The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday night overturned a New York appellate ruling that would have ordered a new trial for Pedro Hernandez, the man convicted in the 1979 murder of Etan Patz. By a 6-3 vote, the justices accepted New York prosecutors’ request to restore Hernandez’s conviction in one of the most famous child abduction cases in American history, a case that also left a deep mark on U.S. culture. The three liberal justices dissented, supporting the idea of a retrial.
Etan Patz disappeared on May 25, 1979, when he was 6, near his Manhattan home, on the first day his parents let him walk alone to the bus stop for school. A massive search and years of investigation followed, but he and his remains were never found, and he was declared dead in 2001. His case became one of the first to feature missing children’s photos on milk cartons, and it helped change American parenting norms by making many families far more protective and fearful.
The case remained open until 2012, when Hernandez was arrested after a tip. He had been a teenager working in a neighborhood grocery store at the time, and police had encountered him during an early sweep of the area without suspecting him. After his arrest, Hernandez said he lured Etan to the store’s basement with a soda, strangled him because “something took over me,” then put the still-living boy in a box and left it near a trash can. Now 65, he has been tried twice, convicted in 2017 after nine days of jury deliberations, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Defense lawyers argued that his confession was false, saying he suffered from mental illness, hallucinations and a low IQ, and noting that Etan’s body was never found and the prosecution relied mainly on Hernandez’s statements and remarks to others. In 2024, a federal appeals panel in New York said the 2017 trial was flawed because jurors were not properly instructed about his 2012 police confession, which came before he was read his rights and before recording began. That panel said he should be released unless retried in time, but the Supreme Court ruled that the appellate court violated a 1996 federal law limiting federal courts’ power to grant relief to prisoners convicted in state courts. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the ruling left the conviction in place and that his office would continue seeking justice for Etan Patz and his family.
