Sorry if this was posted already, but I haven't scrolled through more than a page or two of this thread. But I read this from the Boston Globe and just had to share. This is messed up!
In wake of suicide, Aaron Hernandez conviction will be voided - The Boston Globe
Though Hernandez was convicted in 2014 of murdering Odin Lloyd of Boston, 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’s as if the trial and conviction never happened.
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“In the court of public opinion, Hernandez, Salvi, and Geoghan will be judged accordingly,” said Healy. “But in a court of law, under legal principles, [Hernandez] died an innocent man.”
SMH