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Appeals court orders new trial for man convicted in 1979 Etan Patz case

Appeals court orders new trial for man convicted in 1979 Etan Patz case

NEW YORK (AP) — The man convicted in the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz was awarded a new trial Monday as a federal appeals court overturned the guilty verdict in one of the nation's most notorious missing child cases.
Pedro Hernandez has been serving 25 years to life in prison since his 2017 conviction. He had been arrested in 2012 after a decades-long, haunting search for answers in Etan's disappearance, which happened on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop in New York City.
The appeals court said the trial judge gave a 'clearly wrong' and 'manifestly prejudicial' response to a jury note during Hernandez's 2017 trial — his second. His first trial ended in a jury deadlock in 2015. His lawyers said he was innocent.
The court ordered Hernandez's release unless the 64-year-old gets a new trial within 'a reasonable period.'
The Manhattan district attorney's office, which prosecuted the case, said it was reviewing the decision. The trial predated current DA Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.
Harvey Fishbein, an attorney for Hernandez, declined to comment when reached Monday by phone.
A message seeking comment was sent to Etan's parents. They spent decades pursuing an arrest, and then a conviction, in their son's case and pressing to improve the handling of missing-child cases nationwide.
Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. His case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who had been allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods.
The Patzes' advocacy helped establish a national missing-children hotline and made it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of Etan's disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.
Etan was a first grader who always wanted 'to do everything that adults did,' his mother, Julie Patz, told jurors in 2017.
So on the morning of May 25, 1979, she agreed the boy could walk by himself to the school bus stop a block and a half away. She walked him downstairs, watched him walk part of the way and never saw him again.
For decades, Etan's parents kept the same apartment and even phone number in case he might try to reach them.
Etan's case spurred a huge search and an enduring, far-flung investigation. But no trace of him was ever found. A civil court declared him dead in 2001.
Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan's downtown Manhattan neighborhood when the boy vanished. Police met him while canvassing the area but didn't suspect him until they got a 2012 tip that he'd made remarks years earlier about having killed a child in New York, not mentioning Etan's name.
Hernandez then told police he'd lured Etan into the store's basement by promising the boy a soda, then choked him because 'something just took over me.' He said he put Etan, still alive, in a box and left it with curbside trash.
Hernandez's lawyers said he was innocent and his confession was false, spurred by a mental illness that makes him confuse reality with imagination. He also has a very low IQ.
His daughter testified that he talked about seeing visions of angels and demons and once watered a dead tree branch, believing it would grow. Prosecutors suggested Hernandez faked or exaggerated his symptoms.
The defense pointed to another suspect, a convicted child molester who made incriminating statements years ago about Etan but denied killing him and later insisted he wasn't involved in the boy's disappearance. He was never charged.
The trials happened in a New York state court. Etan's appeal eventually wound into federal court and came to revolve around Hernandez' police interrogation in 2012.
Police questioned Hernandez for seven hours — and they said he confessed — before they read him his rights and started recording the interrogation. Hernandez then repeated his admission on tape, at least twice.
During nine days of deliberations, jurors sent repeated queries about those statements. The last inquiry asked whether they had to disregard the two recorded confessions, if they concluded that the first one -- given before the Miranda warning -- was invalid.
The judge said no. The appeals court said the jury should have gotten a more thorough explanation of its options, which could have included disregarding all of the confessions as improperly obtained.
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A Syrian American returned to Syria to aid his ailing father. He was executed in sectarian violence
A Syrian American returned to Syria to aid his ailing father. He was executed in sectarian violence

Los Angeles Times

time28 minutes ago

  • Los Angeles Times

A Syrian American returned to Syria to aid his ailing father. He was executed in sectarian violence

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House Democrats look to get copy of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's 'birthday book'
House Democrats look to get copy of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's 'birthday book'

USA Today

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  • USA Today

House Democrats look to get copy of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's 'birthday book'

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The House is looking into the Epstein investigation. Here's what could happen next
The House is looking into the Epstein investigation. Here's what could happen next

Los Angeles Times

timean hour ago

  • Los Angeles Times

The House is looking into the Epstein investigation. Here's what could happen next

