Adnan Syed has been freed after a court overturned the murder conviction that was the focus of the popular Serial podcast.
When Mr. Syed received his life term in prison in 2000 for the 1999 strangulation and burial in a park in Baltimore of his lover Hae Min Lee, he was only 17 years old.
After the prosecution claimed that there were two additional potential suspects who were never given to the defense during the trial, a Maryland judge reversed the verdict on Monday.
Judge Melissa Phinn of the Circuit Court in Baltimore ruled that Mr. Syed should be put on home detention after being released from prison. Additionally, she commanded the state to decide within 30 days whether to request a new trial date or drop the case.
“All right Mr Syed, you’re free to join your family,” Ms Phinn said as the hearing ended.
Mr Syed, now 41, has always maintained his innocence and has been appealing his conviction for years.
The case was first brought to global attention by the 2014 hit podcast, which raised doubts about his guilt and some evidence prosecutors had used.
A judge has ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning his murder conviction, which was the subject of the popular Serial podcast.
Serial suggested evidence unearthed from witness Asia McClain could have corroborated Mr Syed’s account that he was in the library at the time of the killing.
Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying that a lengthy investigation conducted with the defence had uncovered new evidence that could undermine Mr Syed’s conviction.
Becky Feldman, chief of the Sentencing Review Unit, described to the judge various details from the case that undermine the conviction, including flawed mobile phone data, unreliable witness testimony, and a potentially biased detective.
The investigation “revealed undisclosed and newly developed information regarding two alternative suspects, as well as unreliable cell phone tower data”, said the office of the state’s attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, in a news release last week.
The suspects were known persons at the time of the original investigation, prosecutors said but were not properly ruled out or disclosed to the defense, who declined to release information about the suspects due to the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors said they were not asserting that Mr Syed is innocent, but they lacked confidence “in the integrity of the conviction” and recommended he be released.