Adnan Syed enters Courthouse East prior to a hearing in Baltimore. (AP)
BALTIMORE — Maryland's highest court on Thursday will hear arguments in the high-profile case of a man whose murder conviction was chronicled in the hit "Serial" podcast that attracted millions of armchair detectives.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals is set to hear oral arguments in Adnan Syed's long-running case. He was convicted in 2000 of strangling his high school sweetheart and burying her body in Baltimore's Leakin Park. He's been serving a life sentence ever since.
But a Baltimore judge vacated his conviction two years ago and a court ordered a new trial after concluding that his trial lawyer was ineffective. The state appealed. Earlier this year, the special appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling. The state appealed that decision, too.
Now, Maryland's top court is reviewing a decision that could reinstate Syed's conviction for the slaying of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee.
The court has granted the state the opportunity to make its arguments that Syed's trial lawyer, the late Cristina Gutierrez, was not ineffective and Syed's constitutional right to counsel was never violated. It granted Syed's legal team the chance to make its case touching on key cellphone evidence.
