A convicted murderer who was the focus of a popular podcast is returning to court to argue he deserves another trial and a fresh chance at freedom.

The podcast Serial revolved around the story of Adnan Syed, now 35 and serving a life sentence. At 19 he was convicted of strangling his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee in Baltimore and the show uncovered evidence that helped prompt a hearing on the possibility of a new trial.

The case had been closed for years when producer Sarah Koenig, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, reopened it in the podcast in 2014, drawing millions of listeners each week – so many that it shattered Apple’s iTunes store’s record for downloads.

The hearing, scheduled to last three days in Baltimore, is meant to determine whether Syed’s conviction will be overturned and the case retried.

“We’ve waited a long time to get back into court and to put on witnesses that will prove our claim, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do this week,” said Justin Brown, Syed’s attorney.

The motion for a new trial centres on two issues: an alibi witness who was never called to testify and cell tower data that defence lawyers argue is inaccurate, misleading and should never have been entered into evidence.

Prosecutors said the cell tower data linked Syed to a general area where Lee’s body was found a month later, but Brown argued in his motion that a cover sheet warning that such data is unreliable in determining a person’s exact location was intentionally omitted.

The alibi witness is Asia McClain, a former classmate who said she spotted Syed at a library the day Lee was strangled. Last year, McClain filed an affidavit saying that she’d be willing to testify on Syed’s behalf. McClain said she contacted Syed while he was awaiting trial, and Syed told his lawyer at the time, Cristina Gutierrez, to contact her. But the lawyer, who was later disbarred in connection with other cases, never did.

Her testimony will likely reflect her affidavit and letters she sent to Syed in jail. In one letter, dated 1 May 1999, McClain wrote: “I’m not sure if you remember talking to me in the library on 13 January but I remembered chatting with you.”

The Maryland attorney general’s office, which is handling the case, opposed Syed’s request for a new trial. In a September filing opposing Brown’s motion, the deputy attorney general, Thiruvendran Vignarajah, wrote that it was “preposterous” to suggest that Syed received inadequate counsel.

A motion filed on Tuesday shows that prosecutors intend to call the original lead prosecutor in Syed’s case, Kevin Urick, as well as other members of the prosecution team. An FBI agent who specialises in cell tower data is also on the prosecution’s potential witness list, as is William Martin, an expert in criminal defence practices.