Posted on 06/22/2026 1:25:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose case shocked New York City and changed the way parents watched over their kids.
The justices, by a 6-3 vote, granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict. The three liberal justices dissented.
Prosecutors had been preparing to try the man, Pedro Hernandez, for a third time. His first trial ended in a mistrial.
The unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Hernandez' murder and kidnapping conviction in the second trial because of how the judge had answered a question from jurors.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction "a slender reed" that essentially ignored a 5-month-long trial with 66 witnesses.
The Supreme Court justices agreed, in an unsigned opinion, that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 federal law that was intended to reduce federal court oversight of state criminal trials.
"The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief," the high court wrote, referring to the New York-based appeals court.
Hernandez, 64, has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Monday's decision means he will continue to serve his sentence at the Elmira Correctional Facility in New York. He will be eligible for parole in 2037.
Attorneys for Hernandez said, "We are firmly disappointed with the decision because we firmly believe that an innocent man is in jail for a crime he did not do."
Hernandez admitted to the crime under police questioning, but his lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that sometimes made him hallucinate. They emphasized that the admission came after police queried him for about seven hours before reading him his rights and recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape, at least twice.
Etan Patz walked out of his New York City home headed for a school bus stop just two blocks away. He had asked his parents to let him do the short walk to the bus stop alone for the first time. He had a dollar to buy a soda at a corner deli.
The 6-year-old never made it to school that day in May of 1979, and he's never been found.
Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time, but the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident didn't become a suspect until 2012.
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.
Hernandez already has been tried twice. A jury deadlocked in 2015, and then a different panel of jurors convicted him at a 2017 retrial.
During deliberations, the 2017 jurors asked a complicated question: If they decided Hernandez didn't confess voluntarily when he hadn't been read his rights yet, must they disregard his other confessions? The then-judge responded simply, "the answer is no." The jury went on to convict.
In overturning that verdict, the appeals court said the jury's question should have gotten a more fulsome answer, including the possibility of discounting all the confessions.
Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate FDR in 1933. The shooting took place on Feb 15. Zangara was executed on March 20.
Things used to move faster.
Just to be clear, Zangara was not executed for trying to assassinate FDR, he was executed for killing the mayor of Chicago.
Just to be clear, the article is wrong. The three lefty judges dissents. The three/four liberal judges were with the majority.
True. But my point was that it took 5 weeks from crime to execution. People used to know how to take care of social problems.
James Garfield was shot on July 2nd, 1881, then he died on September, 19th. Charles Guiteau was hanged on June 30th, 1882. He lived almost a year after, which I believe is the longest any successful presidential assassin lived. John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald lived fourteen and two days, and of course died before trial.
How was he convicted without evidence?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction “a slender reed” that essentially ignored a 5-month-long trial with 66 witnesses.
A rare concurence from DA Bragg with the majority of the Court.
And to clarify on an above comment, it was the three lovely ladies who disagree with the Per Curiam opinon as noted in this SCOTUSBlog article.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated, without explanation, that they would have denied the state’s petition.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/court-reimposes-conviction-of-man-found-to-have-killed-etan-patz/
Read the article. They have a confession, no evidence. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What evidence do you have that the boyfriend was “pedo” and also made the kid disappear ? Did he have a criminal record? Was he closely related to someone powerful or influential with the police?
There are 66 witnesses whose testimony was called on in the trial for various things , and was taken into consideration by the juries and apparently none caused the jury to have a reasonable doubt about the charges.
Just curious as I don’t have a sharp memory about the intricacies after all these years.
In the Karmelo Anthony case, they have a video of him confessing when he was first apprehended. You are telling me that that was illegally played at his trial?
Oswald denied being the assassin and was murdered two days later. We may never know if he was the assassin.
That's what I said. <>Oswald denied being the assassin and was murdered two days later. We may never know if he was the assassin.
C'mon, there is substantial evidence. He even went to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City right before that.
Noel. Christmas in June.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.