'Serial' subject Syed appeals, says lawyer never interviewed alibi and didn't seek plea deal
Beset by health problems that led to her consent disbarment the following year, a Maryland criminal defense attorney never interviewed an alibi witness or sought a plea bargain during his 2000 trial. At least, that’s what her former client, Adnan Syed, says. He is now serving a life sentence for murder.
But Syed, whose case became widely known after he was profiled in the wildly popular Serial podcast, is now getting another chance to plead his case, the Associated Press and the Baltimore Sun (sub. req.) report. In a Monday filing at the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, which has agreed to hear the appeal, Syed’s current counsel, C. Justin Brown, says Syed should get a new trial because his former lawyer, M. Cristina Gutierrez, was ineffective.
“The circumstances here are worse than the circumstances of any other case in which a court has found ineffective assistance of counsel relating to an alibi issue,” writes Brown, explaining that such cases ordinarily involve an error or omission. But Gutierrez, says Brown, intentionally failed to follow her client’s instructions about interviewing the alibi witness. Plus, the trial lawyer lied to Syed when he asked about a plea bargain, telling him that none had been offered when in fact the attorney never asked prosecutors for a deal, Brown contends.
This “not only violates something fundamental to the trial process,” said Brown in the filing, “but it violates the duty of loyalty that is at the heart of attorney-client relationship … his lawyer effectively stopped representing him.”
Syed was convicted based on testimony of a Woodlawn High School classmate who said he helped Syed bury the body of his former girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. But another classmate, Asia McClain, says she saw Syed at a public library near the school when prosecutors said he was killing Lee elsewhere. “At the very least, there would have been reasonable doubt,” writes Brown, if Lee’s testimony had been pursued and presented.
A spokesman for the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, which is defending the appeal, declined the Sun’s request for comment. Lawyers there have previously argued there is no proof that prosecutors would have offered Syed a plea deal, if asked, or that Syed, who has maintained his innocence, would have accepted one.
Gutierrez died in January 2004 of a heart attack, the Baltimore Sun reported at the time. Only 52 years old, she had also been battling multiple sclerosis, which she gave as the reason for agreeing to disbarment in May of 2001.
“I am not physically able to keep practicing,” she told the Baltimore Sun. “I can barely walk.”
Colleagues spoke highly of her abilities as a top criminal defense lawyer and her pugnacious pursuit of justice on behalf of clients. However, at the end of her legal career, money was reportedly missing from an attorney trust account and some clients complained that expected pleadings hadn’t been filed, the newspaper reported.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “‘Serial’ podcasts downplayed info supporting murder conviction, prosecutor says; DNA testing sought”
ABAJournal.com: “Subject of popular ‘Serial’ podcast can pursue appeal, court rules”
Bustle: “Adnan Syed’s Lawyer Cristina Gutierrez Has a History of Tough Cases”
The Guardian: “Murder case behind Serial podcast phenomenon heads to appeals court”
