GIST: Baltimore: “Adnan Syed is asking the Appellate Court of Maryland to reconsider its decision to reinstate his conviction and life sentence in the murder of Hae Min Lee, according to court documents filed this morning.
Syed, whose case gained notoriety from the hit podcast Serial, spent more than two decades behind bars for the death of Lee. In September, his murder conviction was thrown out, and he became a free man.
In late March, the appeals court reinstated his conviction and sentence.
Attorneys for Lee’s brother, Young Lee, argued that prosecutors violated Maryland Victims’ Rights saying Lee was given short notice of the hearing in September on which he ultimately appeared on Zoom from California.
The appeals court ordered a new hearing in the case, agreeing with Kelly that Young Lee's rights had been violated.
In today's filing, Syed's attorneys argue that Lee's brother failed to show how the outcome of September's hearing would have been different had he been present in court.
"Through video and the presence of his attorney in the courtroom, Appellant was able to convey the gravity of the proceedings for his family. Before this Court should be willing to take the drastic and unprecedented step of reinstating the criminal convictions of an individual whom the State has declined to prosecute, it at a minimum should require Appellant, like all other litigants, to demonstrate that any errors committed by the trial court were not harmless," Syed's attorney's wrote in today's filing.
“With rare exception, litigants must show that any error impacted the case outcome before they are entitled to reversal. Acknowledging that the outcome would not have been different does not diminish the importance of victims’ rights,” said Brian Zavin, Office of the Public Defender's Appellate Division Chief and Co-Counsel for Mr. Syed on the appeal, in a news release.
“Even a criminal defendant generally is not entitled to reversal of a conviction for the violation of their constitutional rights if the appellate court finds that the result would have been the same despite the error. Likewise, here, any violation of a right to appear in person that Mr. Lee possessed would not have changed the outcome of the vacatur proceeding.”
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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