Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin Welch ruled on Thursday that Syed should be granted another trial because his original barrister, Cristina Gutierrez, failed to question a mobile phone tower expert about the reliability of data that had originally placed Syed – now 35 – near the burial site of the victim’s body.

However, Welch disagreed that that Gutierrez's failure to contact witness Asia McClain Chapman would have made a difference to the trial, writing that the cell phone evidence effectively trumped McClain Chapman's alibi for Syed.

Chapman provided new evidence in a post-conviction hearing in February, saying that she and Syed spent 15 minutes together in the library on the day of the murder. Despite trying multiple times to get in touch with Syed’s defence team, she was never called as a witness in his original trial.

It’s finally happening: Adnan Syed of Serial podcast has been granted a retrial