Court to debate conviction pardon for dead inmates
A watershed debate whose outcome will have vastly different consequences for criminals and their victims will be heard by the state’s highest court tomorrow, centered around the absolution of the late Aaron Hernandez’s conviction for the 2013 murder of his friend Odin L. Lloyd.
Prosecutors from Bristol District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn’s office will challenge the Supreme Judicial Court to decide whether abatement ab initio — the state’s common-law practice of forgiving the convictions of inmates who die behind bars while their cases are under appeal — should be stricken as a disservice to victims and society.
And if not, whether the practice should continue to benefit convicts who appear motivated to commit suicide in order to clear their names.
“While such circumstances may be rare, this is not behavior that we as a society want to incentivize,” the prosecutors’ written argument states. Prosecutors do not seek to retroactively reinstate the former New England Patriots tight end’s criminal record.
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is not a party to the case, but has filed an amicus brief along with the Massachusetts Victim and Witness Assistance Board in support of Quinn’s position. The amicus brief also proposes the justices consider adopting an alternative solution to abatement ab initio, such as allowing a representative of the deceased defendant to pursue his or her appeal to its conclusion.
If no representative came forward, verdicts that were under appeal would stand.
Hernandez’s appellate attorneys John and Linda Thompson will argue for the preservation of abatement ab initio, stating in their brief that, “A policy of affirming untested criminal convictions is contrary to Massachusetts values.
“There is no social science study in the record supporting an inference that abrogation of criminal convictions categorically has a negative impact on victims, witnesses or the public at large,” the Thompsons wrote.
Hernandez, 27 and condemned to life in prison, was waiting for the appeal of his 2015 murder and weapon convictions to move forward on April 19, 2017, when he was found hanging in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center just days after his stunning acquittal for the murders of two other men in Boston.