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

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

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. For example, a doctrine ...

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

conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

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 turn on question ...

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 a prerogative writ in England, issued by a superior court to direct that the recor ...

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 development, energy, Commodity, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both re ...

CEO

Kenneth Lay Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman and political donor who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in Enron scandal, Enron's accounting scandal that unr ...

. In the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, it was used to overturn the convictions of John Salvi and

Aaron Hernandez Aaron Josef Hernandez (November 6, 1989 – April 19, 2017) was an American professional American football, football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played three seasons with the New England Patriots until h ...

, 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 highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously fu ...

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; 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

's conviction for

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

'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's 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. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

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 intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

convictions, the compensation for defrauded victims was 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