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Justwonderinif

Post Conviction III

Timeline

<<Post Conviction Timeline II

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Monday, February 8, 2016

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Sunday, February 28, 2016

  • Adnan has been in jail/prison for seventeen years

Monday, February 29, 2016

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Saturday, May 21, 2016

  • Adnan's 35th Birthday

Friday, May 27, 2016

  • Asia McClain's book on shelves at Barnes & Noble

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Friday, July 1, 2016

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Thursday, July 7, 2016

July 15, 2016

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Monday, August 1, 2016

  • The State files its Application for leave to appeal Welch's decision that vacated Adnan's conviction and granted him a new trial.

  • Asks for permission to appeal (leave to appeal).

  • Addresses Aronowitz issue

  • Two women (sisters) remember fighting with Asia in high school, after Asia said she would lie to help Adnan.

August 2, 2016

  • Adnan has not filed an opposition to the state's application for leave to appeal.

  • Adnan has not filed an opposition to the state's request for a stay of Judge Welch vacating the conviction and ordering a new trial

  • The post-conviction court grants the State’s (July 21) request for a stay.

  • Thus, Welch's order vacating Adnan's conviction was stayed by the post-conviction court

  • This means Adnan is still a convicted murderer, and as such, is ineligible for parole.

  • This stay wasn't opposed or challenged by Adnan. So Adnan is still a convicted murderer and kidnapper and continues to serve his sentence of life in prison. Because of the stay, he is not awaiting trial, and he is not cloaked in the presumption of innocence.

  • Baltimore Sun Reports on State's (August 1) Application for Leave to Appeal

Wednesday, August 4, 2016

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Friday, August 19, 2016

  • Adnan is scheduled to be arraigned. Arraignment "does not go forward." (because, on August 2, the court granted the state's request to stay post conviction relief.)

Monday, August 22, 2016

Thursday, September 15, 2016

October 4, 2016

  • In an Amicus Brief, the State’s Attorneys for twenty-one Maryland counties recently characterized the evidence underlying Syed’s conviction as “crushing” and added that, “the evidence put before the jury in this case is stronger than what is routinely presented against criminal defendants who are tried and rightly convicted and whose convictions are affirmed all the time.”

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

  • Bilal indicted.

  • How many victims accrued over 18 years? ISB protected, then shunned, but failed to bring him to justice.

  • Rabia had held out hope they could still use him as Adnan's alibi, writing as much in her book.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

  • Hae Min Lee 36th Birthday

Monday, October 24, 2016

Thursday, November 10, 2016

  • State (Brian Frosh and Charlton Howard) responds to Adnan's motion for release.

  • There is no reason why Adnan's bail status should be different than it was when he was awaiting trial in 1999. Back then, the court was aware of Adnan's age, US citizenship, lack of criminal record, and ordered that he be denied a bail. Back then, pretrial services recommended Adnan be held without bail — consistent with the normal outcome in Baltimore City for a person charged with first degree murder and kidnapping.

  • After the bail decision, evidence emerged that Syed had engaged in witness tampering by instructing a classmate he barely knew to type a letter for him as part of a false alibi the State contends Syed tried to manufacture from jail.

  • The second trial judge, Wanda Heard, observed Gutierrez's performance, and considered the evidence and witnesses against him. Heard sentenced Adnan to life in prison, and commented on Syed’s dangerous capacity, even then, to manipulate those around him. [Judge Heard: The evidence was, there was a plan, and you used that intellect. You used that physical strength. You used that charismatic ability of yours that made you the president or the -- what was it, the king or the prince of your prom? You used that to manipulate people. And even today, I think you continue to manipulate even those that love you, as you did to the victim. You manipulated her to go with you to her death.]

  • Adnan's filing contains his latest round of newly-minted arguments and affidavits concerning the underlying facts of his conviction. The State disputes Syed’s characterization of the facts, law, and prior proceedings and is prepared to address those relevant to the pending appellate issues and defend Adnan's conviction should the Court of Special Appeals allow the state to do so.

  • The State declines to encourage Adnan's strategy of piecemeal litigation, manufacturing and inserting newfound claims in whatever his latest petition, no matter whether those claims are procedurally proper or factually relevant.

  • A bail review is no forum to introduce new expert theories.

  • A bail review is no forum to disparage a witness by listing allegations of unrelated subsequent incidents that may or may not be admissible at a retrial.

  • This witness was found credible by the jury at trial.

  • A court’s evaluation of whether bail is appropriate is not the time to:

  • gauge the strength of the state's case

  • consider the veracity of a defense expert’s contrary opinion

  • parse the credibility of witnesses.

  • Conducting a mini-trial Syed invites would impose an impossibly onerous burden upon courts that already handle 153,000 bail reviews each year. This is particularly true where the defendant has been convicted after a full trial by jury conducted under the watchful eye of a judge. (the burden of establishing that the defendant will not flee or pose a danger to any other person or to the community rests with the defendant.)

  • Syed’s conviction was then, and continues to be, supported by overwhelming evidence of guilt.

