Adnan Syed - subject of the first season of podcast phenomenon, Serial - has been granted a new trial.



WE WON A NEW TRIAL FOR ADNAN SYED!!! #FreeAdnan — Justin Brown (@CJBrownLaw) June 30, 2016

The news was announced by Syed's lawyer, Justin Brown in an enthusiastic tweet yesterday:Syed has so far spent 16 years in prison after being convicted of the murder of Hae Min Lee in 2000. He has maintained his innocence throughout that time. The new trial was granted after a Baltimore judge decided Syed's original lawyer should have cross-examined an expert witness about cell phone towers near the victim's burial siteSerial, a spin-off from WBEZ's This American Life, carried out an amateur re-investigation of Syed's case in 2014 and became the fastest ever podcast to reach 5 million downloads. The success of the podcast led many to demand a second trial for Syed. Podcast host Sarah Koenig concluded that she would have voted to acquit Syed, although she still had some doubts as to his innocence.After the announcement of the second trial (which had previously been denied in 2014), Justin Brown used a press conference (as reported by Variety ) to say that he didn't think this would have been possible without Serial's involvement in the case.As to whether he thinks the second trial will be successful, Brown said, “I’m feeling pretty confident right now. This was the biggest hurdle. It’s really hard to get a new trial.”We named Serial one of the 30 of the Best True Crime Documentaries, Shows, and Podcasts . Last year, LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller announced that they would be turning the making of Serial into a TV series

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he thinks it might be time for a relisten. Follow him on Twitter