Twenty of the most pivotal events in Baltimore this year, in chronological order.

By Ron Cassie, Christianna McCausland, Lauren Cohen, Janelle Erlichman Diamond, Grace Hebron, Jane Marion, Amy Scattergood, Max Weiss, and Lydia Woolever

Illustration by Kam Arroyo

In 2022, two years after COVID-19 first reared its ugly head, we finally started to feel like ourselves again. With more than 70 percent of the city vaccinated, masks came off, arts institutions resumed regular programming, bars and restaurants saw an uptick in reservations (we even saw some new, fast-favorites emerge), and annual community events came back with a bang. Of course, like every year, there was some drama and heartbreak, too. (More on that later.) But through it all, our quirky, proud, resilient hometown stuck together—as it always does.

Here are the highlights that shaped the city this year, as compiled by our editors.

H&S Bakery Gives Away Free Bread in I-95 Gridlock

In perhaps one of the most heartwarming stories of the year—which made national headlines—Fells Point’s H&S Bakery made Baltimore proud when truck driver Ron Hill gave away 500 split-top wheat loaves to fellow motorists stuck overnight on I-95 between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia due to severe ice and snow conditions. Other Good Samaritans included Ellicott City native Casey Holihan and her husband, John Noe, who collaborated with H&S and helped Hill distribute the bread to hungry passengers in need. “It proves there is goodness in the world,” H&S co-owner Chuck Paterakis told us in January. “I just wish we could have supplied them some butter or peanut butter, too.”

Penn Station Renovation Begins

After decades of discussion surrounding the future of Baltimore’s Penn Station, scaffolding went up this February and kicked off the at-least $75-million redevelopment of the 112-year-old train hub. Led by local real-estate heavyweights Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners, the multi-year project includes the currently underway restoration and preservation of the historic “headhouse,” from maintaining the Beaux Arts building’s architectural details to reimagining its interior space for new restaurants and retail. It will also shepherd the future expansion onto the drab Lanvale Street parking lot north of the Amtrak tracks, where a new state-of-the-art concourse will be constructed for train travel and public use in 2025. So far, the future of the station’s Male/Female statue is yet to be determined, but the project has implications beyond its immediate location, rippling out into the surrounding neighborhoods that make up Station North.

New Arts Leaders Emerge in Baltimore

Change is good, right? We hope so, because Charm City saw a lot of it this year when it came to our arts scene. Jenenne Whitfield took over in September at the American Visionary Art Museum for founder Rebecca Hoffberger, who retired in March. Over at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jonathon Heyward will begin a five-year contract next month as music director. The 29-year-old, who replaces departing Marin Alsop, is the first person of color to be the orchestra’s director in its 106-year history. Gregory S. Smith was appointed to be the executive director at Creative Alliance, and Baltimore Center Stage named Adam Frank as managing director. Hopefully 2023 is when we hear who the Baltimore Museum of Art, which announced the resignation of Christopher Bedford after five-and-a-half years in February, will select as their new director.

We Own This City  Premieres

Twenty years after The Wire debuted, David Simon came back with another HBO series that took on the dark side of Baltimore—this time exploring the dirty cops who planted evidence, padded their own pockets, and carelessly ruined lives. Filmed entirely in Baltimore, with a bunch of native extras and leads—our own menschy Josh Charles as a sadistic cop, say it ain’t so!—the six-part miniseries, based on the book of the same name by journalist Justin Fenton, focused on the exploits of the notorious Gun Trace Task Force. Jon Bernthal gave a particularly explosive performance as cocky alpha cop Det. Wayne Jenkins. (And nailed the Baltimore accent, hon.) And local scribe D. Watkins wrote an episode and was deeply involved in the production. Some saw the critically acclaimed series as a bit of a corrective for The Wire, which depicted the cops in a much more flattering light.

Iconic Local Establishments Close Their Doors

For all of the new, exciting food and beverage joints we welcomed this year (among them: The Royal Blue, Church Bar, Marta, Kajiken, and Little Donna’s) we also said goodbye to some longstanding favorites. After 30 years, Cafe Hon—soon to be transformed into a new concept by Foreman Wolf Restaurant Group—shuttered its doors on the Avenue in Hampden in April. The Midway Bar—the only non-strip-club bar on The Block, which was a known haven for the community’s dancers, doormen, servers, and shift workers for decades—cracked open its last cans of Boh in July. And Bertha’s, the green-painted community stalwart on Broadway Square, will soon serve its final batch of mussels and host its last live performance. “It was time,” second-generation Bertha’s owner Andy Norris told us after the announcement of the bar going up for sale in October. “We feel fulfilled, and now we’re able to pursue other things. Change is good.” Thanks for the memories. 

