Serial wasn’t just the most successful podcast ever, it wasn’t just downloaded more than 75m times and it didn’t just give strangers something to talk about for three months – it may also have played a key role in questioning the evidence on which Adnan Syed was convicted.
According to the BBC, Syed’s lawyer Justin Brown filed a motion on Monday arguing that key mobile phone data used to convict Syed of killing his ex-girlfriend in 2000 was unreliable.
In the ‘supplement to motion to re-open post-conviction proceedings’ (snappy title, right?) Brown argues that ‘the cell tower evidence was misleading and should have never been admitted at trial’. The document continues to claim that ‘cellular tower evidence, specifically two incoming phone calls, put Syed at the site where the victim was buried on the evening of her disappearance… It is now known, however, that when AT&T provided the cellular tower data to the State, AT&T explicitly warned the State that: “Outgoing calls are only reliable for location status. Any incoming calls will NOT be considered reliable information for location.”’
You can actually read Justin Brown’s entire document here.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, Colin Miller, one of the lawyers who works with Rabia Chaudry on the Undisclosed podcast to investigate Adnan Syed’s case and subsequent appeal warns, ‘This is a pretty nebulous standard, so the judge has a great deal of discretion in considering the issue.’
You can follow developments in the Adnan Syed case through the blogs of lawyers Rabia Chaudry, Susan Simpson and Colin Miller.
The second season of Serial is expected this Autumn and will not be a continuation of the Adnan Syed case. But you can sign up to the Serial newsletter here to find out more and to get updates on the new season.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.