Per Georgetown University: On Dec. 12, Syed began work as a program associate for the Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI), a Georgetown organization that addresses the root causes and consequences of mass incarceration and offers educational programs and training for incarcerated individuals and returning citizens. In his new role, Syed supports PJI programming, including Georgetown’s Making an Exoneree class, in which students reinvestigate decades-old wrongful convictions, create short documentaries about the cases and work to help bring innocent people home from prison.
Syed’s own story was reinvestigated and brought to the attention of millions of listeners after Serial, a podcast from the creators of This American Life, uncovered new details in his case in 2014. Syed had been arrested and wrongfully convicted of the murder of his high school classmate, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. This fall, a judge vacated his life sentence and a month later, prosecutors announced they were dismissing charges against Syed based on newly tested DNA evidence that excluded him. Syed was represented by Erica Suter (L’03), who directs the University of Baltimore’s Innocence Project Clinic, and he was later added to the National Registry of Exonerations.
In the year leading up to his release, Syed had been one of 25 incarcerated students in Georgetown’s inaugural Bachelor of Liberal Arts program at a Maryland prison. In his new job at PJI, Syed hopes to continue his Georgetown education and eventually go to law school. But most of all, he wants to give incarcerated individuals the sense of hope and educational opportunities that he received. He knows firsthand how much it helps. “To go from prison to being a Georgetown student and then to actually be on campus on a pathway to work for Georgetown at the Prisons and Justice Initiative, it’s a full circle moment,” he said. “PJI changed my life. It changed my family’s life. Hopefully I can have the same kind of impact on others.”
Featured photo by @joshrodriguezfilms