Court Reinstates Late Aaron Hernandez’s Murder Conviction

Court Reinstates Late Aaron Hernandez’s Murder Conviction
Massachusetts' highest court on March 13, 2019, reinstated Hernandez's murder conviction, scrapping a legal principle that had erased it after he killed himself in prison in April 2017. Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
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BOSTON—Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction was reinstated on March 13 in a sweeping ruling from Massachusetts’ highest court that does away with the legal principle that made the former NFL star innocent in the eyes of the law after he killed himself in prison.

The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously found that the legal rule that erased Hernandez’s conviction is “outdated and no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life.” It ordered that Hernandez’s conviction be restored and that the practice be abolished for future cases. The ruling does not affect past cases.