  • The evidence presented to convict Adnan of killing Hae less than two weeks after her first date with Don included:

  • the testimony of Wilds who helped Syed bury the victim and later led police to the victim’s car

  • witnesses who spoke of Syed’s possessive behavior toward Lee

  • his ploy to get a ride from Lee after school on the day she disappeared

  • Syed's presence with Wilds that afternoon and evening

  • toll records and tower location data corroborated the testimony of Wilds and other witnesses, and placed Syed at Leakin Park that night a short distance from where Lee’s corpse was unearthed

  • a map page to Leakin Park, ripped from a map book with Syed’s palm print on the back cover, both left in Lee’s abandoned car

  • the diary of Hae Min Lee recounting the decline of her relationship with Syed and the bloom of her love for Cliendinst

  • a letter seized from Syed’s bedroom, written by Lee imploring Syed to respect her wishes and move on, with the ominous words “I’m going to kill” written in a separate script on the back side of the note

  • Syed’s peculiar conduct after the murder and his incongruous statements to police.

  • Syed contends that he is too famous to flee and no longer poses a threat to society since, under the State’s theory, he only wanted to kill one person. Syed’s argument is as unpersuasive as it sounds. First, by Syed’s account, any defendant convicted of a domestic-violence murder is not a danger to society because he has already killed the only person he was interested in murdering. This is offensive and illogical. Most premeditated murders have a targeted victim. A defendant like Syed should not be viewed as less dangerous because he has succeeded in killing the person he most wanted dead.

  • Adnan's notoriety and access to money can be an asset to flight.

  • Adnan should not be treated differently than other defendants charged convicted of a brutal, first-degree murder. As with any defendant, the risk of flight and the threat to public safety is substantial. That risk is likely far greater since Adnan knows what his fate and sentence will be if the State prevails: a return to life in prison.

  • Adnan claims that he relishes the opportunity to prove his innocence even though one of his earlier claims — which remains pending on appeal — is that his attorney was constitutionally ineffective for failing to honor his request for a plea deal.

  • Syed says that since he may soon be eligible for parole, he won't damage that possibility by fleeing.

  • Adnan is an exquisitely unsuitable candidate for parole since he:

  • refuses to accept responsibility for his brutal murder of a young girl

  • has never apologized for his horrifying actions during and after the murder

  • baselessly implicates others in pursuit of his appeals

  • clings stubbornly to the fiction that he is the sympathetic victim of a string of coincidences or a coordinated ploy to frame him for a murder he did not commit.

  • The opportunity for redemption can only follow taking responsibility for one’s actions. Since Syed has steadfastly refused to do so, his claim that the prospect of parole eligibility will keep him from fleeing is also unconvincing.

  • Because the order granting Syed a new trial has been stayed pending appellate resolution of Syed’s post-conviction petition, Adnan's motion for bail should be denied.

  • Because Syed has been charged, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison for premeditated murder, he remains a flight risk, and a risk to public safety. And his motion for bail should be denied, accordingly.

  • Baltimore Sun Coverage of this filing

Next Steps:

If CoSA denies the State's Application for Leave to Appeal (ALA):

  • The case goes back to the circuit court for a NEW TRIAL.

If CoSA grants the State's Application for Leave to Appeal (ALA):

  • The State's appeal will be assigned to a three-judge panel.

  • The parties will submit briefs and the appeal will be scheduled for argument.

  • Justin Brown can argue that the CoSA should affirm Judge Welch's decision on IAC re; cell records

  • Justin Brown can argue that CoSA should affirm because Judge Welch wrongly decided IAC/Asia issue and wrongly decided the Brady cell issue.

  • After argument, CoSA will issue a reported or unreported decision. (But there is no deadline.)

  • per u/Baltlawyer, if CoSA reverses Judge Welch on the cover sheet issue, CoSA would have to decide whether to grant Syed's cross-application for leave to appeal on the Asia McClain issue. The State argued that if the CoSA agrees to address the Asia issue, then it should agree to supplement the record with the twins' affidavits and, preferably, their testimony. So, the State might only present the twins if CoSA agrees to look at the Asia issue. If the court does not agree to look at the Asia issue, the twin's statements may not be considered because they were not part of the PCR record.

  • If CoSA says "The State Wins:"

  • Adnan can file a petition for writ of certiorari with the CoA within 30 days of the issuance of the CoSA decision.

  • Those motions are almost never granted and usually serve to give the losing party more time to prepare a cert petition (or to decide whether to file one at all).

  • The COA will decide whether to grant or deny cert.

  • If granted, the parties would brief the issues and the COA would hear argument.

  • The COA issues its opinions by the end of each term, so there would be a set deadline for the issuance of that decision.

  • If COA sides with the State, is that the end of the line for Adnan?"

  • If the COA sides with the State, Adnan could petition for cert to the US Supreme Court to the extent that he challenges the COA's rulings based on his interpretation of the federal constitution. The COA's MD state law based rulings would not be subject to review by the Supreme Court. The chances of this cert petition being granted are extremely slim, so that would most likely be the end of the line for Adnan.

  • If CoSA says "The State Loses:"

  • The state can file a petition for writ of certiorari with the CoA within 30 days of the issuance of the CoSA decision.

  • The time to petition for cert can be delayed, however, if either party files a motion for reconsideration in the CoSA.

  • Those motions are almost never granted and usually serve to give the losing party more time to prepare a cert petition (or to decide whether to file one at all).

  • The COA will decide whether to grant or deny cert.

  • If granted, the parties would brief the issues and the COA would hear argument.

  • The COA issues its opinions by the end of each term, so there would be a set deadline for the issuance of that decision.

  • If COA sides with Adnan, the state could petition for cert to the US Supreme Court to the extent that it challenges the CoA's ruling based on its interpretation of the federal constitution. The CoA's MD state law based rulings would not be subject to review by the Supreme Court, and the chances of this cert petition being granted are slim to none. So the case would proceed to a new trial.

Posted Oct 25, 2016, 6:29 PM UTC · edited

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