Aaron Hernandez’s conviction for a 2013 murder will be vacated because Hernandez committed suicide and is no longer around to serve his sentence.
According to ESPN, Judge E. Susan Garsh cited a legal doctrine that vacates convictions when a defendant dies before an appeal in justifying her decision to vacate the conviction of Hernandez for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez committed suicide in his cell last month, leaving a number of questions unanswered in the fallout. Among the questions to answer was what would happen to the conviction.
In the grand scheme of things, nothing changes. A victim is still dead, and now, so is his murderer. Legally speaking, with nobody to serve a conviction despite the guilty party being identified in the court of law, there is nobody left to punish. Tossing away a conviction at this point is essentially like the NCAA vacating wins from the record book. We know what happened, and written documentation on the record won’t change that.
Prosecutors in the case argue by overturning the conviction, Hernandez is rewarded for his decision to take his own life. In essence, prosecutors are suggesting Hernandez is winning the legal battle by being set free in the eyes of the court and spitting in the eyes of justice in the process. That could have ramifications as far as it concerns the Hernandez estate, but that is more likely to be decided in a civil court now, where the family of Lloyd can seek damages from the estate in lieu of simply seeing Hernandez do time behind bars. No amount of money can ever make up for the loss of a family member of course, but this is just how things works in the American judicial system it seems.
The prosecution could file an appeal to a higher court, but the more likely approach now is to file a wrongful death suit instead. Considering Hernandez was already found guilty of the murder of Lloyd, winning a wrongful death lawsuit should be a formality for the prosecution. In the end, it will be the Hernandez family and estate that suffers through dragging out the legal process for what Hernandez did and not the guilty party himself.
[ESPN]
