A federal judge is reviewing the overturned conviction of a New York man convicted of the 1979 murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
The ABC 6 report highlights the recent decision by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, which stated that Pedro Hernandez should be “retried or released” following the overturning of his conviction in July. This decision stemmed from flawed jury instructions during his trial.
It was determined by a panel of three judges that during Hernandez’s 2017 murder trial, the judge provided improper instructions regarding Hernandez’s confession.
“When deliberating during his second trial, the jury sent the judge three different notes about Hernandez’s confessions,” an order in July detailed.
Specifically, there was a request from the jury to clarify if they needed to dismiss subsequent confessions, such as the videotaped accounts at the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office if Hernandez’s initial confession, made without a Miranda warning, was found to be involuntary.
Along with flawed jury instruction, the appeal claimed that there were also issues with police interrogation and Hernandez’s mental health.
Prosecutors have subsequently asked for 90 days to decide on retrying Hernandez, while the defense wants this decision made within a month.
As CrimeOnline detailed previously, Hernandez, who was an 18-year-old bodega clerk, admitted to enticing six-year-old Etan from a school bus stop in New York City with the promise of a soda and then strangling him.
Etan’s remains have never been found, and no forensic evidence has linked Hernandez to the crime.
Police initially arrested Hernandez for second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in 2012, but his first trial in 2015 ended with a hung jury.
In 2017, a jury deliberated for nine days before convicting him of both crimes.
Hernandez’s attorneys claimed he was mentally ill and that he only issued a confession after seven hours of police questioning.
The Manhattan DA’s office said Hernandez should remain incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility until the Supreme Court makes its decision.
US District Judge Colleen McMahon said she would make a ruling within a few days.
Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo: FILE – This May 28, 2012, file photo shows a newspaper featuring Etan Patz’s photo at a memorial in New York’s SoHo neighborhood where Patz lived before his disappearance on May 25, 1979. The memorial was situated near a building housing the convenience store where Pedro Hernandez, accused of Patz’s murder, confessed to police 33 years later that he had choked the boy and placed him in a plastic bag, then boxed it up and abandoned it on a street. Hernandez’s trial began on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)]
