BALTIMORE (AP) – A defendant awaiting retrial for the slaying of his high school girlfriend and whose story was the center of a popular podcast is asking to be released from prison.

Justin Brown is a lawyer representing Adnan Syed. In a motion filed Monday, he wrote that Syed should be released while awaiting retrial because he poses “no danger to the community” and has already served 17 years in prison “based on an unconstitutional conviction for a crime he did not commit.”

Syed was convicted in 2000 of strangling 17-year-old Hae Min Lee. His story became the centerpiece for the “Serial” podcast, and a judge in June granted Syed a new trial because his attorney failed to cross-examine an expert witness about cell tower data linking Syed to the crime scene.