Take a good look at that picture. That's the last time you'll ever see Aaron Hernandez outside of a prison. He was convicted today of first degree murder and will serve a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole.
This news was met immediately by a tweet from former teammate Brandon Spikes.
IM CONFUSED ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM THESE DAYS !!!
— BrandonSpikes51 (@BrandonSpikes51) April 15, 2015
In this particular case the system worked DESPITE the underlying issues with our court system in general. I am actually surprised that he was convicted, but clearly justice was served. They were able to prove a blowout fight between Hernandez and Odin Lloyd (the victim) at a club 2 nights before the murder (anger and time to plan). They used phone records to trace Hernandez on the day of the murder, and proved he was with Lloyd when he was killed. They proved that Hernandez used his fiancee to hide evidence (perhaps the gun, but never found). They also proved Hernandez tried to destroy evidence. How much was this proven? So much that the defense was forced to admit that Hernandez witnessed the murder and tried to pin it on his other two friends - IN THEIR CLOSING STATEMENT!!! They never admitted this during the trial, but scrambled to offer some shred of reasonable doubt at the very end.
It's a classic case of circumstantial evidence. Everything except the smoking gun, literally. No murder weapon. Interestingly, the true motive was never offered to the jury as well. That's where the justice system breaks down. Hernandez has also be charged with two other murders from a drive-by shooting in 2012. He will face trial on those charges at a later date. It is widely believed that Lloyd was his accomplice in those murders and that knowledge led to Hernandez decision to quiet him. The judge ruled this evidence/info was inadmissible to the Lloyd case. Had it been, the jury would have seen Hernandez in a very different light.
Justice served.
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