Hernandez lawyer: Anonymous caller says juror lied during selection
A day after a jury sentenced Aaron Hernandez to life in prison for murder, the former Patriot’s lawyer says an anonymous caller told him that one of those jurors lied in order to be seated on the 12-person jury.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Herandez’s lawyer, Jamie Sultan, says a female tipster told him one of the jurors was present during a discussion about the 2012 Boston double murder Hernandez is also charged in.
Hernandez was convicted for the murder of Odin Lloyd in North Attleboro on April 15. The 2012 murder case, in which Hernandez has pleaded not guilty, was forbidden during the trial.
Sultan says the tipster, calling from a blocked number, told him the juror was “untruthful’’ during jury selection, because they wanted to be part of the trial.
“A new trial for Hernandez would be possible if sufficient evidence surfaces that a juror lied, either expressly or by omission, to Judge Garsh during the jury selection process about what the juror knew about Hernandez and his ties to Odin Lloyd’s murder or the Boston murders,’’ said Michael McCann, director of University of New Hampshire’s Sports and Entertainment Law Institute and Sports Illustrated legal analyst.
“Not any lie or omission would warrant a new trial,’’ said McCann. “It would have to be so meaningful that it prevented Hernandez from receiving his constitutional right to a fair trial. That is a high bar for Hernandez’s attorneys to show–if it can be proven that one juror lied.’’
According to the AP, Sultan says he would have asked for the juror to be dismissed if the defense were aware of their alleged desire to be on they jury.
According to Sultan, the caller said she recognized the juror on TV (the 12 jurors gave a televised interview immediately after the trial).
Sultan has asked for a subpoena to trace the calls, according to the previously-redacted court filings released Monday by Garsh.
In Feburary, less than a week into the trial, Garsh dismissed a female juror who was found to have attended multiple Patriots games in recent years and had formed an opinion about the case.
Hernandez’s trial for the South End murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado is set to begin December 1. He is currently serving a life sentence for Lloyd’s murder at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.
Gallery: Hernandez Trial in Pictures
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