The Boston Globe reported that when asked about the laws concerning immunized witnesses, Judge Locke said that they could not convict Aaron Hernandez of the double-murder based exclusively on the testimony of an immunized witness.
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was found not guilty on Friday in a 2012 double homicide case.
The defense blamed a friend of Hernandez, Alexander Bradley, who was with him that night, claiming that Bradley opened fire on the victims' vehicle as they waited at a stoplight. Deliberations resumed Friday morning. Hernandez has already been convicted in another murder, of Odin L. Lloyd in June 2013.
The jury in the Lloyd case deliberated for 36 hours over seven days before convicting Hernandez of first-degree murder in April 2015.
Authorities said Hernandez fired five shots from a revolver into the vehicle carrying de Abreu and Furtado.
But Suffolk County's district attorney Daniel Conley said he was "disappointed" with the result.
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Hernandez was also acquitted Friday of shooting Bradley in the face months later to try to silence him as a witness.
The jury did find Mr Hernandez guilty of possessing a firearm illegally and for that he will serve four to five years in prison. None of that information was presented to the jury in the double murder trial. Two immigrants from Cape Verde, Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu, were killed. He also highlighted the treatment Hernandez received from Bradley after the Florida shooting, threatening to sue Hernandez and kill him with a weapon from his personal arsenal. Hernandez's lead attorney Jose Baez continually attacked the credibility of Bradley, known as Rocky because he "rocks people to sleep". Bradley survived but lost his right eye, and he vowed revenge on his former friend, he said. However, they argued that those "minor inconsistencies" proved Bradley told what he believed to be the truth, rather than a version of events put together by prosecutors or police. Police found Lloyd's slain body in an industrial park near Hernandez's MA home.
"Our theory of the case stands", Conley said.
Prosecutors pointed to one of Hernandez tattoos as evidence that he had committed the attack.
Hernandez grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, and played for the Patriots from 2010 to 2012. The team dropped him just hours after his arrest for Mr Lloyd's murder.
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