High school picture of Adnan Syed, convicted murderer and subject of the popular "Serial" podcast, taken in 1999. Syed's key alibi witness, Asia McClain Chapman, testified she saw him in the school library at the time of Hae Min Lee's death, but two witnesses have since come forward to say Chapman would lie about the alibi. File Photo courtesy The Adnan Syed Trust
BALTIMORE, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Two witnesses said they would testify that an alibi witness would lie in court to help Adnan Syed win his case, an appeal of a murder conviction profiled in the Serial podcast.
Two former Woodlawn High School classmates, who are sisters, gave sworn statements to the Maryland Attorney General's Office questioning statements given by Syed's alibi witness, Asia McClain Chapman. They recalled an in-class argument in 1999 in which Chapman said she believed Syed was innocent and said she wanted to help him.
Syed was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
Lee went missing in January 1999 and her strangled body was found in a shallow grave in a Baltimore park a month later. Chapman testified this year that she saw Syed at a school library during the time prosecutors believe Lee was killed.
Syed was granted a new trial on different grounds. The Maryland Attorney General's Office has appealed against a new trial, but Chapman's testimony could be used during the process.
In a court document made public Monday, Chapman and Syed's former classmates told the Maryland Attorney General's Office that Chapman would "make up a lie" because she "believed so much in Adnan's innocence."
"Chapman's story about seeing Adnan in the library the day Hae was killed is a lie," the witnesses said in sworn statements.
The two witnesses recently exchanged Facebook message conversations with Chapman. In one message, one of the sisters said she could not believe Chapman's alibi would have been heeded.
"I've sat back and let you have your 15 minutes of fame on behalf of that poor girl because I didn't think anyone would actually [entertain] you or your fabricated story about seeing him in the library," one of the witnesses said, according to court documents.