Celebrities Praise Our Food Traditions

Fom Old Bay-covered crabs to pit beef sandwiches, it doesn’t get much tastier than Charm City cuisine. And this year, famous folks (finally) took notice. For instance, it was love at first sight when Cravings cookbook author Chrissy Teigen sampled her first lemon-peppermint stick. (“Holy shit this is so good!” she wrote on Instagram.) Homegrown actor Josh Charles also made us proud when he whipped up a classic egg custard snowball for Jimmy Fallon on air. And actress Melanie Griffith even shouted us out when she was made aware of the bar named after her in Hampden. (Owners Allison Crowley and Hannah Spangler added “Melanie’s” to the name of the historic Griffith’s Tavern when they took it over in February.) “Well..who knew!” Griffith wrote on Instagram. “I am honored to have this tavern, in the city my father’s family hails from, named after me. It looks like a destination where one can have ‘a good ass time!’”

The Baltimore Banner  Launches

Thirty-six years after The Baltimore News-American folded and 27 years after The Evening Sun set permanently, Baltimore is once again a two daily newspaper town. But there’s a catch: This new one, The Baltimore Banner, is 100-percent digital and a nonprofit. Stewart Bainum, who fronts The Banner’s ownership group, the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, had made some attempts to buy The Sun, in vain. So, in June of this year, he and his partners took matters into their own hands, launching their own publication, and poaching many of The Sun’s most high-profile journalists along the way—including Justin Fenton, Liz Bowie, and Tim Prudente. A creature of the digital age, The Banner is a bit looser than The Sun, utilizing TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and podcasts, but they’ve already broken some big stories, including a report on the infighting among the Angelos sons for eventual control of the Orioles. Will Baltimoreans make the newspaper part of their daily habit—and support it enough to keep it in the black? Only time will tell. But we sure like the sound of being a two-newspaper town again.

BSO Names Jonathon Heyward as New Music Director

Somewhere in the halls of the Joseph Meyerhoff symphony, there sit a giant pair of shoes left behind by Maestra Marin Alsop, who announced her retirement from the top post at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in early 2020. But soon, they will be filled by a somewhat familiar face, when her replacement, Jonathon Heyward, takes over as the 106-year-old orchestra’s 13th music director, starting in the fall. The 29-year-old South Carolina native performed with his future colleagues in three performances this past spring, and when he takes over, he will be the first conductor of color in the BSO’s history and the only African-American conductor currently leading a major U.S. symphony orchestra—not to mention the youngest, by decades. His resume includes study at the Boston Conservatory of Music, as well as posts at the Boston Opera Collaborative, Royal Academy of Music in London, and National Symphony Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Catch him in Baltimore this May, when he will be conducting two weekends of performances.

Timothy Reynolds Killed in Squeegee Incident

Timothy Reynolds of Hampden, a 48-year-old Johns Hopkins University-trained engineer and married father of three, was shot and killed near the Inner Harbor after leaving his car and confronting a group of squeegee workers with a baseball bat in July. A 15-year-old, who was 14 on the bright summer’s day of the tragedy, was soon indicted on a first-degree murder charge. A Circuit Court for Baltimore City judge denied a request from the teen’s attorneys to have the murder case transferred to juvenile court in exchange for a guilty plea to manslaughter.

The O’s Are Fun Again

The 2022 Orioles weren’t just “entertaining cellar-dwellers,” as we dubbed them last year. They were legitimately good—in the pennant race until September—and the fans returned en masse to cheer them on. Much of this improvement can be attributed to their phenomenal young catcher, Adley Rutschman, who brought all the tools to the table (bat, glove, baseball IQ), including some ineffable ones—like an enthusiasm for the game that permeated the team.

But he wasn’t the only exciting youngster. Flame-throwing closer Felix Bautista (nicknamed “the Mountain”) walked out of the bullpen to the strains of Omar’s whistle from The Wire, endearing himself to O’s fans for life. Third baseman Gunnar Henderson has potential to be a superstar—and not just because of his luxurious blond mane. He has a knack for the dramatic, hitting a key home run in just his second major league at-bat. And the longer tenured players—sluggers Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander; the speedy Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo—more than did their part. 

The only bummer? We traded fan favorite Trey Mancini to Houston, putting O’s fans in the unfamiliar position of rooting for the Astros to win the World Series. The team—and Trey—came through. Can we have him back now?

