig began to tell us the tale of Adnan Sayed, the man arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Hae Min Lee. On January 13th 1999, Lee went missing and her corpse was then discovered on February 9th.
February 28th 1999, Syed - Lee's ex-boyfriend - was arrested for her murder, and after a first trial ended in a mistrial, a second trial resulted in Syed's conviction with a life-sentence set in place, with Syed pleading innocent throughout.
After twelve episodes of the Series first season aired, culminating on December 18th 2014, the case of Lee's murder no closer to being any clearer, but the circumstances around Syed's conviction were made much, much murkier.
December 19th 2014, Deirdre Enright of the Innocence Project Clinic of the University Of Virginia Law School announces that they have potentially discovered another suspect and request DNA testing, but are waiting to hear back from the Maryland law offices if they can pursue the DNA testing while Syed's case is still pending for an appeal. Enright discusses the case and the Serial series at length below:
February 7th 2015, a Maryland court of Special Appeals filed a decision allowing Syed to appeal his conviction on grounds his attorney Cristina Gutierrez had provided ineffective counsel for failing to seek a plea bargain during his trial. The court also declared that a new panel of judges would look into the acceptance of a new alibi provided by Asia McClain, who provided evidence during the first trail that was subsequently ignored by Gutierrez.
April 13th 2015, and the first episode of a new, spin-off podcast series was aired. Undisclosed: The State VS Adnan Syed has to date released sixteen episodes, and was produced by the legal team supporting Syed's case. You can listen to the first episode below, and you can find all of the other episodes right here.
October 16th 2015, and one of the key witnesses for the state's case against Syed - cell phone expert Abraham Waranowitz - announced that the information he provided in the case may have been unreliable, as he was initially provided with unfinished documentation from which to base his conclusions.
November 6th 2015, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Welch ordered that Syed's case will be re-opened, and an investigation into his post-conviction proceedings would be "in the interests of justice for all parties."
December 10th 2015, Season Two of Serial begins, and so far there has been no set date for Syed's new hearing.
