BALTIMORE – Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby snapped back at Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh who challenged the way her office handled Adnan Syed’s release from prison.
Syed spent 23 years in prison after he was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. But, in recent weeks, Syed’s murder conviction was vacated and his charges were dropped.
Frosh said his criticisms of Mosby don’t demonstrate bias against Syed, and they do not disqualify his office from an appeals case against Syed’s release.
The Attorney General said in the Tuesday filing that Mosby’s actions “raised red flags about the integrity and neutrality of the proceedings.”
Frosh said Mosby’s office only gave the Lee family two days’ notice of its intention to file a motion calling for Syed’s conviction to be thrown out.
His office argued Lee should be allowed to make the case Mosby’s office violated the Maryland Declaration of Rights’ “mandate to treat victims with ‘dignity, respect, and sensitivity.'”
Mosby, in a statement, stood by her stance that the Attorney General’s Office mishandled and “sat on exculpatory evidence for years.”
“His recent attempts to save face are a complete disservice to the family of Hae Min Lee and to Adnan Syed who was wrongfully incarcerated for 23 years,” Mosby said. “We stand by our investigation and our ultimate finding that there is no credible evidence that Mr. Syed was involved in the death of Ms. Lee.”
On Sept. 14, the State’s Attorney’s Office filed a motion to vacate Syed’s conviction based on the Brady rule, requiring prosecutors to turn over all exculpatory evidence.
The judge then ruled to vacate the conviction less than a week later.
“It is extremely troubling that the Attorney General, who is clearly biased and is in self-preservation mode to protect himself as well as the original prosecutor and post-conviction attorney in the case, is legally asserting that prosecutors don’t have to disclose to the defense an alternative suspect that threatens to kill the victim because the person reporting the threat was not sure if the threat was serious or not,” Mosby said. “The problem is that the Attorney General’s argument is completely contrary to the law and is the reason why a Judge rightfully concluded that it was a Brady violation.”