Johns Hopkins Moves Forward with Private Police Force

Ever since Johns Hopkins University proposed hiring its own armed police force in 2018, pushback and protests from students and the community alike have followed. Amid nationwide protests over police brutality following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, plans were temporarily halted. University officials announced they would use the down time to update campus safety measures, improve partnerships with the city, and allow legislators to pass statewide reforms. Of course, many universities nationally and locally (Towson, Loyola, Coppin State, Morgan State) have their own force, but the idea of armed cops on a private campus in the center of a majority-Black city—where relationships with law enforcement are already fraught—has raised controversy and concern about over-policing, racial profiling, and police brutality. 

The university has attempted to allay fears by agreeing to several measures, including complying with the city’s consent degree, wearing body cameras, and only tackling minor crimes, such as breaking and entering and theft (while the BPD would handle investigations of more serious crimes, such as rape or murder). In early December, at long last, after a two-month period for public and Baltimore City Council review, as well as several town halls, JHU finalized a memorandum of understanding with the Baltimore Police Department. This was the latest, and likely the last, step in a protracted process of forming a force to bolster campus safety. Next up: The university has moved toward developing departmental policy and procedures, as well as recruiting and training officers.

E. Coli Breaks Out in West Baltimore

Labor Day weekend brought residents of Sandtown-Winchester and Harlem Park not block parties and barbecues, but an E. coli outbreak. For five hot and humid days, the historically underserved communities in West Baltimore (and some parts of Baltimore County) sweltered under a boil water advisory while city officials scrambled to understand the contamination. The Department of Public Works reported in late September that the E. coli presence was caused when a series of catastrophic infrastructure failures led to decreased chlorination levels in the water system. While no one was made sick, the episode underscored—not for the first time—the potentially devastating impacts of the city’s aged, crumbling infrastructure systems.

Adnan Syed is Freed

It had been more than 20 years since Adnan Syed was found guilty in the Baltimore Circuit Court of first-degree murder in the killing of Hae Min Lee—his ex-girlfriend and classmate at Woodlawn High School. (The case rose to national prominence thanks to the true-crime podcast Serial.) Syed had long maintained his innocence, and in 2016, a judge ordered a new trial, only to have the state’s highest court reverse that decision. But in September of this year, a judge granted prosecutors’ request to vacate his conviction in light of newly acquired evidence not previously turned over to defense attorneys. And by October, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby dropped charges against Syed, declaring that “the case is over” and that he had been “wrongly convicted.” As of press time, the Appellate Court of Maryland announced it will hear oral arguments in early February about whether the hearing that led to Syed being freed was held correctly. Lee’s brother asserts that he did not receive proper notice of the hearing, and was denied the right to be heard, a violation of crime victims’ rights.

Public Markets and Food Halls Flourish

When Lexington Market, the flagship of Baltimore’s storied public market system, opened its doors again in October, after a long and expensive rebuild, it didn’t take long for the lines to form again. When it’s finally completed next summer, 48 vendors—about half new merchants, half legacy, many of whom are multi-generational—will load the impressive new complex at the city’s center—where the community has been gathering for more than 200 years. And Lexington is just part of Baltimore’s reinvigorated system of public markets and food halls. The Mill on North, West Baltimore’s first food hall, will open in the spring with an all-Black vendor lineup.

Wes Moore Elected as Maryland’s First Black Governor; Other Election Results Break Barriers

Baltimorean, best-selling author, Rhodes Scholar, veteran, former investment banker, and nonprofit CEO Wes Moore became the third Black-elected governor in U.S. history this year. But he was also just one of several barrier-breaking statewide officials elected to office. Baltimore state delegate Brooke Lierman will become the first woman to serve as state comptroller. Former two-term lieutenant governor and three-term Democratic congressman Anthony Brown is set to become the state’s first Black attorney general. Former state delegate Aruna Miller will also become the first-ever Indian American Lt. Governor.

Weed Wins: Marylanders Vote to Legalize Recreational Marijuana 

The people have spoken, and they want to legally buy weed. Sixty-seven percent of voters said “yes” to Question 4 on the November ballot, making Maryland the 20th state (and the District of Columbia) to legalize a drug the Feds still classify as a Schedule I substance. Come July 1, 2023, adults 21 and older can possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis and grow up to two plants. But much of the regulation around legalization—including a framework for retail sales—has yet to be worked out. Lawmakers must also wrestle with how to ensure the industry is not plagued with the racial inequities that have dogged medical cannabis in the state since its rollout in 2014, as well as how to execute the expungement mandated by a companion bill that will wipe criminal records where possession of cannabis was the only charge. 

