The gag order currently imposed in the Aaron Hernandez murder case will remain standing after a Supreme Judicial Court justice on Monday refused to disturb the order imposed by a Bristol County judge prosecutors claim has handcuffed their case.
According to the Boston Globe, Justice Fernande R.V. Duffly's actions mean the order instituted by sitting Bristol Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh will remain in effect. The newspaper adds the order applies to both Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter's office and the defense team, but only Sutter challenged the scope of the order.
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The 24-year-old Hernandez remains jailed without bail in solitary confinement on first-degree murder charges in the execution style killing of one-time associate Odin Lloyd last June. Police have since speculated the former New England Patriots star may have killed Lloyd because he had knowledge of other violent crimes he's alleged to have taken part in.
In rendering her decision, The Globe adds Duffy wrote Sutter had not shown that his office had been harmed by the order, nor had the prosecution laid out a convincing case that the gag order would hurt the way the prosecution operates in the future.
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"The Commonwealth has failed to establish that the extraordinary relief available to the SJC is appropriate,'' Duffly added. "The Commonwealth has shown nothing but speculative future harm should it or the defendant make, or determine there is a need to make, an extrajudicial statement concerning some as yet to be determined event.''
According to The Globe, Duffly also took the time to praise what she deemed Garsh's "carefully crafted order'' and the way it make use of which existing legal ethical rules and applied them to both the prosecution and defense .
"The order does not apply to potential trial witnesses, places no restraints on the media or on public access to any courtroom proceeding, and does not involve attorney discipline for violation of the rules of professional conduct,'' Duffly concluded.
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