Aaron Hernandez is an innocent man as far as the state of Massachusetts is concerned, but the district attorney who prosecuted the former NFL tight end in the Odin Lloyd murder trial is still working to have that changed.
According to CBS Boston, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III has filed an appeal asking a Supreme Court judge to reinstate Hernandez’s murder conviction after it was vacated because of an “archaic rule.”
“This is an archaic rule not based on the Constitution, and it should be changed,” Quinn wrote in the appeal. “A defendant who commits suicide should not be able to manipulate the outcome of his post-conviction proceedings to achieve in death what he would not be able to achieve in life. We are asking the Supreme Judicial Court to address this antiquated rule, which does not serve the public interest.”
Hernandez was convicted of murdering Lloyd in 2013 and sentenced to life in prison in 2015. He was also charged with double-murder stemming from a 2012 incident outside a Boston nightclub, but he was acquitted in April. Less than a week later, Hernandez hung himself inside his prison cell.
One popular theory is that Hernandez killed himself to protect his estate and assure his fiancee and daughter a more secure future. You can read more about that here.
Even if the legal principle that resulted in Hernandez’s conviction being overturned is outdated and “archaic,” it still applied at the time of his death. The decision will likely stand even if the law is changed at some point.
