In the eyes of the state of Massachusetts, former Patriots star Aaron Hernandez died an innocent man thanks to an archaic legal principle called “abatement ab initio,” said Martin W. Healy, chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts Bar Association.
Though Hernandez was convicted in 2014 of murdering Odin Lloyd, Hernandez’s appeal was not complete. Abatement ab initio means “from the beginning,” Healy said, and it means that upon a person’s death, if they have not exhausted their legal appeals, their case reverts to its status at the beginning — it is as if the trial and conviction never happened.