It's Finally Over

After 23 years in prison, Baltimore prosecutors have dropped their prosecution of Adnan Syed after DNA tests exclude him. 

The real question here is how often does that happen when it doesn't become a cause celebre as a result of a podcast going viral.

My guess?  Something around ⅓ of the time, but I am an optimist:

Adnan Syed, whose legal saga rose to international renown because of the hit podcast “Serial,” is free.

In an abrupt move Tuesday morning, Baltimore prosecutors dropped Syed’s criminal case stemming from the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee.

Syed’s conviction was overturned last month, but he remained charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery in Lee’s death while Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office considered whether to try him again or to dismiss the case.

Mosby said Tuesday afternoon that her decision to drop the charges against Syed was based on never-before-tested DNA from Lee’s shoes. The DNA test results, which Mosby’s office received Friday, showed DNA from four different people on the shoes. None of them are Syed, Mosby said.

………

Suter, who is also the director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, participated alongside city prosecutors in a yearlong investigation. Together, the attorneys discovered two people they now consider alternative suspects in Lee’s death. Both suspects were known to the authorities all along, but at least one was not disclosed to Syed’s defense, they said.

We need to start jailing prosecutors and investigators who engage in what are called Brady violations. 

We can talk about training all we want, but that has not worked for either police or prosecutors.  The solution is jail time.