A potential alibi witness for Adnan Syed, convicted in the 1999 death of his former girlfriend, testified Wednesday she had offered to provide that alibi shortly after Syed was arrested, but her offer was ignored.
Asia Chapman said she remembers talking to Syed at the Woodlawn Library the day his former girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, disappeared and that she wrote to Syed and his family to tell them she would be willing to testify on his behalf.
Syed, whose case was the subject of the popular podcast “Serial,” was convicted in February 2000 of killing Lee and dumping her body in Leakin Park. He was sentenced to life plus 30 years. Last May, the Court of Special Appeals kicked the case back to Baltimore Circuit Court for a hearing on the admissibility of Chapman’s testimony and whether to grant a new trial. This is the second post-conviction hearing in Syed’s case.
Syed, now 35, entered the courtroom in Courthouse East wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, tan work boots and a kufi, or skullcap. His shackled jangled as he made his way to the defense table.
Chapman, the former Asia McClain, said she remembered speaking to Syed at the Woodlawn Library for about 15 to 20 minutes on Jan. 13, 1999, the day Lee was last seen.
Syed’s appeal lawyer, Justin Brown, told retired Circuit Judge Martin Welch that Syed’s lawyer at the trial, Cristina Gutierrez, knew about Chapman but failed to call her. Brown and William Kanwisher, an attorney who worked with Gutierrez at the time of Syed’s trial, praised her legal talent, but said health issues at the time impaired her ability to represent clients. Kanwisher said he carried the majority of the workload because of Gutierrez's health issues, and that the firm was suffering from financial problems.
Gutierrez was disbarred in 2001, citing numerous health problems, including multiple sclerosis, and died of a heart attack in 2004.
Chapman, who spent more than two hours on the witness stand Wednesday, said she told Syed in one letter that she had learned the library has “a surveillance system.” She also said she filed an affidavit in 2000 and that then prosecutor Kevin Urick told her in 2010 that her testimony wasn’t important.
She said Urick convinced her that Syed must be guilty. And she denied Urick’s claim during Syed’s first post-conviction hearing that she admitted her story was false. Chapman also contradicted Urick’s claim that he talked to her for five minutes. She said her phone records showed the conversation lasted 34 minutes.
During cross examination Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah pressed Chapman about her memory of specific events. When did she hear about Syed’s arrest? When did she ask library officials about their surveillance system?
Vignarajah said there were reasons to think Chapman might not be reliable and that her affidavits "raised a number of red flags."
Remember The Victim
Lee’s family did not attend the hearing. Vignarajah read a statement from the family in a news conference afterward that called her "the true victim" in this case. It said the family has "lived without a heart for 17 years," that justice was done when Syed was convicted and that the family looks forward to closing this chapter so her memory can be celebrated "instead of celebrating the man who killed her."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.