(CNN) Aaron Hernandez's murder conviction was reinstated Wednesday by Massachusetts' highest court in a ruling that also ended an antiquated legal rule in which convictions were thrown out when a defendant died before an appeal was heard. The Supreme Judicial Court's decision comes nearly two years after a state judge vacated Hernandez's murder conviction after the former NFL star's suicide. But Wednesday's high court ruling called the longstanding legal principle "outdated and no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, if, in fact, it ever was." Instead, the court said that when a defendant dies during an appeal, the appeal will be dismissed and noted in the court record, and the conviction will stand. The court record will note that the conviction was "neither affirmed nor reversed because the defendant died."

Source: CNN March 13, 2019 18:17 UTC