![]() ![]() The other judges - the majority - said it was unfair to ask Young Lee to appear by video when the attorneys, judge and Syed were present in court. Berger wrote in his dissenting opinion.īerger said he believed Young Lee appearing by video satisfied his right to attend the proceeding. The General Assembly, or the judiciary’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, is where the authority to clarify victims’ rights law belongs, appeals court Judge Stuart R. Kurt Wolfgang, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, said he has heard similar concerns every time his organization successfully lobbies the legislature to advance victims’ rights. “The court did not go that far in this opinion” he added, “but the road that they’re traveling is precarious. it’s not the way our constitutional system works.” “You can’t begin the court proceedings without making sure the representative or the victim is present and now speaks - not just to give a crime impact statement - but to question a prosecutor who, after a full investigation, follows Maryland law and asks for the case to be dismissed. It’s putting the victims’ lobby as the principal party,” Colbert said. It would be “a radical transformation of Maryland law. evidence supporting the motion to vacate is presented, and the court states its reasons in support of its decision.”ĭouglas Colbert, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law who represented Syed at a bail review decades ago, and several defense attorneys interviewed expressed concerns that the appellate court’s ruling would pave the way for victims to intervene in legal questions, which could lead to rulings swayed by emotion, they said. Lee’s concerns about how the proceedings were conducted.” They ordered a “transparent hearing on the motion to vacate, where. Gregory Wells denied Young Lee’s request to call witnesses and challenge evidence at the vacatur hearing, but wrote in their opinion they “share many of Mr. What began as a challenge to the amount of notice Young Lee received soon questioned the evidence used to free Syed and described his release as predetermined.Īppellate judges Kathryn G. Three days later, then-State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby dismissed Syed’s charges. He said he felt betrayed by prosecutors.Īfter Syed’s conviction was overturned, Young Lee’s lawyer said he was going to appeal. Phinn denied it, but allowed Young Lee to express his thoughts about the development over video. Feldman emailed Young Lee after meeting with Phinn, informing him of the court date and explaining she arranged for him to watch by Zoom.Īn attorney for the Lee family appeared in court that Monday asking for a seven-day postponement. 16, a Friday, and scheduled the hearing for the following Monday, Sept. The prosecutor, Becky Feldman, and Syed’s defense attorney, Erica Suter, apparently met with Phinn in her chambers Sept. After 23 years of incarceration, Syed walked free when Phinn vacated his conviction. They moved to throw out his conviction in September, citing two people they now considered suspects in the homicide and whom they said Syed’s defense lawyers should’ve been told about decades ago. While reviewing his case, the office said, prosecutors began to have concerns about the case and launched a reinvestigation. Syed’s fortune appeared to take a turn in 2021, when his lawyer approached the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office with hopes of having his punishment reduced because of a new law allowing sentence modification for people convicted in their youth. He remained behind bars as courts rejected his repeated appeals. After a jury convicted him of murder in 2000, a judge gave him life in prison. ![]()
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