Serial is set to release a new episode on Adnan Syed, who was convicted of the 1999 murder of his high school classmate and former girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
On Monday, Syed left prison after he was convicted in 2000 of killing Lee, who was found strangled and buried in a Baltimore park. Now 42, he has always maintained his innocence and was 17 at the time he was convicted, serving more than 20 years in prison as a result.
The case was made famous by the Serial Podcast in 2014 with host and investigative journalist Sarah Koenig. Over twelve episodes, she chronicled what happened and the case against Syed.
Baltimore City Circuit Court judge Melissa M. Phinn vacated the conviction “in the interests of justice and fairness,” according to the New York Times after finding prosecutors failed to hand over new evidence that could have assisted Syed’s case.
Now, prosecutors will have 30 days to decide if they will proceed with a new trial or drop the charges against Syed, who has been ordered to serve home detention until then.
According to the publication, prosecutors noted that the investigation points to two possible “alternative suspects” – neither have been named or publicly charged.
The two suspects that were uncovered with new and existing evidence prosecutors revealed were known at the time of the first investigation, but not properly ruled out.
In the reinvestigation, prosecutors uncovered a document in the state’s trial file which was one person’s statement, saying that one of the uncovered suspects had a motive to kill Lee and had threatened her in front of another person.
The Serial podcast on Syed’s case investigated the case and pointed out inconsistencies that resulted in the conviction, and most notably, raised doubts about some of the evidence, including the validity of cell phone tower data that was one of the main pieces of evidence for the prosecution in Syed’s original trial.
Upon release, Serial reached five million downloads faster than any podcast to date, and a year after its release was still being downloaded 500,000 times a day.
See also: Serial Podcast subject, Adnan Syed, could have conviction undermined with new evidence