Court urged to end rule that eliminated Hernandez conviction
BOSTON — A legal principle that erased former New England Patriot’s player Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction after he killed himself in prison is outdated, unfair and should not stand, a Massachusetts prosecutor told the state’s highest court Thursday.
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said it doesn’t make sense the former New England Patriots tight end is now innocent in the eyes of the law just because he died before his appeal could be heard. Quinn is urging the court to reinstate Hernandez’s conviction and do away with the legal principle for future cases.
“He goes through a full trial, a jury who speaks for the public convicts him and because he dies, in this case commits suicide, the whole thing is wiped out like it never happened? It’s not fair or just and should be changed,” Quinn told reporters after the hearing.
Hernandez was found guilty in 2015 of killing semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. Two years later, the 27-year-old was found dead in his prison cell days after being acquitted of most charges in a separate double-murder case.
A judge threw out Hernandez’s conviction last year, citing the legal principle that holds that a defendant convicted at trial who dies before an appeal is heard should no longer be considered guilty in the eyes of the law, thereby returning the case to its pretrial status.
Legal experts say the doctrine, rooted in centuries of English law, requires a conviction not be considered final until an appeal can determine whether mistakes were made that deprived the defendant of a fair trial.
John Thompson, Hernandez’s appellate attorney, told the Supreme Judicial Court there’s nothing wrong with the doctrine and the alternatives floated by Quinn are problematic.
“The jury’s decision is not the end-all be-all,” Thompson said. “It is an opinion arrived at by 12 people followed by a process that is subject to defect.”