The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the murder and kidnapping conviction of Pedro Hernandez in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, overturning a federal appeals court ruling that had ordered a new trial.
Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, while walking alone to a Manhattan school bus stop for the first time. The case became one of the nation’s most recognizable missing-child investigations, with the boy’s image appearing on milk cartons and the anniversary of his disappearance later becoming National Missing Children’s Day. Hernandez, who worked at a neighborhood convenience store at the time, was not identified as a suspect until 2012 after reports that he had previously admitted to killing a child.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices concluded that the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals exceeded its authority when it set aside Hernandez’s 2017 conviction over concerns about jury instructions related to his confessions. New York prosecutors had been preparing for a third trial after the appeals court found that jurors should have received a more detailed answer to a question concerning whether later videotaped confessions should be disregarded if an earlier statement was deemed involuntary. The Supreme Court, in an unsigned opinion, said federal courts are limited in reviewing state convictions under a 1996 law intended to restrict such intervention. Hernandez, now 64, is serving a sentence of 25 years to life.
Defense attorneys have maintained that Hernandez falsely confessed because of mental illness and argued investigators questioned him for hours before advising him of his rights. His first trial ended with a deadlocked jury in 2015, but a second jury convicted him two years later. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg welcomed Monday’s ruling, saying prosecutors would continue to stand behind the conviction, while Hernandez’s lawyers said they remained convinced that “an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit” (as reported in a statement to The New York Times.)
The disappearance of Etan Patz transformed public awareness of child abductions and remains one of New York City’s most enduring criminal cases. Despite decades of investigations and legal proceedings, the child’s body has never been found.
Editorial credit: Fedor Selivanov / Shutterstock.com
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