"'Serial' podcast subject Adnan Syed is in a Baltimore court house Wednesday, his attorney seeking a new trial. For more than a decade, Asia McClain was confident that she had seen Adnan Syed at a Woodlawn library during the time when prosecutors said he had killed his former girlfriend.
Defense attorneys never asked about her account, she said, and a prosecutor later dismissed the potential alibi as irrelevant. But before a packed courtroom on Wednesday, McClain described how a popular podcast about the case had persuaded her that she needed to speak up. "In order for justice to be served, all information has to be out on the table," McClain testified in Baltimore Circuit Court.
It was the first day of a three-day hearing. Syed's attorneys argued Wednesday that he should receive a new trial in the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend and Woodlawn High School classmate Hae Min Lee. The hearing was the first since the "Serial" podcast raised questions about Syed's conviction.........Syed's attorneys say McClain's account should not have been dismissed. They say her testimony and newly scrutinized cellphone tower evidence provide grounds for a new trial......... Vignarajah said in his opening remarks that the trial prosecutors presented overwhelming evidence, including forensics and evidence that pointed to a motive of Syed being possessive of Lee. In addition to McClain, Syed's attorneys said they would raise questions about cellphone evidence that linked Syed to the area where Lee was buried. The state plans to counter with an FBI cellphone expert. It is not known whether Welch will issue his ruling at the conclusion of the hearing or at a later date."