Attorneys who represented Aaron Hernandez in his double-murder trial said the former New England Patriots player had a "severe case" of CTE and will sue the NFL and the Patriots in federal court for $20 million following his jailhouse suicide.

Jose Baez, who convinced jurors that the one-time rising star was not responsible for the 2012 twin killings, gathered with his defense team to announce the findings from Boston University. Hernandez was found dead in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley on April 19, and authorities have ruled the death a suicide. Baez said the suit will be on behalf of Herandez's daughter's estate.

Days after Hernandez’s suicide, Baez and other members of his defense team held a combative press conference outside the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston, arguing that the state was not releasing their client’s brain. The office eventually sent it to Boston University to be tested for concussion-related anomalies.

In a statement, BU's CTE Center said Herandez's brain had Stage 3 of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The fourth stage is the most severe.

Hernandez’s death came just days after a Suffolk County jury found him not guilty of killing Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado.

Authorities claim that he hanged himself and was alone when he died. The state’s investigation concluded that there were no signs of a struggle and that Hernandez jammed cardboard into the tracks of the door to his single-inmate cell to “impede entry.”

Hernandez was serving a life sentence at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center after being convicted of first-degree murder in 2015 for the 2013 shooting death of Odin L. Lloyd in North Attleboro. That conviction was washed away after Hernandez’s death under an old Bay State law that declares convicts innocent if they die before they have a chance to appeal.

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