With Adnan Syed being released from prison on September 19th after 23 years for the murder of Hae Min Lee, it has been recently announced by HBO Documentary Films that they will be releasing a follow-up episode to the 2019 crime documentary The Case Against Adnan Syed. This will be released on HBO sometime in 2023, with the exact date yet to be released.
HBO's The Case Against Adnan Syed was a four-part series directed by Amy Berg that follows the tragic murder of Lee, who was only 18 years old at the time of her death, and also included the entire court trial and inevitable conviction of Syed, who was Lee's ex-boyfriend. Berg began the production of the follow-up back in February 2021, and she was also present in the court earlier this week when a Baltimore judge overturned Syed's murder conviction.
The Case Against Adnan Syed was even referenced as evidence during a hearing earlier this week. “We knew the end of The Case Against Adnan Syed was not the end of this story, and we’ve been closely following every twist and turn in the case since the series premiered in March 2019,” Berg said in a statement. “It’s gratifying to see many of the questions and issues probed in the original episodes come to bear on the events of this week.”
The Case Against Adnan Syed wasn’t the first to follow Syed's story and the possibility that he may have been wrongly convicted. A 2014 podcast titled Serial also followed the case and was one of the main reasons it was popularized, as it alluded to the fact that there could be corrupt things happening behind the scenes and that the evidence that Syed was convicted on wasn’t concrete. Serial has since also put out a follow-up episode as well, in regard to the major changes that have happened in the case recently.
With the production of The Case Against Adnan Syed already in motion for its follow-up installment, many who are familiar and unfamiliar with the case will definitely be tuning in to grapple with the full story and potential faults in the legal system that led to Syed serving so much time behind bars. It would definitely be promising for Berg to include interviews with Syed himself explaining his grueling experience and what's next for him now that he’s a free man, and this is definitely likely considering how much the docuseries aided in getting him released.
Nonetheless, many will appreciate the dedication Berg has put into the docuseries as she continues to tell the story of Syed, who had his voice silenced for almost two decades.
The Case Against Adnan Syed follow-up will be released on HBO in 2023.
Source: HBO