Turnstile Becomes Baltimore’s Next Big Thing

There might be no Baltimore band since Future Islands who has had such a meteoric rise as Turnstile did this year, perhaps setting the new record for local artist success. The circa-2010 hardcore punk band has risen from rough-and-tumble clubs like The Sidebar and Charm City Arts Space to The Tonight Show, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and now three Grammy nominations—with their third LP, Glow On, catapulting the band’s eclectically metal sound and charismatically moshpity stage presence onto the national, and global, stage. We especially love how they brought other homegrown favorites along for the ride, with Ellicott City’s Snail Mail and the city’s JPEGMAFIA joining as opening acts on their fall tour. Meanwhile, they’ll be sharing the stage during the Blink 182 reunion shows this spring. Get acquainted by listening to new tracks like “Mystery” and “Underwater Boi.”

Iconic News Anchors Retire

This was the year that some of Baltimore’s best-loved—and most-enduring—broadcasters retired from the tube, their combined years on air dating back to a time before there was even TV! From top anchor Stan Stovall (a 52-year veteran) and ace investigative reporter Jayne Miller (47 years) at WBAL-TV to meteorologist Bob “Sunshine Kid” Turk over at WJZ (nearly 50 years), morning, noon, and night will never be the same again without this holy trinity of trusted and familiar faces. “It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of your life,” Tweeted Turk. “Just like the weather, the wind can move us in different directions.” We certainly hope that one of those directions takes them across the Bay Bridge to a lounge chair on a beach. 

Report Names 158 Catholic Priests Accused of Abuse

After a four-year investigation, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office’s long-awaited report named 158 Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse, including 43 priests who had never been publicly identified by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The state inquiry into the dark history of child sexual abuse by local clergy members documented more than 600 victims of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, the full report, including the names of the priests, has not been made public, but has remained sealed under state grand jury law. The effort to release the full report continues to be fought in court, with the Archdiocese funding lawyers trying to kept the grand jury proceedings under seal.

Fire Chief Resigns After Flames Break Out in Southwest Baltimore and Abell

Two major fires broke out this year in Baltimore. In January, flames engulfed a South Stricker Street rowhome that partially collapsed as a result, trapping six firefighters. Three were killed, two were rescued, and one was hospitalized after sustaining major injuries. In June, three injuries occurred after an Abell home displaying Pride decor was set ablaze in what appeared to be a hate crime. Earlier this month, following the release of a report on January’s fatal flames—which offered suggestions to prevent a similar tragedy—Baltimore Fire Chief Niles Ford swiftly resigned.

Adnan Syed’s opportunity for another day in court will have to wait a little longer. Early Monday morning, the Supreme Court rejected Syed’s appeal to reverse a Maryland Court of Appeals decision that reinstated his conviction for the murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee in 1999. Lee was his former girlfriend and a fellow senior at Woodlawn High School at the time of her death. Syed, whose case gained national notoriety through the podcast Serial and a subsequent HBO documentary series, The Case Against Adnan Syed, has been serving a life sentence since 2000.

From the beginning, the appeal—a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in August—was a bit of a long shot. Justices hear just 2 percent of all cases submitted to the nation’s highest court each year.

Syed’s case has been through Baltimore and Maryland courts several times throughout the past five years. Syed’s arguments for why he should be granted a new trial are explored both in Serial and the HBO series. Essentially, issue has been taken with Jay Wilds, whose inconsistent testimony has raised questions about the details of the case; malpractice on the part of Syed’s former lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez; and DNA evidence that did not match Syed or anyone in the system.

Syed’s nearly 20-year quest for acquittal has had many twists and turns. Prior to the Supreme Court decision, the last major development in the case was the March 8 Maryland Court of Appeals decision. And while this latest ruling is another setback for his defense team, Rabia Chaudry, Syed’s longtime family friend and advocate, asserted Monday that things are far from over.

As for specific action, Syed’s lawyer C. Justin Brown has not publicly announced what path the defense will take moving forward, but he told The Sun that he feels there are still options open.

At a screening of the final episode of the HBO series in April, Brown was firm in just how far he and his colleagues are willing to go to fight for their client.

“If the Supreme Court doesn’t hear it, then we’ll try to go to federal court, and if the federal court doesn’t hear it, we’ll go back to Baltimore City Circuit Court, and we’ll keep going,” Brown said in April. “As long as we have support, as long as we believe in Adnan and we believe in his innocence, there’s no reason we’re going to stop.”

The latest chapter in the saga of the murder of Hae Min Lee and conviction of Adnan Syed for the crime came to a close last night with the finale of HBO’s The Case Against Adnan Syed, which director Amy Berg and her team worked on for three-and-a-half years.

