Supreme Court Reinstates Murder Conviction in Etan Patz Case 46 Years After NYC Boy Vanished

The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction of the man found guilty in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, NBC News reported on Monday, June 22.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court restored the murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez, siding with New York prosecutors after a federal appeals court had previously thrown out the verdict.

The court’s three liberal justices disagreed with the decision.

The ruling also means Hernandez, 64, will not face a third trial, ending years of uncertainty over the case.

CBS News reported the same day that a federal appeals court had overturned his conviction because the trial judge had answered a juror’s question.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called that reasoning “a slender reed” that all but ignored a five-month trial with 66 witnesses.

The justices agreed, ruling that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 law.

“The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief,” they wrote, according to CBS News.

Bragg praised the decision.

“This office has remained steadfast in its pursuit of justice for Etan and the Patz family,” he said, The New York Times reported on June 22.

Hernandez’ lawyers said they were “terribly disappointed.”

“We firmly believe that an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit,” attorneys Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier said after the ruling, The Hill reported.

Etan vanished while walking to his school bus stop in downtown Manhattan on Friday, May 25, 1979. As his disappearance made national headlines, he became one of the first missing children to appear on milk cartons, according to a 2017 Atlantic report.

At the time, Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop, though the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident did not become a suspect until 2012.

He admitted to the crime under police questioning, but his lawyers say the confession was false, the result of a mental illness, The New York Times reported. They have maintained that the admission came after roughly seven hours of questioning, before he was read his rights.

Hernandez, who has been tried twice, is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence, according to NBC News.