A police report had revealed that Aaron Hernandez, who played for the New England Patriots, wrote John 3:16 in ink on his forehead and in blood on the wall of his prison cell before committing suicide.
Judge E Susan Garsh said a legal doctrine that calls for vacating convictions when a defendant dies before an appeal can be heard was binding precedent and she was compelled to follow it.
Hernandez hanged himself in his prison cell last month while serving a life sentence for the murder of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.
His death came five days after being acquitted over a separate double killing in 2012.
Prosecutor Patrick Bomberg had argued that Hernandez "should not be able to accomplish in death what he could not accomplish in life".
Hernandez's appellate lawyers say his conviction in the Lloyd case should not be considered final because the automatic appeal he was entitled to had not been heard at the time of his death either.
