Adnan Syed's name has become known worldwide off the back of true crime podcast Serial.

Hosted by journalist Sarah Koenig and first launched in 2014, it has been widely lauded as one of the most popular podcasts of all time; dominating the number one spot on iTunes for over three months and breaking the record as the fastest podcast ever to reach 5 million downloads. Impressive, huh?

Serial's first 12 episodes were dedicated to investigating the 1999 murder of 18-year-old high school student Hae Min Lee. Her body was discovered in Leakin Park in Baltimore, Maryland. A few weeks later, her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Masud Syed, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

On February 25, 2000, after a six-week trial (his second, as the first was a mistrial), Syed was found guilty of Lee's murder. He has always maintained his innocence.

Related: Serial subject Adnan Syed thinks 'he'll never be able to convince Sarah Koenig that he's innocent'

The first episode of the Serial podcast, which was released on October 3, 2014, began to investigate the events surrounding Hae's murder.

The series, which brought updates each week, also explored the idea of whether or not Adnan had been wrongly convicted of the crime – from the beginning, host Sarah Koenig said that she did not know which way her investigation would go.

A few weeks after series one came to a close, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals filed a decision to allow Adnan to appeal his conviction.

In 2016, a Baltimore judge vacated Adnan's first degree murder conviction on the grounds that he had not been fairly represented by his attorney during his 2000 trial.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Adnan Syed has been granted a new trial. Judge Welch's order: https://t.co/Io4HRRNWLt pic.twitter.com/CzT4LK2w79 — Serial (@serial) June 30, 2016

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This basically meant that the guilty verdict against him had been set aside, as if it had never happened. Prosecutors could then push for another trial, if they still wanted to try him for the crime.

"Last week, when I saw the news that Judge Martin P Welch granted Adnan a new trial, I happened to be on Skype with our executive producer Julie Snyder, and both of us did exactly the same involuntary thing of sucking in our breath and then putting our hands over our mouths," Serial host Sarah Koenig blogged on the podcast's website, in response to the news.

"We weren't so much shocked because of the legal arguments, but because it was such a longshot, this outcome."

Despite first winning a new trial two years ago, the State of Maryland has been appealing the ruling ever since.

The State appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, but lost when the Court of Special Appeals also agreed to overturn Syed's conviction in March 2018.

In the majority opinion, the presiding judges argued that Adnan's defence was not accurately represented by his original attorney because she failed to question cell tower evidence and never followed up with a witness who offered a potential alibi.

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Today, Adnan Syed’s appeal in his case was affirmed by the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. https://t.co/kMALyCmTGq — Serial (@serial) March 29, 2018

The State then appealed to the Court of Appeals – the highest court in Maryland. While the legal hearings continued, Adnan remained in prison.

After his conviction was first vacated in 2016, his defence filed a motion for his release. The State challenged this and the Circuit Court ruled in their favour, refusing to let Adnan have a bail hearing. This decision was appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, but they also denied his request.

HBO

As for Adnan's appeal, on March 8 2019 the Court of Appeals denied him a new trial and reinstated his conviction.

The ruling argued that there wasn't "a significant or substantial possibility that the jury would have reached a different verdict had his trial counsel presented the alibi witness".

Syed's legal team issued a statement in response to the decision, which read: "We are devastated by the Court of Appeals' decision but we will not give up on Adnan Syed.

"Unfortunately we live in a binary criminal justice system in which you either win or you lose. Today we lost by a 4-3 vote.

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Here is my comment on today's ruling from the Maryland Court of Appeals https://t.co/oxPuRYW5kh — Justin Brown (@CJBrownLaw) March 8, 2019

"Our criminal justice system is desperately in need of reform. The obstacles to getting a new trial are simply too great.

"There was a credible alibi witness who was with Adnan at the precise time of the murder and now the Court of Appeals has said that witness would not have affected the outcome of the proceeding. We think just the opposite is true. From the perspective of the defendant, there is no stronger evidence than an alibi witness."

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. .@HBO & @skyatlantic announce documentary series THE CASE AGAINST ADNAN SYED: https://t.co/WbDgnsOZ53 pic.twitter.com/PIMoQi6ik9 — HBO PR (@HBOPR) May 16, 2018





We'll bring you all the updates from his case as and when, but in the meantime Sky and HBO have commissioned a four-hour docu-series.

The documentary, called The Case Against Adnan Syed, has been in production since 2015, and will closely re-examine the case and the events surrounding Hae's murder and everything that followed.

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