Periodically, Everyday Law produces two part episodes and the recent appearance by prominent criminal defense attorney, C. Justin Brown resulted in such a phenomenon.
Episode I concerned Justin's years as a war correspondent in the former Yugoslavia. Episode II was all about the case of Adnan Syed and Justin's efforts in the Maryland courts to obtain a new trial for him.
Spoiler alert, Justin and Adnan were successful until they weren't. The Circuit Court for Baltimore County and the intermediate appellate court, The Court of Special Appeals granted Adnan the right to a new trial due to prior ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to interview his alibi witness and to call her at trial.
Maryland's highest court disagreed and overturned the lower Court's decisions thereby terminating efforts in the Maryland courts. Justin discussed how the attention focused on Adnan's case by the podcast "Serial" and the HBO show ''The Case Against Adnan Syed, were helpful in focusing public attention on specific problems with his conviction.
As has been observed in prior discussions on Everyday Law, with Jerry Buting of "Making a Murderer" fame, having the eyes of millions of viewers or listeners on an individual case brings to light facts and evidence that might otherwise be overlooked. The talents of Dean Strang and Jerry Buting are undeniable but they are humans engrossed in their individual cases and inevitably benefit from the observations of the vast audiences to Making A Murderer.
So too, Justin Brown found that public input was of great value. Mr. Syed's fate is now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court and inevitably their decision on whether to accept his appeal will spark controversy. For more listen to: https://everydaylaw.podbean.com/e/justin-brown-part-2/
