Free Republic

Once he was freed from jail and the charges against him were dropped, Pedro Hernandez expected to get a fresh start. He had spent a year in jail rather than plead guilty to a shooting in 2015 that he said he did not commit, and his case had become a rallying point for supporters of changing bail laws. Eventually the Bronx district attorney dropped charges against him in the shooting and a separate schoolyard assault. By December, he was set to go to college, and even had a meeting with President Barack Obama on his schedule. But on Sunday night,...

Pedro Hernandez, the bodega clerk convicted for the 1979 murder of New York first-grader Etan Patz was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison, CNN reports. Hernandez, 56, was convicted of kidnapping and murder in February, nearly 40 years after the six-year-old disappeared on May 25, 1979. Etan left home to walk to a school bus stop and was not seen again. In the early 1980s, his photo appeared on milk cartons across the country, the first time the method was used to try to locate missing children. Hernandez was previously tried for the same charges in...

A mistrial was declared Friday in the New York trial of the man charged with the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz. The jury sent State Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley a note -- the third since April 29 -- saying it was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the guilt or innocence of bodega worker Pedro Hernandez. On two previous occasions, including Tuesday and Friday, the judge ordered the jury to keep deliberating. A new court date has been set for June 10. It's unclear whether Hernandez will be retried. The case involves a boy whose disappearance more...