Serial Podcast May Have Helped Convicted Murderer Win New Appeal
WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories now. A deadly crash involving Bruce Jenner was not caused by paparazzi, according to Los Angeles county sheriff's investigators. They say photographers were not chasing Jenner when his SUV ran into a Lexus from behind. The Lexus van is oncoming traffic on the Pacific coast highway and then was hit by an oncoming car, a Hammer. The drive of the Lexus died. In Monroeville, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh, a 17-year- old has been arrested in connection with a mall shooting that injured three people. Police say the suspect faces adult charges of attempted homicide. According to investigators one of the three people hit by gun fire was the intended targets while the other two were apparently by standers. And public health authorities in Chicago say three more babies have come down with measles, all three attended a Chicago area daycare, where two other children came down with the disease. Officials are unsure whether these cases are linked to the multistate outbreak that began at Disney land in California. And if you have any questions about the measles you can ask them right here on CNN. Just tweet me @fwhitfield #measles. And at 4:00 eastern time, we will put your question to a doctor who will be joining me right here on the set to answer your questions. All right, the wildly popular podcast known as "Serial" may end up helping a convicted killer get a new trial. Each week 12 episodes chronicled in Cliff hanging detail. The inconsistencies in the</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I first met Adnan in person, I was struck by two things, he was way bigger than I expected, barrel-chested and tall. In the photos I had seen he was still a lanky teenager with struggling facial hair and sagging jeans. But now he was 23. He spent nearly half of his life in prison. And the second thing which you can't miss avoid Adnan is that he has giant brown eyes, like a dairy cow. That's</s>WHITFIELD: All right, I want to bring in CNN's Nick Valencia who has been following this case. So hugely popular podcast and now the plot thickens.</s>VALENCIA: Absolutely. This story just keeps on giving. It's a story that gripped so many around the world, millions tuning in every week to listening to the potential podcast serial. And now the attention that that show brought to this case has given it new life.</s>VALENCIA (voice-over): This is "Serial," the most talked about podcast in 2014. And now the man at the heart of it is getting a new chance to overturn his conviction. On Friday, the Maryland court of appeals agreed to hear at Adnan Syed's case. A decision based on the claim that</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last time 18-year-old Hayman Lee was seen alive she was here at Woodlawn high school. This past Tuesday she was finally found, a passerby in Leakin Park discovered her body hastily buried in a shallow grave.</s>VALENCIA: Syed became a familiar name to millions around the world last year because of journalist Sarah Koenig who focused her podcast on the 199 Baltimore murder case.</s>SARAH KOENIG, JOURNALIST: Something doesn't make sense here in this case. And I don't know where the problem is. And so it really is just me trying to figure that out.</s>VALENCIA: The drama was downloaded a record breaking five million times. But perhaps more importantly, it casts reasonable doubt among listeners that Syed might have been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn't commit.</s>KOENIG: You can take one piece of it and say well that part didn't happen, but that doesn't mean the whole thing -- the entire thing is correct.</s>VALENCIA: On Friday, Syed's attorney tweeted this. We will be heard by the court of special appeals. It's another step in the direction of winning a new trial for Adnan.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would rather say you're a jerk, you're selfish, you're a crazy sob you should just stay in there for the rest of your life except on the future case and I looked, you know, like a little off. You look like something is not right.</s>VALENCIA: While Koenig's podcast may have drawn attention to the case, the wheels were in motion an appeal well before the podcast debut. But now a significant step by the court that will give serial's army of faithful followers a chance at solving the biggest mystery, did Adnan Syed really do it?</s>VALENCIA: This is the first step in what will be no doubt a lengthy process. I spoke earlier to defense attorney who said that the burden is going to be on Syed's defense to one, prove that a mistake was made by his original counsel and two, that that mistake was big enough that it would have changed the outcome of the case. So this is just the first step, Fred. It is going to be a long process.</s>WHITFIELD: And I guess because it's -- because the podcast highly publicized, that too is going to bring another strange component to a new trial.</s>VALENCIA: Absolutely. Everyone who's listened to this show has formed an opinion one way or the other. Sarah Koenig who's the sort of brain child of the show, she says she's not sure actually what happened. So every week, very interesting, she was revealing new details as they were gathering them which made the show as popular as it is.</s>WHITFIELD: Very fascinating. All right, thanks so much for bringing that to us. Nick Valencia, appreciate it. All right, and here we go again. Nick, you've been with us three weekends in a row and doesn't ill feel like a repeat cycle. We are talking about the snow on the way again, and it is going to be pummeling the northeast. Again, Sara Ganim is live for us in Boston -- Sarah.</s>SARA GAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the city of Boston dealing with an unprecedented amount of snow, a budget that is already been spent and up to two feet of snow still on the way. How are they dealing with that coming up.