The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Monday scheduled oral argument for Feb. 2 to consider an appeal from the family of Hae Min Lee seeking a redo of a hearing at which a judge threw out the conviction of Adnan Syed for her killing — a case that received worldwide attention in the podcast “Serial.”

Steve Kelly, an attorney representing Young Lee, Hae Min Lee’s brother, contends that his client neither received adequate notice nor an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the hearing — in violation of his rights as a victim of crime in Maryland.

Syed, now 41, was found guilty in 2000 in Baltimore Circuit Court of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. He has always maintained that he did not kill Hae Min Lee, 18, his ex-girlfriend and classmate at Woodlawn High School. Her body was discovered in Leakin Park in Baltimore on Feb. 9, 1999.

Following an almost one-year investigation, Baltimore Assistant State’s Attorney Becky Feldman, chief of the Sentencing Review Unit, on Sept. 14 filed a motion to throw out Syed’s conviction, writing that the state discovered that prosecutors did not turn over exculpatory evidence and uncovered information about two possible alternative suspects.

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Circuit Judge Melissa M. Phinn on Sept. 19 granted the motion and ordered Syed to be released from prison. Kelly filed a notice of appeal and then asked the courts to put the legal proceedings on hold.

Before the appeals court could rule on that request, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Oct. 11 dropped the charges against Syed, citing the results of new DNA testing that excluded him as a contributor.

Assistant Public Defender Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney and director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the Maryland Office of the Attorney General have until Jan. 9 to file their briefs in the appeal.

Suter contends that the Lee family was properly notified, adding that “the closure they seek is not found in incarcerating an innocent man.”

The HBO documentary series “The Case Against Adnan Syed” and the podcast “Undisclosed” have also examined case.

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dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com

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