Judge Vacates Aaron Hernandez Murder Conviction; Effect On Civil Lawsuit Uncertain

May 09--A judge Tuesday vacated Aaron Hernandez's conviction for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd because the former New England Patriots star from Bristol died while his appeal was pending.

It is unclear if the decision will have implications for the pending civil lawsuit against Hernandez's estate filed by Lloyd's mother. Her lawyer has Tuesday he did not believe a vacated murder conviction would affect the civil case.

The legal principle that reversed Hernandez's conviction posthumously is known as "abatement ab initio" -- a Latin phrase meaning "from the beginning" -- and dates to when Massachusetts was a British colony.

The abatement doctrine states that it is discriminatory to a defendant or survivors to allow a conviction to stand before they have a chance to fully appeal it. Hernandez hanged himself in a Massachusetts prison last month.

The prosecutor said Massachusetts would appeal the ruling.

"Aaron Hernandez did consciously and voluntarily take his own life. He died a guilty man and a convicted murderer," said Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn. "You can't just snap your fingers and say he wasn't convicted and an antiquated, medieval doctrine shouldn't change that."

Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, attended the hearing.

"I know you are looking for me to be angry but I am not. In our book he is guilty and will always be guilty," Ward said as she fought back tears during a brief press conference outside the courthouse. "No one wins today. One day I will get to see my son and that is the victory I am going to take with me."

Judge E. Susan Garsh ruled abatement doctrine is well established in Massachusetts and other states. She said it has been practiced for more than a century.

She said the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was incorrect that the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected the doctrine.

Garsh mentioned that the Commonwealth argued Hernandez's intention when he killed himself was to abandoned his right to appeal. But she rejected that position, saying the cases the Commonwealth used to argue the point were not relevant to this case.

She said it is unclear why Hernandez killed himself and that a recently released correction department report provides no clear evidence of his motive. The Commonwealth had pointed to part of a correction department report that said inmates had heard Hernandez talk about the abatement doctrine.

Garsh said that there were inmates who also told investigators Hernandez had become spiritual and a religious motive can't be dismissed. She also brought up rumors that he was gay as possible motive for suicide.

Earlier, lawyer John Thompson told Garsh the prosecution had presented no evidence that would require the conviction to stand.

"This is not a final conviction," he said. "And that's what matters."

Quinn had opposed the motion to vacate Hernandez's conviction. Garsh sentenced Hernandez in 2015 to life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty of the murder.

Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez. Lloyd's mother is attending the hearing.

Prosecutors argued in a brief filed last week that erasing the convictions of Hernandez would "reward [his] conscious, deliberate and voluntary act," adding that he had a poor chance of overturning his conviction in the appeal process.

There is no constitutional right or statutory right to abatement, prosecutor Patrick Bomberg told the judge Tuesday.

"It is a practice," he said. "There is no reason to apply abatement in this case."

Hernandez's lawyer was asking the judge to return him to the presumption of innocence, he said.

"This is not a defendant who has arrived at killing himself by happenstance; that is not what the evidence shows," said Bomberg. "The defendant should not be able to accomplish in death what he could not accomplish in life."

The abatement doctrine has been used previously in high-profile Massachusetts cases.

In 2003, former priest John Geoghan was murdered in prison and the court vacated his conviction for indecent assault and battery. They also ordered the original indictment in the case dismissed. Geoghan was accused of molesting as many as 150 boys while he was a priest. He was serving a sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy when he was killed in his cell.

John Salvi, convicted of murdering two abortion clinic workers in a 1994 Boston shooting rampage, killed himself in 1996 and his conviction was vacated in early 1997.

After the Salvi case, some Massachusetts legislators tried unsuccessfully to change the law.

Last month Hernandez, 27 at the time of his death, was acquitted in a separate trial of murdering Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside of a Boston nightclub in 2012.

Less than a week after that court victory, Hernandez was found hanging by a bedsheet in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass.

Ward's lawyer, Douglas Sheff, said he did not believe Garsh's decision would effect the civil lawsuit.

"The abatement issue doesn't impact our case because we already have a summary judgment in our favor," he said.

The suit does not specify the amount of damages Ward is seeking from Hernandez. Her lawyers had asked a court to set aside and reserve some of Hernandez's assets, including the house he owns in North Attleboro, Mass. and payments of $3.25 million and $82,000 that are subjects of a labor grievance the NFL Player's Association brought against the Patriots on Hernandez's behalf.

Sheff said he was interested to learn that in Hernandez's suicide note to fiancés Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, he wrote "youre Rich."

"We have already wanted to learn if there are other assets and now that we can move forward with discovery in our case we can try and find where the money may be," he said.

Sheff said it is unclear what the ruling will have on the Patriots payments.

"What happens in civil matters isn't part of the criminal process," Linda Thompson, one of Hernandez's appellate lawyers, said Tuesday. "What his death has to do with civil cases or with the Pats I can't say."

Hernandez's death has been ruled a suicide by the Worcester district attorney's office, although his family is conducting its own investigation and have said they don't believe he killed himself.

State police released a 71-page report last week concluding that it was a suicide.

Investigators found three handwritten notes next to a Bible in Hernandez's cell and the message John 3:16 written on the wall, apparently in his own blood, the Massachusetts State Police have reported. Hernandez also wrote John 3:16 on his forehead, highlighted a passage in an open Bible and drew circular marks on each of his feet, all using his own blood, according to police.

The source appeared to be a fresh cut on his right middle finger.

One of those notes was to Jenkins Hernandez.

"I told you what was coming indirectly! I love you so much and know you are an angel -- Eternally," Hernandez wrote to Jenkins. "... This was the supremes, the almightys plan, not mine!"

Investigators have reported that Hernandez jammed cardboard into the door tracks of his cell to prevent anyone from entering. He also slicked the floor with shampoo and hung a second bed sheet outside of his door, blocking officers' view inside, according to the state police report.

Besides his fiancee and daughter, Hernandez was survived by his mother, Terri, and his brother, Jonathan. He was predeceased by his father, Dennis.

It was the death of Dennis in January 2006 that may have changed the trajectory of Hernandez's life. Dennis Hernandez, who played football at UConn in the 1970s, was a popular figure in Bristol and a force in the lives of his sons.

Jonathan, then known as D.J., was playing football at UConn when Aaron Hernandez made an oral commitment to Huskies coach Randy Edsall in the summer of 2005. But months later Dennis Hernandez died of complications from hernia surgery.

In April 2007, Aaron Hernandez surprised his family when he announced he was committing to the University of Florida.

Hernandez finished his college career with 111 receptions for 1,382 yards and 12 TDs. He declared for the NFL draft in 2010 and was selected by the Patriots in the fourth round, even though he was viewed as a first or second round talent.

His draft stock fell because Hernandez failed drug tests for marijuana.

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