CBS To Air Special On Aaron Hernandez's Life

CBS' 48 Hours will take a look at the life and death of former New England Patriots tight end and previously convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez.

The one-hour special, titled "All-American Murder," airs Jan. 20 at 10 p.m. Best-selling author James Patterson will take viewers on a trip through Hernandez's life - from growing up in Bristol, Connecticut, to his time as a Florida Gator and New England Patriot, to his life behind bars for the murder of Odin Lloyd.

“I believe this is the most fascinating, complicated and troubling crime story of our times,” Patterson said in a pre-episode release. “And you don’t know the half of it yet.”

Hernandez's fall from grace came in 2013 when he was arrested for the death of Lloyd, who was the boyfriend of his fiancee's sister. He was found guilty of murder in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison.

Last summer, he was found not guilty of a 2012 South Boston double murder but was found hanging in his jail cell days later. He died at the age of 27.

Because the appeals process for the Lloyd conviction was not completed, state law allowed Hernandez's murder conviction to be vacated, letting him become technically an innocent man in death.

Dr. Ann McKee, the head of Boston University's CTE Center, said at a medical conference in November that Hernandez's case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy was the most severe for anyone that age. Slides at the conference showed dark spots on Hernandez's brain that are associated with tau protein and shrunken, withered areas. McKee said the damage had an impact on Hernandez's decision-making ability, judgment, and cognition.

“He wasn’t an evil man. No, he wasn’t. He was a sick man,” Dr. Bennet Omalu, the first to identify CTE in football players, said of Hernandez.

The special airs two days before Patterson's book of the same name is released.

Image Credit: AP Photo, Stephan Savoia, Pool.