Report: Aaron Hernandez lawyers claim jury corrupted

Here's your weekly Aaron Hernandez legal update:

Lawyers for the former New England Patriots star turned convicted murderer have filed four motions asking that their client's guilty verdict be overturned because of, essentially, "a juror's exposure to extraneous matters," according to a report from FOX25 News in Boston.

In other words, they're alleging a juror found out about something he or she shouldn't have, which isn't too farfetched given the widespread media coverage of the trial.

Jurors were not sequestered during the two-plus-month-long trial. And while Judge E. Susan Garsh asked them at the end of each day of testimony to avoid consuming coverage of the trial, 12 people adhering to that directive seems like a tall order considering one could have happened upon news simply by mistake.

Exactly what a juror may have been exposed to is unclear, as the documents filed by Hernandez's lawyers are sealed from the public.

What we do know is that at several points during the trial, Judge Garsh ruled to withhold certain evidence and/or testimony from the jury. For example, jurors were not told that Hernandez had been charged for a separate double-homicide or that one prosecution witness alleges that Hernandez shot him in the face.

Such evidence was deemed too prejudicial against Hernandez, who in April was found guilty of the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez is currently serving a life sentence without parole.

"These are experienced lawyers, they know the rules, they know the hurdles they have to reach," legal analyst Brad Bailey told FOX25 News. "Clearly there is something there or they wouldn't be doing it."