Aaron Hernandez Murder Conviction Dismissed? Family Denies Gay Rumors, Wants Charge Vacated

Lawyers for former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez officially filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss his murder conviction following his suicide. Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd when he was found hanged in his prison cell Wednesday.

The motion was filed in Massachusetts Superior Court Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the Bristol district attorney’s office, who noted that prosecutors will oppose the motion. Because Hernandez committed suicide, a legal rule known as “abatement” could be invoked, meaning Hernandez would posthumously be pronounced innocent.

Read: The Legal Rule That Could Get Aaron Hernandez's Conviction Overturned

“The idea is that if an appeal hasn’t happened, there’s a chance the conviction has an error in it,” Rosanna Cavallo, a professor at Suffolk University, told CNN after Hernandez’s death. “Rather than have someone with that incomplete decision that they’re guilty, the state chooses to say the conviction is abated as if it never happened.”

Should Hernandez’s conviction be overturned, the NFL could owe his estate millions. William Kennedy, an attorney who represented one of the men who Hernandez was acquitted of murdering, told Boston’s CBS affiliate that the New England Patriots could be obligated to pay the $3.5 million bonus Hernandez lost as a result of his arrest for murder in 2013. On top of that, they could owe Hernandez $2.5 million in base salary he was never paid following the arrest.

Read: NFL Could Owe Aaron Hernandez's Estate Millions

Hernandez’s lawyers and family also denied rumors that the former tight end was involved in a gay relationship while in prison. Following his death, reports emerged that Hernandez left a suicide note for his alleged lover.

“Rumors of letters to a gay lover, in or out of prison, are false,” Hernandez’ lawyer, Jose Baez, told TMZ Sports. “These are malicious leaks used to tarnish somebody who is dead.”