The Supreme Court officially reinstated the murder conviction Monday of former bodega clerk Pedro Hernandez in the tragic 1979 disappearance and killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
In an unsigned per curiam opinon, the nation’s highest court slapped down a federal appeals court ruling that threw out Hernandez’s 2017 conviction over a technicality involving jury instructions.
“The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief,” read the opinion, which noted that liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor disagreed with the ruling.
Etan Patz went missing in the ’70s. Stanley Patz
Pedro Hernandez, the alleged killer of Etan Patz, seen in court. Steven HirschManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, preparing for Hernandez’s third trial nearly a decade after his conviction, heralded the news Monday.
“Today the Supreme Court agreed with the findings of multiple lower courts and upheld the trial conviction of Pedro Hernandez for the horrific murder of Etan Patz, which changed a generation of New Yorkers,” Bragg said.
Hernandez’s conviction followed his second trial for the murder of Patz after the first trial ended in a hung jury.
Hernandez, who was 18 at the time of Patz’s disappearance, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Etan vanished while walking to his downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. latoc
Stanley Patz, father of 1979 murder victim 6-year-old Etan Patz, speaks to the media at Manhattan State Supreme Court following the sentencing of Pedro Hernandez, in New York City, U.S., April 18, 2017. REUTERSPatz vanished from a SoHo street on May 25, 1979 — the first time he was allowed to walk to his school bus stop alone — and the case went cold until cops got a tip in 2012 that Hernandez had confessed to the killing in a prayer group.
The former clerk later made several confessions to authorities — including a chilling videotaped admission to fatally strangling the 6-year-old after luring him into the bodega basement with a promise of a soda.
The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz. REUTERSHowever, the first confession was made before he was under arrest and before he was read his Miranda Rights, spurring jurors during the 2017 deliberations to ask whether his remaining confessions should be disregarded as a result.
Harvey Fishbein (pictured) has represented Hernandez since May 2012. Steven Hirsch
Etan was among the first missing children ever to appear on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day. Stanley PatzManhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley responded to the jury with a simple “no,” the Supreme Court ruling noted.
Last summer, a unanimous Second Circuit Appeals panel reversed the state criminal conviction over Wiley’s answer to the jury — finding that the judge should have told the jurors to make up their own minds about Hernandez’s confessions.
