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Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end who killed himself in a Massachusetts prison on April 19 while serving a life sentence for the killing of Odin Lloyd, had his murder conviction overturned Tuesday. Bristol County Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh said she "has no choice" but to throw out Hernandez's murder conviction and dismiss the charges against him in accordance with Massachusetts state law.
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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court procedurally voids first-degree murder convictions in cases when a defendant dies before their appeal is heard. Hernandez's appeal was still pending when he hanged himself in his cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Mass.
The Bristol County District Attorney's office will appeal Garsh's decision to vacate Hernandez's conviction, saying the abatement is "antiquated." Prosecutors argued that Hernandez's suicide was a calculated move.
"This is not a defendant who has arrived at the killing of himself by happenstance," Patrick Bomberg, a Bristol Assistant District Attorney, told Garsh, via the Boston Globe. "The defendant should not be able to accomplish in death what he couldn't accomplish in life."
On April 15, 2015, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder after the 2013 killing og Lloyd, a semi-professional football player who was dating Hernandez's fiance's sister. Lloyd's body was found in an industrial park about one mile away from Hernandez's home in North Attleboro, Mass.
On April 17 of this year, Hernandez was acquitted of a 2012 double-murder charge in the deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston. Two days later he took his own life. He was 27.
Hernandez played three seasons with the Patriots from 2010 to 2012.
