April 20 (UPI) — Maryland’s highest court on Friday declined to reconsider its decision not to allow a new trial for Serial podcast subject Adnan Syed, whose lawyers said they now plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Maryland Court of Appeals said it would not revisit its March 8 decision denying the new trial for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee.
Syed’s lawyer, Justin Brown, said he plans to petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
In its March 8 ruling, the court of appeals said that though it agreed Syed’s counsel during his initial trial was deficient, it did not influence the outcome of his trial because the evidence against him was strong.
In March 2018, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals voted 2-1 in favor of a new trial because it said his first lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez, provided insufficient counsel by failing to call an alibi witness, Asia McClain Chapman.
In 2000, a jury convicted Syed of the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend, Lee, who was 18 at the time. The case drew national attention in 2014 when it became the subject of a podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig.
