Adnan Syed, the subject of the hugely popular podcast "Serial" who was incarcerated for 23 years, has landed an "amazing" job following his overturned conviction.
Georgetown University confirmed that it has employed Adnan, 41, to work as a program associate for the Prisons and Justice Initiative.
In 1999, Adnan was arrested for the murder of ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. About 15 years later, "Serial" investigated his case and raised considerable doubt as to Adnan's criminality. Back in September 2022, a judge overturned Adnan's conviction and he was freed. A few weeks later, prosecutors dropped the charges.
Adnan always maintained his innocence.
In a press release, Georgetown said Adnan was working to support the 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."
The Prisons and Justice Initiative program, the university said, "addresses the root causes and consequences of mass incarceration and offers educational programs and training for incarcerated individuals and returning citizens."
When Adnan was released from prison after more than two decades, photos showed him carrying a Georgetown notebook. At the time, he was one of 25 incarcerated students in Georgetown's inaugural Bachelor of Liberal Arts program.
Education, he said, helped him see beyond the walls of prison.
"For so many years, all we ever did was just wake up and be in prison. This was the first time that we would wake up and go to a classroom. What we learned helped us transcend the walls of the prison," he said in the press release. "We went to these places that our professors would take us, like discussions about philosophy in ancient Greece or ancient Rome. For the first time in 23 years, we didn't feel like we were in prison. We felt like we were college students learning."
Before being locked up, Adnan — who was an honors student as a teen — worked as an EMT while still in high school. The Georgetown gig is his first 9-to-5 job.
"I've never had a job where I get a chance to be on the computer all day," he said. "It's a really normal feeling and an amazing feeling. I'm so grateful for it. Yesterday I was like, I can't wait to do this again tomorrow, you know?"
Adnan added, "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. PJI changed my life. It changed my family's life. Hopefully I can have the same kind of impact on others."