When renowned defense attorney Jose Baez received a request for representation from Aaron Hernandez, the disgraced Patriots tight-end was already serving a life sentence for murder. Defending him in a second, double-murder trial seemed like a lost cause–but Baez accepted the challenge, and their partnership culminated in a dramatic courtroom victory, a race to contest his first conviction, and ultimately a tragedy, when Aaron took his own life days after his acquittal.
This riveting, closely observed account of Aaron’s life and final year is the only book based on countless intimate conversations with Aaron and told from the perspective of a true insider. Written with the support of Hernandez’s fiancée, Unnecessary Roughness takes readers inside the high-profile trial, offering a dramatic retelling of the race to obtain key evidence that would exonerate Hernandez, and later play a critical role in appealing his first conviction.
With revelations about Aaron’s personal life that weren’t shared at trial and an exploration of the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy diagnosis revealed by his autopsy, Jose Baez’s Unnecessary Roughness is a startling courtroom drama and an unexpected portrait of a fallen father, fiancé, and teammate.
Unnecessary Roughness: True Crime Book Review Blog
I knew next to nothing about Aaron Hernandez, former tight end for the New England Patriots, other than the fact that he was one of the few Latino football players in the NFL, at least to my knowledge (which is very limited as I have not followed the sport in quite some time). In 2013, Hernandez was arrested for the murder of Odin Lloyd who was the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee. I became all the more intrigued with the football star when he hung himself and took his own life behind a locked cell while in prison. Still, I knew next to nothing about his case(s) and picked up Unnecessary Roughness: Inside the Trial and Final Days of Aaron Hernandez by Jose Baez. Baez, a criminal defense attorney, represented Hernandez who was accused of murdering two men after being involved in a fight in a Boston Nightclub of which Baez helped to get Hernandez acquitted. Five days later, Hernandez would be dead.
There is no doubt that the media coverage of Hernandez and his actions that put him behind bars painted a bleak picture of the former football star. Baez, in his book, paints a different portrait of Hernandez, one that brings sympathy to the young man and even portrays him as a victim of circumstance and a rough upbringing. I felt for the young man, but he was, still, convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd. Baez told his story of Hernandez mostly from the trial end of things and provided snippets of the good aspects of Aaron’s life, including life with his long-time girlfriend then-fiancee, and eventual daughter. He did touch on some of the negativity that was spawned from his youth in a rough neighborhood and the bad influences that he surrounded himself with, making sure not to apply a false portrait of Hernandez, namely that of a saint. Still, his portrayal was of a normal human being with faults that, unfortunately, led to his incarceration.
Unnecessary Roughness is an excellent insight behind the scenes of court proceedings and the defense strategy that helped to acquit Hernandez in his second trial while also providing us glimpses of the formal NFL tight end’s private life and insights leading up to his death. I did not expect to get much out of this read but boy was I surprised with how engulfed I was with the material and Baez’ writing. Some might say that the high-profile attorney, who also helped to exonerate Casey Anthony in 2011, was a little full of himself what with his anecdotes and slyness on how he was always one step ahead of the prosecution or a witness, often tooting his own horn, but my reading was that it spewed of confidence and I could not help but think, “Damn, this guy is good!”
Jose Baez touched on a few things that circulated the media and sparked controversy, predominately Hernandez’s sexual preference. There is even a forward by his fiance who addresses this issue. The issue of CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is also raised which is a brain condition associated with repeated blows to the head. The book also features Aaron’s final letters he wrote just before taking his own life that he addressed to key figures that impacted his life one way or another and helped him to get through while being incarcerated. Again, while the man was no saint, one could not feel sorry for someone who many considered to have just started what could have been a prolific NFL career only to watch come crashing down before reaching its peak. Of course, this book was written from one man’s point of view, and his goal could have been to merely paint a different picture than what was being portrayed in the media. In the same way, there are always two sides to a story, the same can be applied to a person and Hernandez is no different. Unnecessary Roughness was an excellent read that had me both laughing one instant, even rooting for the defendant at times, and then feeling quite blue in another because the reality of it all was just downright somber.