The attack on the conviction of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez includes an argument focused on whether one of the jurors broke the rules regarding what could and couldn’t be considered in the case.
According to Ted Daniel of FOX25 in Boston, Hernandez’s lawyers have filed with the trial court a motion for “post verdict inquiry respecting a juror’s exposure to extraneous matters.”
In English, it means that Hernandez’s lawyers believe that one of the jurors became aware of evidence other than the evidence properly admitted by Judge E. Susan Garsh. With Hernandez accused of two other murders and of shooting one of the witnesses who testified against him in the face (Alexander Bradley), there were plenty of “extraneous matters” for the jurors to consider.
It also means that Hernandez’s lawyers want to be able to question one or more jurors about the situation.
Given that the jury wasn’t sequestered, it would have been easy for any of them to yield to the temptation during a long trial of exploring media reports regarding other allegations against Hernandez.
The specifics of the argument aren’t known, because Hernandez’s lawyers wanted the documents to be sealed and not available to the public.
It could be a Hail Mary pass aimed at fishing for proof that someone had Googled “Aaron Hernandez” and found a laundry list of the allegatons against him. It could be that the lawyers have been tipped off by one of the other jurors. At some point, more will be known about the argument. For now, it’s way too early to know whether the conviction of Hernandez for the June 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd is in jeopardy.