The ruling could have a potential impact on Hernandez’s daughter seeking compensation and a pension from his football career, as well as protecting whatever remains of Hernandez’s estate from civil suits.
On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down the controversial state doctrine of abatement ab initio, a rule that allows for convictions to be thrown out if the convicted die while the case is still under appeal.
That ruling has potential ramifications for Hernandez’s daughter to seek compensation and a pension from his football career, as well as protect whatever remains of Hernandez’s estate from civil suits from the Lloyd family. The elimination of the doctrine, the court ruled, should not merely be practiced going forward, but appeal to the specific Hernandez case brought as the centerpiece of this argument.
While the court didn’t make a determination of why Hernandez decided to kill himself, it wrote in a footnote about the possibility, which for Hernandez or prisoners going forward was concerning and counter to the intent of the law. Hernandez was found guilty by a Bristol County jury that heard a spirited and expensive defense across eight weeks of trial. The evidence, which included Hernandez’s own home security footage, was overwhelming, jurors said. Hernandez was tried under Massachusetts’ “joint venture” law that did not require proof that he pulled the trigger. Two of Hernandez’s friends were also at the murder scene that night.
Hernandez was also charged with two additional murder counts in the 2012 drive-by shootings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston. In that trial, Hernandez’s defense was able to argue there was no evidence that Hernandez was the triggerman rather than just a passenger in the car. It was a classic case of “he said, he said.” He was not charged under “joint venture” in that.
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