WASHINGTON — A key House committee is looking into the investigation of the late Jeffrey Epstein for sex trafficking crimes, working to subpoena President Trump's Department of Justice for files in the case and hold a deposition of Epstein's jailed accomplice and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. The Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee acted just before House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent lawmakers home early for a monthlong break from Washington, a move widely seen as attempt to avoid politically difficult votes for his GOP caucus on the Epstein matter. The committee's moves are evidence of the mounting pressure for disclosure in a case that Trump has unsuccessfully urged his supporters to move past. But they were also just the start of what can be a drawn-out process. Here's what could happen next in the House inquiry as lawmakers seek answers in a case that has sparked rampant speculation since Epstein's death in 2019 and more recently caused many in the Trump administration to renege on promises for a complete accounting. Democrats, joined by three Republicans, were able to successfully initiate the subpoena from a subcommittee just as the House was leaving Washington for its early recess. But it was just the start of negotiations over the subpoena. The subcommittee agreed to redact the names and personal information of any victims, but besides that, their demand for information is quite broad, encompassing 'un-redacted Epstein files.' As the parameters of the subpoena are drafted, Democrats are demanding that it be fulfilled within 30 days from when it is served to Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi. They have also proposed a list of document demands, including the prosecutorial decisions surrounding Epstein, documents related to his death, and communication from any president or executive official regarding the matter. Ultimately, Republicans who control the committee will have more power over the scope of the subpoena, but the fact that it was approved with a strong bipartisan vote gives it some heft. The committee chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), said he told the speaker that 'Republicans on the Oversight Committee were going to move to be more aggressive in trying to get transparency with the Epstein files. So, we did that, and I think that's what the American people want.' Comer has said he is hoping that staff from the committee can interview Maxwell under oath on Aug. 11 at or near the federal prison in Florida where she is serving a lengthy sentence for child sex trafficking. In a congressional deposition, the subject typically has an attorney present to help them answer — or not answer — questions while maintaining their civil rights. Subjects also have the ability to decline to answer questions if they could be used against them in a criminal case, though in this instance that might not matter because Maxwell has already been convicted of many of the things she is likely to be asked about. Maxwell has the ability to negotiate some of the terms of the deposition, and she already conducted two days of interviews with Justice Department officials this past week. Democrats warn that Maxwell is not to be trusted. 'We should understand that this is a very complex witness and someone that has caused great harm and not a good person to a lot of people,' Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told reporters this week. Committee Republicans also initiated a motion to subpoena a host of other people, including former President Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as former U.S. attorneys general dating back to Alberto Gonzales, who served under President George W. Bush. It's not clear how this sweeping list of proposed subpoenas will play out, but Comer has said, 'We're going to move quickly on that.' Trump has often fought congressional investigations and subpoenas. As with most subpoenas, the Justice Department can negotiate the terms of how it fulfills the subpoena. It can also make legal arguments against handing over certain information. Joshua A. Levy, who teaches on congressional investigations at Georgetown Law School and is a partner at Levy Firestone Muse, said that the results of the subpoena 'depend on whether the administration wants to work through the traditional accommodation process with the House and reach a resolution or if one or both sides becomes entrenched in its position.' If Congress is not satisfied with Bondi's response — or if she were to refuse to hand over any information — there are several ways lawmakers can try to enforce the subpoena. However, that would require a vote to hold Bondi in contempt of Congress. It's practically unheard of for a political party to vote to hold a member of its party's White House administration in contempt of Congress, but the Epstein saga has cut across political lines and driven a wedge in the GOP. Ultimately, the bipartisan vote to subpoena the files showed how political pressure is mounting on the Trump administration to disclose the files. Politics, policy and the law are all bound up together in this case, and many in Congress want to see a full accounting of the sex trafficking investigation. 'We can't allow individuals, especially those at the highest level of our government, to protect child sex traffickers,' said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), a committee member. The Trump administration is already facing the potential for even more political tension. When Congress comes back to Washington in September, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers is working to advance to a full House vote a bill that aims to force the public release of the Epstein files. Groves writes for the Associated Press.

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