The mother and brother of Hae Min Lee spoke at a sentence reduction hearing for Adnan Syed, a day after prosecutors announced they would withdraw a motion to vacate his murder conviction.
Syed was originally convicted of the 1999 murder of Lee, 18, his ex-girlfriend who was found dead in a Baltimore park nearly a month after she vanished.
Syed has long maintained his innocence and his case was thrust into the public consciousness when his case was the subject of the hit 2014 podcast Serial, which cast doubt on his conviction.
After spending more than two decades behind bars, Syed’s conviction was vacated in 2022 and Baltimore prosecutors moved to have the conviction vacated, having lost “confidence in the integrity of the conviction.” He was ultimately released from prison.
But in 2023, the Maryland Supreme Court reinstated his conviction, ruling Lee’s family’s rights were violated by not receiving proper notice of a hearing to overturn Syed’s conviction.
On Tuesday, Feb. 25, the new Baltimore State’s Attorney announced that it would withdraw its motion to vacate the conviction, saying that motion contained “false and misleading statements.” As such, Syed’s murder conviction will stand, though he currently remains out of prison.
At a court hearing to determine whether Syed’s sentence would be reduced to time served, Lee’s family opposed resentencing.
Lee’s mother, Youn Wha Kim, spoke in Korean via video. A copy of her remarks was shared with us.
“There is a Korean proverb that says, when a parent or husband dies, you bury them in the ground, but when a child dies, you bury them in your heart so you get buried in the ground together when you die,” Kim said. “However, to me who could not even touch or see the body of my daughter, the only thing had was the last thing she said to me: ‘I love you, Mom.'”
Kim said that after her daughter’s murder, she struggled to find reasons to live. She further said she believed Syed was properly convicted and said she hoped the law would “punish the bad person.”
Lee’s brother, Young Lee, also addressed the court, saying that his sister’s murder was a “nightmare” that was reignited upon the release of Serial.
Young Lee said he was caught off guard by the hearing that overturned Syed’s conviction in 2022 and that he was left “devastated” afterward.
“My family is asking for justice,” Lee said. “Justice for us is transparency. If the evidence shows Mr. Syed innocent, let him be free. My family has no objection to that. We want the real killer to be behind bars. But I stand on the belief that evidence that was presented in the original trial was solid evidence for conviction.”
