Md. Supreme Court orders new vacatur hearing in Syed v. Lee

The Supreme Court today affirmed the Appellate Court's decision reinstating Adnan Syed's convictions and ordered that a new vacatur hearing be held.

"In an effort to remedy what they perceived to be an injustice to Mr. Syed, the prosecutor and the circuit court worked an injustice against Mr. Lee by failing to treat him with dignity, respect and sensitivity and in particular, but violating Mr. Lee's rights as a crime victim's representative to reasonable notice of the Vacatur Hearing, the right to attend the hearing in person and the right to be heard on the merits of the Vacatur motion."

WMAR-2 News has been covering this case since the very beginning, when victim Hae Min Lee went missing in January 1999.

RELATED: FROM THE WMAR ARCHIVE: Original coverage of Hae Min Lee's disappearance and murder

The case brought before the state's Supreme Court in October wasn't intended to determine Adnan Syed's innocence or guilt in the murder of Hae Min Lee, but about whether or not Lee's brother, Young Lee, was provided proper notice to a vacatur hearing the year before.

Adnan Syed back in court today

Lee's murder and Syed's trials and conviction attracted the attention of millions when Sarah Koenig started the podcast Serial in 2014.

The now quarter-decade-long saga between Hae Min Lee's initial disappearance and the deeply legal questions the Court has had to consider has had many twists and turns.

WMAR-2 News went In Focus on how we got to the Md. Supreme Court last fall with a half-hour special, The Hae Min Lee Files.

The Hae Min Lee Files

How this will impact the future of victims' rights in Maryland isn't yet clear. DC Attorney Susan Simpson told us last September that this case "is like bizarro land criminal procedure."

This story is breaking and will be updated with more details.