Former Patriots star Aaron Hernandez's first-degree murder conviction to be reinstated, court rules

The highest court in Massachusetts has ordered Aaron Hernandez’s first-degree murder conviction to be reinstated.

The former New England Patriots star committed suicide in April 2017. He was serving a life sentence in prison for the June 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.

The judges said Tuesday that the Commonwealth’s law automatically vacating the conviction because of Hernandez’s suicide is “outdated.”

“We conclude that the doctrine of abatement ab initio is outdated and no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, if, in fact, it ever was,” the judges wrote.