Abatement ''ab initio'' (Latin for "from the beginning") is a

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

legal doctrine A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, Procedural law, procedural steps, or Test (law), test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal case. A doctrine comes about w ...

that states that the death of a defendant who is appealing a criminal

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is consid ...

extinguishes all criminal proceedings initiated against that defendant from indictment through conviction. Abatement ''ab initio'' was the subject of two

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

decisions, '' Durham v. United States'' (1971) and '' Dove v. United States'' (1976). The former extended the doctrine to cases where

certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

was pending and not yet granted, and the latter excluded discretionary appeals.

Cases

Abatement ''ab initio'' was used in federal court to overturn the conviction of

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...

CEO

Kenneth Lay Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...

. In the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, it was used to overturn the convictions of

John Salvi John C. Salvi III (March 2, 1972 – November 29, 1996) was an anti-abortion extremist who carried out fatal shootings at two abortion facilities in Brookline, Massachusetts on December 30, 1994. The shootings killed two and wounded five. An in ...

, and

Aaron Hernandez Aaron Josef Hernandez (November 6, 1989 April 19, 2017) was an American football tight end. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons with the New England Patriots until his career came to an abrupt end after his arrest ...

, both convicted of murder. In the latter case, however, the state appealed the decision; in March 2019 the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...

reinstated Hernandez's conviction, and ended the use of the doctrine in Massachusetts. The ruling held that the defendant's death rendered the appeal

moot Moot may refer to: * Mootness, in American law: a point where further proceedings have lost practical significance; whereas in British law: the issue remains debatable * Moot court, an activity in many law schools where participants take part in s ...

; it also held that trial records should indicate that such convictions were "neither affirmed nor reversed".

Retroactive effect

In instances where the doctrine is applied, a legal issue emerges concerning previous rulings or actions made. An example is the case of

' conviction for

Odin Lloyd Odin Leonardo John Lloyd (November 14, 1985 – June 17, 2013) was a semi-professional American football player who was murdered by Aaron Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, in North Attleb ...

's murder. Due to the principle of abatement ''ab initio'', his conviction was initially rendered void before the Massachusetts supreme court ruled to abolish abatement ''ab initio'' (see above). It was, thus, argued that — since he was cleared of every murder he was accused of — Hernandez' family was entitled to the money that the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

refused to pay after it voided his contract on account of Lloyd's murder. In 2016, when the court posthumously cleared Kenneth Lay's Enron-related

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

convictions, the compensation for defrauded victims were also lost. A ruling involving asset forfeiture law in the United States held that if an offender satisfied a forfeiture judgment, the government is never required by the principle to return fines that were already paid.

References

Common law Legal doctrines and principles {{law-term-stub

Cases

Retroactive effect

See also

References