Serial Host Stunned by 'Longshot' Ruling

So how did Serial host Sarah Koenig react when she heard that the subject of her podcast's first season, Adnan Syed, was granted a new trial? She and Serial executive producer Julie Snyder were Skyping at the time, "and both of us did exactly the same involuntary thing of sucking in our breath and then putting our hands over our mouths," Koenig writes on the Serial blog. "We weren’t so much shocked because of the legal arguments, but because it was such a longshot, this outcome."

She recalls her first conversation with Syed two and a half years ago, soon after the same judge who just vacated his murder conviction had actually denied his request for post-conviction relief. Despite that news, Syed was optimistic, thinking, "If only someone would take another look..." Koenig writes. "Since that call, many people—reporters, attorneys, detectives, technical and legal experts—have taken another look. And in a 58-page opinion released June 30, boy oh boy did Judge Welch take another look." Click for her full post. (More Adnan Syed stories.)