Through interviews, research, and a team of private investigators and experts, Berg has constructed a solid argument for Syed getting a new trial, if not his innocence. Before the final episode, “Time is the Killer,” aired on HBO, the Landmark Theatre in Harbor East hosted a premiere of the finale featuring a panel discussion with Berg, attorney C. Justin Brown, and former Baltimore City prosecutor Ivan Bates, moderated by Marc Steiner.

For those attempting to keep track of the twists and turns of a case that has now stretched across 20 years, here’s some of the key points we learned from the finale and post-show panel. Many, many spoilers ahead.

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The fingerprints

Fingerprints left on Hae Min Lee’s car did not match Syed, or anyone else whose prints are in the system. This means whoever they belong to has never been booked by law enforcement.

The autopsy

Fulton County, Georgia, medical examiner Jan Gorniak examined the autopsy report and other details regarding Lee’s body and posited that she may have been somewhere other than Leakin Park for eight to 12 hours before she was buried. This change in the timeline is based primarily on a phenomenon called “lividity” during which blood settles in the body differently depending on how it is positioned.

Jay Wilds’ testimony

Wilds declined to be interviewed for The Case Against Adnan Syed, but according to Berg, when they spoke he discussed several points that contradict his previous statements (Wilds has contradicted himself many times before), including that the police coached him to say that he first saw Lee’s body in the parking lot of Best Buy and that Syed had asked him to provide 10 pounds of marijuana, which Syed then allegedly used to blackmail Wilds into helping bury Lee’s body.

Hae Min Lee’s car

Turf physiologist Erik Ervin’s testing and analysis of the grassy area where Lee’s car was parked was not conclusive. But Ervin did state that, based on the freshness of detritus on the tires and the turf below it, he believed the car had been there for a week at most. This hypothesis is supported by interviews private investigators hired by Berg conducted with a longtime resident of the area where the car was parked.

What comes next

The series ends with the March 8 ruling in the Maryland Court of Appeals that reinstated Syed’s conviction, meaning that his hopes for a new trial are on hold for the moment. But this is not the end of Syed’s legal fight.

“Other courts have found ineffective assistance of counsel when an attorney fails to contact an alibi witness who was neutral and who provided an alibi for the time of the murder. So it was absolutely stunning to us that Maryland is now the outlier on this issue. We did not see that coming,” said Justin Brown following the March 28 premiere at the Landmark.

When asked where completing the series has left her, Berg also stated her surprise over the ruling. “I mean, we expected to be in a different place tonight, so it’s hard to kind of imagine,” said Berg. “This turn kind of casts a dark light on the story. So, we’re not done obviously.”

The same day the finale premiered in Harbor East, the results of DNA tests mentioned in the film were also released. Several pieces of evidence previously went untested, partially due to concerns from the defense team that Syed’s DNA could be present Lee’s car or on her person because they had remained friends after their breakup. “If anyone has been holding it back, it has been me, because I have been concerned that it could potentially be misinterpreted,” said Brown. “But finally an opportunity arose to do it.” None of the recovered evidence contained DNA matching Syed’s.

Brown said that the team would go as far as the Supreme Court to try to get Syed his new trial and was met with a roar of applause from the packed theater, which included the filmmakers, Syed’s legal team, Rabia Chaudry, Syed’s friends and family, and many of those interviewed for the documentary series. Brown followed with another promise.

“If the Supreme Court doesn’t hear it, then we’ll try to go to federal court, and if the federal court doesn’t hear it, we’ll go back to Baltimore City Circuit Court, and we’ll keep going,” he said. “As long as we have support, as long as we believe in Adnan and we believe in his innocence, there’s no reason we’re going to stop.”

Almost exactly 20 years ago, Hae Min Lee’s body was found in Leakin Park on a sunny February day, and the details of how she ended up there still remain unclear. It’s a case that was first made famous by Serial and continues to fuel podcasts, Reddit threads, and groups of armchair sleuths across the world.

Adnan Syed was convicted of first degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment in 2000 and sentenced to life imprisonment plus 30 years for the crimes. But there are many who say the case was, at best, mishandled and, at worst, a possible wrongful conviction. The case is currently being considered by the Maryland Court of Appeals, but the latest development in The State of Maryland v. Adnan Syed comes not from the courtroom, but from HBO.

The new documentary series The Case Against Adnan Syed, set to premiere March 10 and directed by Academy Award nominee Amy Berg, both revisits the sources those following the case have come to know (Rabia Chaudry, Asia McClain, Kristi Vincent) and explores new information and developments in the case, such as cell phone record inaccuracies and unexplored leads. Perhaps its greatest strength is the complete picture it paints of many lives impacted by the case, including the one often lost in discussion of the new developments: Lee herself. Berg has taken great care to bring Hae Min Lee’s voice into the story, using her journal and animation to make Lee feel present in her own story, even though she can no longer speak for herself.

