Prosecutors said they would appeal the ruling to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. If, as prosecutors demand, abatement is denied, Hernandez's conviction in murdering Lloyd would make it almost certain for Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, to prevail. The former New England Patriots tight end hanged himself in his prison cell last month. "You can't just snap your fingers and say he wasn't convicted, and an antiquated, medieval doctrine shouldn't change that".
She said: "This court can not know why Hernandez chose to end his life". He cited a report issued last week from the Department of Correction that said Hernandez told another inmate he had heard a "rumor" that if an inmate has an open appeal on his case and dies in prison, he will be acquitted.
Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, had a powerful response to those expecting her to burst into rage as she fought back tears.
"Its effect is to stop all proceedings ab initio (from the beginning) and render the defendant as if he or she had never been charged", Timothy A. Razel wrote in a 2007 Fordham Law Review article about the principle. He was serving a life sentence in Lloyd's murder.
"But I know one day I'm going to see my son, and that's the victory that I have that I'm going to take with me", Ward said Tuesday afternoon.
John Thompson first raised a question about the official manner of death during a court hearing Tuesday.
Man guilty of killing missing Northern California girl
In addition to that, a rope was also found in the trunk that the prosecution said had Sierra's hair. A jury found Antolin Garcia-Torres guilty of the killing and kidnapping of Sierra LaMar in 2012.
Quinn said he will appeal the erasing of Hernandez's conviction.
After a judge ruled that a long-standing legal principle in MA requires the vacating of Hernandez's conviction, Thompson told reporters he still has doubts about whether Hernandez killed himself.
Thompson says he has recent correspondence from Hernandez in which he was interested in pursuing an appeal of his conviction.
Hernandez's appellate attorneys made their request under a long-standing legal principle in MA holding that when defendants die before their direct appeal is decided, their convictions should be vacated.
Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh, who oversaw the Odin Lloyd murder trial, said that because "There being no reason to recognize any exception in this case in the interest of justice the court has no choice" but to vacate Hernandez's conviction.
Prosecutors argued that Hernandez, 27, used the loophole in a plot to get millions of dollars from the New England Patriots for his family.
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