Former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez attends a pre-trial hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015. Judge Jeffrey Locke agreed to postpone the double murder trial of Hernandez while prosecutors try to get their hands on evidence now held by a law firm that previously represented him. Hernandez is accused in the 2012 killings of two Boston men. He was convicted this year in the June 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd. (David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts judge has agreed to erase Aaron Hernandez’s conviction in a 2013 murder because he died before his appeal could be heard.
Judge Susan Garsh ruled Tuesday that a legal doctrine that calls for vacating convictions when a defendant dies before an appeal can be heard was binding precedent. She said she was compelled to follow it.
The former New England Patriots tight end hanged himself in his prison cell last month while serving a life sentence in the killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.
Prosecutors argued that dismissing his murder conviction would reward Hernandez’s decision to take his own life.
Patrick Bomberg said Hernandez “should not be able to accomplish in death what he could not accomplish in life.”
Hernandez’s appellate attorney told the judge that the state’s highest court has applied the legal doctrine “without exception,” even in cases of suicide.
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