We spoke with Berg about revisiting the case, finding balance in the story, and where she would like Syed’s case to go from here.

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This is a case so many people are invested in and familiar with. Why did you want to add your voice to the conversation?
I was approached by Working Title Films, and they had optioned the rights to Rabia Chaudry’s book. I had listened to the podcast and was really interested in knowing more. It’s an unsatisfying case in a lot of ways, and I wanted to dig in and see what else I could figure out. I also thought there was a great need for a visual depiction of this story, because it was all in audio online. Baltimore is such a unique place and there was really a lot to dig into visually for me.

The series feels different than other true crime documentaries I’ve watched in that the victim, Hae Min Lee, feels very present. Was there an intention to give her more of a voice?
There’s a balance that we need to comprehend, especially in documentary in true crime cases, because there are two sides to the story. There’s a family on both sides that I want to respect. When I started speaking to Hae Min Lee’s friends, and when we spoke to her family’s representative, I realized there was so much more to Hae than what I had known previously. And I was lucky enough to have her journal from the original trial case file. I just wanted to make sure she had a voice, because obviously if there was an injustice in Baltimore, Hae Min Lee would have wanted the truth to come out as well just based on the way her friends described her and who she was.

It would be nice if there was a way to find closure for both sides of this family, of this story. I’m sure that there was a certain status of closure in 2000 for Hae’s family. But I’m sure that the more issues that keep coming up, it probably creates more pain for them. It’s difficult, but if there was a wrongful conviction, it has to come out. The case that was out forth doesn’t fit the evidence that was presented. So there’s a problem to begin with.

One of the ways you do that is through animation of some of her diary entries and experiences. Can you tell me a little about how those scenes came to be?
I had recently seen this film The Diary of a Teenage Girl and I was really moved by the animations in that film. So when I started thinking about how to bring Hae to life, I reached out to the woman who did the animations for that film and found this incredible partner in telling this story. She stayed on the project for three and a half years with me, and we really created a great narrative for Hae together.

You’re dealing with a story that’s 20 years in the making and one that has been analyzed by so many people. How did you begin when crafting your own version?
We began in November 2015, and I started with the case file and the state’s case to convict Adnan Syed, as well as the wealth of resources I was able to establish with both friends of Hae and Adnan. I just started with that and let the story expand from there. We brought in some private investigators to help us when we had a strong comprehension of the case and elaborated from there, but I wanted to keep it true to the people who know it.

How did you go about sourcing the series and gathering some of these new voices?
We started with the case and the people closest to Adnan and Hae, and then we tracked the current day events starting from the [post-conviction relief] hearing to the most recent appeal. And then our investigation led us to people who were new to this case, to people who maybe heard Serial or heard about the case and knew someone later in life. So we did have access to new voices in the film.

Was there a part of your investigation that really surprised you?
I think the true travesty in this three-and-a-half-year journey that I took, and I guess it’s very similar with many other cases where there might be a wrongful conviction, is the absence of the actual prosecutors and detectives that tried the case originally. I don’t understand. Prosecutors are supposed to be seeking justice, and I don’t understand this lack of interest in trying to find the truth. I think it’s really unfortunate. Maybe it’s not that surprising, but I think it’s wrong.

Why do you think people have remained so interested in this case?
The case leaves you with so many questions. It’s not satisfying in that sense. It didn’t feel like the detectives or the case did a thorough deep dive into this murder to see what really happened. And things just don’t line up. And when things don’t line up, you want to understand what really happened.

Is that the goal of The Case Against Adnan Syed, to understand how this all happened?
A beautiful young woman was murdered. She left school and was never seen or heard from again. So understanding and hopefully putting closure to this whole story for many people would be very satisfying. But you know, I’m not sure that will ever happen.

In an ideal world, what happens next in this case?
Well, in an ideal world, Adnan Syed would get a new trial. He’s won a new trial twice now in two courts. But my fear is that that will never happen and the film will become the trial that he didn’t ever receive. So that’s the kind of reality of it. But it would be nice if he could get a new trial so that he could actually get exonerated if the case goes that direction. Because with the evidence that is available to the public, there just isn’t enough evidence to convict somebody today.

HBO is teaming up with Sky for new documentary series The Case Against Adnan Syed, which will revisit the 1999 murder of Baltimore County teen Hae Min Lee and the trial of her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed. 

