Aaron Hernandez trial: Defense makes one last desperate plea

FALL RIVER, Mass. – Aaron Hernandez, NFL star turned murder defendant, staked a considerable portion of his football fortune on hiring the best defense team he could.

In James Sultan, Charles Rankin and Michael Fee, he not only got skilled courtroom lawyers, but men who refused to overlook even the slightest possible disadvantage facing the former New England Patriots star in his murder case.

Consider that at the open and closing of each day here at Bristol Country Superior Court, a court officer hammers a gavel three times and says:

"Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. All persons having anything to do before the Honorable, the Justice E. Susan Garsh, of the Superior Court, now sitting at Fall River, within and for the Commonwealth draw near. Give your attendance and you shall be heard."

He then concludes with the flowing statement:

"God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

Watch it here:

It's often called “the Cry” and here in Massachusetts it dates back to the 1890s.

The issue here for the defense is that the prosecution is often called "the Commonwealth" (a fancy name for "state") and is particularly referred to as "the Commonwealth" in jury instructions.

As such, the defense requested that Garsh make it clear to jurors that God is not necessarily on the side of – or more specifically "saving" – the Commonwealth any more than the defense.

"[It] is necessary to obviate any suggestion that the Commonwealth, as a party to the case, enjoys some preferred or revered status," the defense wrote in a motion submitted on Monday.

The defense requested that Garsh make the following statement Tuesday in her instructions to the jury before handing them the case:

"The fact the prosecution is brought in the name of the Commonwealth entitles the prosecution to no greater consideration and no less consideration than any other litigant, since all parties are entitled to equal treatment before the law. The people of this Commonwealth always win when justice is done, regardless of whether the verdict is guilty or not guilty."

There was no available ruling on the motion, but Garsh did not say the above paragraph when addressing the jury.

Here's guessing it won't matter. Of course, it's not the defense team's job to guess.

Hernandez is charged with orchestrating the murder of Odin Lloyd in the early morning hours of June 17, 2013. Lloyd, a 27-year-old from Boston, was found shot to death in a field near Hernandez's North Attleboro, Mass., home.

The case went before a jury of seven women and five men on Tuesday afternoon following closing arguments in which the two opposing sides mocked one another.

Hernandez faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder. He is also a defendant in a double homicide case for a separate shooting in 2012 in Suffolk County, Mass. That trial is expected to begin later this year.