Whether or not Syed committed the crime has been a topic of public debate since Sarah Koenig launched the hit podcast Serial, which chronicled the story of the murder and trial, in 2014. Syed was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison. However, The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled in March that Syed’s attorney failed to call a key alibi witness and ordered that his conviction be thrown out. Prosecutors are now asking the Maryland Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court’s ruling, and it could be months before a decision is made as to whether the conviction will stand or Syed will receive a new trial.

Throughout his trial and during his imprisonment, attorney and family-friend Rabia Chaudry has remained a staunch supporter of Syed. It was Chaudry who originally brought the story to Koenig, and it seems she’s on board with director Amy Berg’s new look at the case.

“There are no coincidences: it was Amy Berg’s documentary West Of Memphis that I watched one night on Netflix, turned off the TV & got online to search for a reporter to investigate Adnan’s case,” Chaudry tweeted after the HBO announcement was made. “I found that reporter same night, Sarah Koenig. Now Amy is directing this series.”

Berg is also known for her 2006 documentary Deliver Us from Evil, about sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

In production since 2015, the documentary series claims to present “new discoveries, as well as groundbreaking revelations that challenge the state’s case” and will feature exclusive access to Syed and his family, the defense team, friends and teachers of Syed and Lee, and Baltimore law enforcement per HBO. It will also feature original music from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

The series’ air date has not yet been released.

The question, “Who killed Hae Min Lee?” was on the minds of many across the country as this Baltimore murder case, and defendant Adnan Syed, became the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial. Attorney Rabia Chaudry has an inside view, as a close family-friend of Syed’s who initially brought the case to Serial producer Sarah Koenig’s attention. Her book, Adnan’s Story, details her work to get his conviction overturned, and she joined us to talk about the process, the podcast, and what went wrong in the case.

How does it feel to be a published author?
I feel like I haven’t had the time to let it sink in yet. I had some friends over last night and I gave them each a copy because I had a bunch of author copies and they kept saying, ‘Rabia, you have a book,’ and I was like, ‘Huh?’ I also think it’s also because my head is really in the space of what’s happening in Adnan’s case. Right now, what’s occupying my brain is that his conviction was vacated. I’m so glad I did the book and he was a part of it, but I’m still thinking about the case.

And the news that a judge ordered him a new trial in June makes the book that much more relevant right now.
I’m very thankful. There was a part of me wondered how it would feel if the book came out and we had gotten a ruling in which we lost. It really would have felt horrible.

At what point in the process of his case did you decide to write this book?
Serial was ongoing and I was blogging along with it, and, I think it was maybe six or seven weeks in, when a literary agent called me who had been listening to Serial and reading my blog and had taken a look at other things I had written. She said, ‘Hey, have you thought about writing a book?’ And I had not at all. In fact, I wasn’t interested. I was exhausted and overwhelmed. But what she made clear was that somebody was going to write the book about this case and I was in the best position to do it. That was an argument I couldn’t dispute, but I did talk about it with Adnan. It was stressful for Serial to control the narrative, and it could be just anybody to come in and write the book. I told him, ‘If you give me permission and if you’re ok with it, I’ll do it.’ And he said, ‘Do it.’

When did you decide to get involved with Adnan’s case?
Not from the beginning at all. I was in law school and I lived in Virginia. He had an attorney. It was right after he was convicted. It literally might have been the same day or a few days after. Because I was like, ‘What happened here?’ I wasn’t able to attend a lot of the first trial, just the last few days. It was astonishing how this happened because I could tell the state didn’t have a case. So right afterwards, I told him that it literally came down to the time after school, he had to account for himself for a half hour, and how could he and his lawyer fail to do that? That’s when he told me he’d gotten letters from Asia McClain, and she said she specifically remembered seeing him in the library that day. But Adnan said his lawyer had called her and it didn’t check out. So I told Adnan to give me her contact information, and when I met with her, she told me nobody had ever contacted her. That’s when I realized what had happened here, and I got involved. It was shocking.

You’ve been working on this case for years. How do you keep yourself motivated to keep going?
I know him personally. You can’t walk away from somebody you know and care about. For years, it was about the post conviction. We kept thinking once we had the post conviction, we get Asia in front of a judge, that’s it. It was a huge failure on the part of his lawyer, it basically proves his innocence. It took a long time to file the post conviction, and when Asia didn’t show up and refused to cooperate, then we had to think of another plan of action. That’s when I decided to go to the media.

What was it like for Adnan’s case to be on Serial, and then have the podcast end in the inconclusive way that it did?
I really envy everyone who got to listen to Serial and love it and be enthralled by it. For me and Adnan’s loved ones, it was horribly stressful. For us, it was like Serial or bust, this is our last big chance and we might not get another opportunity. We spent almost a year with Sarah thinking, ‘There’s no way that she can look at all of this and not say he’s innocent.’ That would have been what we were looking for. But more than that, what we were hoping for was that she would uncover some evidence that would move the case forward. It was a relief when it was over. We had no idea what she was going to talk about, who she was going to talk to, what she found. We weren’t privy to that.

The last time she came to interview me, a week or two before the end, she said she hadn’t found a smoking gun. And I remember thinking, ‘Should I ask her, should I ask her?’ and then I just did. I said, ‘Sarah, what do you think? Do you think he’s guilty?’ And she told me that in her heart she thinks he’s innocent. And we weren’t being recorded when this conversation took place. But that’s not where she left off in the podcast himself. She said she didn’t think he should have been convicted, which to me is a little bit different. I don’t know why there is that discrepancy between what she said to us and what she said in the podcast.

Why do you think she and others haven’t been able to find a so-called smoking gun, and why has the case gone the way it has?
This is very typical of cold cases left untouched for decades. You’re talking about trying to find evidence that’s not nailed down 16 years ago, to go back and now talk to witnesses and get cell phone records that should have existed in the file. If the investigation had been done thoroughly in 1999, we wouldn’t be struggling now. I’m convinced there was evidence that police found that they got rid of. For example, Adnan’s incoming cell records. Who makes a request to a cell phone company saying they only want his outgoing calls? How could they not have gotten Hae Min Lee’s pager records? It doesn’t make sense, and now we can’t get them. Even if Sarah didn’t find a smoking gun, we have found a couple of real serious pieces of evidence.

Do you blame anyone in particular for the path the case took?
There’s enough blame to go around. If any single party had done their job, this result wouldn’t have been reached. If the police had thoroughly investigated, Adnan would never have been charged. The prosecutor played really dirty and didn’t give the defense the documents they needed. In the book, I talk about Adnan’s defense attorney telling the court she doesn’t know what time the prosecution is alleging the murder took place. But [Christina] Gutierrez, the defense attorney, also failed. If I didn’t know what the state’s theory of the case was, I could check news reports and do my best to build a case for my client.

What is your view on the testimony of Jay Wilds, who told the court he helped Adnan dispose of Hae’s body?
If you look at local convictions, you’ll find that false confessions, even false confessions against yourself, are a very common component. There are people who falsely confess that they committed murder. The police in this case have been implicated in other similar Baltimore city cases in which it was found that they coerced witnesses. In the book, I mention that Jay was told, ‘It’s either you or him. Either we’re going to charge you with the murder, or him.’ Jay’s story keeps changing, because every time there was more evidence, the police had to go back to him and his story would change with the new evidence. All these years I thought Jay might actually have done it, because he knew details of the crime. But he didn’t know anything—he knew what the police knew, and as the police knew more he knew more. That’s such an obvious indication, and we’ve had experts look at this, and they say this has hallmarks of when a witness is being fed information about the case.

What’s it been like for Adnan through this process?
It’s been emotionally difficult for him, but obviously, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy exposing yourself to the media and scrutiny. There’s a purpose for it, and that was to get him another chance in court, and it worked. If we had done this and it hadn’t worked, there might have been some regret from us, but there’s no regret. It was worth it. He’s doing well, we talk all the time. Now, we’re starting to think about issues we never thought we’d think about, like re-entry and what he’s going to do when he gets out. We don’t know what the state is going to do, but I’m confident either way that he will come home fairly soon.

How has this affected his family?
His parents are overjoyed. But with the joy, there’s always going to be a sense of grief and pain that it took 17 years of his life. He grew up in prison—now he’s 35, and I think we’re all a little worried about him adjusting. I’m always going to hold anger about this.

Who do you think killed Hae?
That’s not a question that I’m prepared to answer, first of all because it’s a live, ongoing investigation, but I think in the book I make a clear argument for where the investigation, if it’s re-opened, should begin, and that’s with her boyfriend at the time, Don.

Adnan is Muslim, and of Pakistani descent. What role do you think race and religion played in his case?
I’m not saying that if he wasn’t Muslim they wouldn’t have charged him, but I do think they used his religion and his ethnicity against him. You cannot make the argument that it didn’t matter, because if it didn’t matter, it wouldn’t have been mentioned. There was a purpose in bringing it up over and over.

What do you hope changes because of Adnan’s case?
There are immediate repercussions I want to see in my lifetime, and that’s for Adnan to come home. I want him to be made as whole as much as he possibly can. I want to see the prosecutors in this case be disbarred. I want to see the cops pay for this. But there’s no accountability in the system. You can’t get away with things like coercing witnesses in other occupations. I want accountability.